Paid Enrollments: Is Subscription Missing from Your Loyalty Strategy?

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to start acquiring more loyalty program members, boost engagement with existing members and gain incremental revenue in as little as 60 days?

There is, and it’s called a paid enrollment.

In this article, we’ll dive into exactly what these subscription loyalty amplifiers are and how they can help you achieve your loyalty goals along with real-world examples of how major brands are already doing it.

What is a Paid Enrollment?

A paid enrollment is a type of subscription loyalty amplifier that allows your customers to receive exciting, limited-time benefits or offers in exchange for a fee.

This creates a sense of FOMO, or urgency to not miss out, with your customers. And that can help your brand meet its loyalty goals like incremental spending, brand advocacy and even program enrollment.

These benefits or offers can range from the opportunity to purchase or win a limited or exclusive new product, a subscription to receive discounts on products for a specific amount of time or any other VIP experiences you want to offer your best customers.

In addition to providing your customers with an amazing experience, they also quickly generate revenue through the membership fees which can be used to fund the benefits, or even enhance your existing loyalty program – a win-win for your brand and your customers.

How Do Paid Enrollments Work?

To illustrate how a paid enrollment can work, imagine that you’re launching a huge new product. Naturally, you’ll need to build awareness and create a sense of exclusivity and hype.

That’s exactly what we did to help an automobile manufacturer build excitement around its first electric vehicle.

Their objective was not just awareness but also the acquisition of new communications opt-ins and testing to see the viability of offering subscription or membership loyalty programs.

After paying a fee to sign up, members of this program were able to unlock special privileges – the hero benefit being a place in line to pre-order the new vehicle before it was available to the general market.

The membership also included VIP exclusive access to events, news and information about the new electric vehicle, like specs and sneak-peek photos of the actual production model.

For fans of the brand, this was a chance to show themselves as true brand advocates, and it’s no surprise that the program reached capacity in just a few days.

As a result of this, the brand has since reopened this paid enrollment at national auto shows and it’s currently over 20,000 members.

How Can I Add a Paid Enrollment to My Loyalty Program?

The beauty of a paid enrollment is that it’s not a huge lift when compared to building a full-flown loyalty program.

In many cases, one can be added in as little as 60 days, which means your brand will be generating incremental subscription revenue quickly.

For example, we worked with a national QSR brand to quickly launch a month–long sandwich subscription – the first one in the company’s history.

The brand wanted to meet several loyalty objectives including incremental purchases and new signups into its existing points-based loyalty program – plus test the viability of subscription loyalty programs.

For a one-time membership fee of $15, members of this sandwich subscription could buy a specific sandwich for 50% off on the QSR’s App or their website, once per day – but only for a month.

The requirement was that this paid enrollment was only open to existing loyalty program members, meaning that consumers had to sign up for the free points program to get a shot at the sandwich membership.

And it was only available for a limited time – with a limited number of memberships.

The result?

• The memberships sold out in 6 hours on the first day of release.
• It tripled the average subscriber frequency.
• 90% of members replied with a satisfaction score.
• 90% of members said they’re likely to re-purchase again.
• It had a 30% average redemption rate.
• 24% were new to the loyalty program.
• 30% had not visited a storefront in the past 90 days.
• The average visits per member were 8-9, previously 2-3 (a month).

This is a great example of how a paid enrollment can not only generate incremental revenue and boost engagement in your loyalty program but also help you acquire more loyalty members.

Read the full QSR paid enrollment case study here.

Paid Enrollments are a Quick Way to Increase Revenue and Hit Loyalty Goals

To recap, paid enrollments are limited-time subscription-based loyalty amplifiers that give your customers a spectacular experience in exchange for a fee.

Paid enrollments:

• Are quick-to-market, launching in as little as 60 days.
• Provide a subscription revenue stream that can be put back into the program to fund benefits and enhancements.
• Help acquire new loyalty program members as well as boost engagement and spending with existing members.

Subscription-based loyalty is on the rise because it provides a consistent revenue stream and enables your brand to offer enhanced benefits above and beyond the standard loyalty member perks.

Learn more about paid enrollments here.