Subscription Offer Framework: 5 Decisions in the Right Order

After working with 100+ subscription brands, one thing I can tell you for sure:
your offer can make or break your subscription program.

IM8 moved new customers onto a three-month plan, and new customer order value went from $110 to $240.
Grüns sells to the whole household to increase their AOV.
One of our clients took first-to-third order retention from 61% to 73%.

None of them changed the product.

I broke the whole framework down in a new video, step by step.

Most brands we see run the same offer. 15% off every size, 10% off the first order, nothing for bundles, no gifts, and 10% off to save a cancel.

And even when there is a gift or a discount, nobody knows about it.

Every piece gets decided on its own, so together they fight each other.

So we built Subscription Offer Engineering. It’s five decisions, always made in the same order, because each one sets the limit for the next.

1. Terms

• Match frequency to consumption. 30 servings at one a day gives you a 30-day window.
• Offer two terms, three at most, with nothing in between.
• Three months pays back CAC on the first order. Monthly takes until order two.
• Never go past 2x the consumption window. Skip six-month plans, because you want a renewal within 90 days so you know what’s happening with the customer.

2. Price ladder

• Two rules: the subscription discount beats one-time, and the three-month discount beats one-month.
• Keep MRP within 20% of your one-time price. More than that starts to dilute the brand.
• On a low-ticket item, 10% is $5, and nobody subscribes for $5. The gap has to feel worth it.
• Pick one “save X%” and use it everywhere, and always show the price per month.

3. Bundle

• Keep bundles on one subscription, never two. Single-product brands can skip this step.
• Take an extra 10% off for two products and 15% for three or more. The bundle never beats the three-month term, and the products need to run out together.
• Check your cohorts. 10 to 15% of subscribers already build their own bundles by running two or three subscriptions.
• Pitch it everywhere: product page, cart, checkout, thank you page and post-purchase emails.

4. Rewards and milestones

• Bigger rewards go with bigger commitment.
• Put milestones where your cohort drops, usually order two or three. Give nothing at four and five, then add gifts at six and twelve for loyal subscribers.
• Make gifts functional, not merchandise. Keep the logo small, or just use your brand colors.
• A gift turns apples-to-apples into apples-to-oranges. It’s easy to walk away from $5 off, and much harder to walk away from three free gifts.

5. Special cases

• Offer pause and skip before any discount.
• Every save offer should match or beat the best offer the subscriber has already seen, or they’ll cancel and sign up again as a new customer.
• Give a subscriber who’s been with you three or four orders a better save offer than someone cancelling after their first.
• 20% off the next three orders beats 30% off one.

Most brands don’t have any of this written down in one place. Once you can see it all together, you can test discounts, gifts and pricing and see how each change stacks against the rest.

Watch the full breakdown. It also walks through product pages from brands that get this right.

If you want me to have a look at your offer, schedule a call here.