Could Subscription Marketing Be Hurting Your Bank Account?

As an entrepreneur, good money management is the name of the game, but sometimes it feels like money is just bleeding out and you can’t always tell where it’s going. Don’t worry! You’re not alone, and the answer may be easier than you think.

Just the other day, I was going over my bank statements looking into a payment when I came across an unexpected charge of $171. I hadn’t bought anything for that price recently, so I had no idea where it came from… until I looked at who the charge was made to. Back in February of 2019, I signed up for a business marketing program, and for the last 11 months, I’ve been paying for the monthly subscription that I’d completely forgotten about. To make a long story short, I kept digging and found two more subscriptions I’d forgotten. By the time I was done (and tired of banging my head on my desk), I had found over $3000 spent on no less than 3 subscriptions that I wasn’t even using! 

If this has happened to you, then you may be a victim of a marketing method known as the “business subscription model,” a.k.a subscription marketing. You know those services, the ones you pay monthly to have The Harvard Business Review suggests that the subscription business “attracted more than 11 million U.S. subscribers in 2017.” In an article published by Forbes, it is estimated that this industry produces more than $2.6 billion in annual revenue.

You see, the sustainability of these businesses relies heavily on the number of subscriptions they maintain annually. These businesses study the data on how many subscribers they acquire, how many of those subscribers stay subscribed for the year, how many people fall to the wayside over time (and when), and a number of other statistics. The reason is that subscriptions are easy, repeat business! My question is, what percentage of those subscriptions are from entrepreneurs like us who simply forget that we even subscribed in the first place.