A Marketer’s Guide to Subscription-Based Revenue Success

The Transition to Subscription-Based Models

The subscription model has become the dominant go-to-market motion in many industries—from air filters to on-demand entertainment. This massive transition is driving complexity in the customer purchasing process, and forcing sales and marketing leaders to rethink their channels and activation strategies. As part of this transition, marketers face rising pressure against broader revenue objectives from retention to cross-sell and customer lifetime value.

Our Analysis

To better understand marketers’ challenges as they adjust to this new business model, we surveyed leaders at a diverse set of companies on how they measure success and where their focus lies. Our respondents came from multiple industries, large and small firms, and varying levels of subscription model maturity.

This Report

Our report “A Marketer’s Guide to Subscription-Based Revenue Success” lays out:

• Why marketers in subscription-based companies need to focus beyond traditional brand and acquisition efforts to be successful
• Biggest challenges CMOs face in brand development, demand generation, cross-sell and engagement, and retention
• Three top priorities for subscription marketers
• Go forward actions to drive subscription model success

Select Insights

• 96% of marketers say the subscription model has increased expectations of marketing’s contribution to their company’s revenue growth
• Marketers are being stretched thin across brand development and retention
• 43% of marketers reported the biggest challenge in brand development is competing with larger/higher spending competitors