Subscription Radio: Recent Episodes
Ben Fisher
Mikko Rekola is the Chief Evangelist of Woolman, a Shopify Plus design and development agency in Europe. Woolman has established itself as one of the biggest agencies in its field, catering to renowned brands such as Mars Pet Food, Daniel Wellington, and H&M.
In this episode, Ben and Mikko dug deep into the current trends in eCommerce, including the use of AI to improve product discoverability and customer conversion. They discuss the potential of chatbots and semantic websites to change the way customers search for products, the importance of content marketing and gamification in engaging customers and building brand loyalty, and the challenges faced by mid-market enterprises in implementing DTC strategies.
Topics
- How AI is Changing DTC Brand Conversions and Discoverability
- The Future of DTC Brands and eCommerce Market Trends
- The Future of eCommerce and AI-powered Personalization
- Exploring AI Uses in eCommerce and Content Creation
- Incorporating AI in Subscription Strategies for eCommerce
- Leveraging AI for Workflow Optimization and Text Analysis
- Discussing Microsoft Clarity and Its Benefits for eCommerce
- The Evolution of DTC Brands and Paid Memberships in a Post-COVID World
- Mikko's "Big Ask"
- The Use of Customer Data in eCommerce
Links & Mentions
- Shopify Shop App
- Lucky Orange
- Hotjar
- Microsoft Clarity
- Pod Squeeze
- Word Tune
- Ellis
Connect with Mikko
- Connect with Mikko Rekola on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Check out Woolman
Connect with Ben
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Check out Rodeo
Charles Tichenor, founder of Disrupter School and a partner at Underoutfit Inc, a DTC brand specializing in undergarments, is a strong advocate for embracing change and evolving strategies in response to ever-changing technology and marketplace dynamics. With a deep understanding of the intricacies of Facebook advertising, he has achieved remarkable success in helping businesses navigate the ever-evolving digital landscape.
In this episode, Charles uncovers valuable insights, debunks misconceptions, and provides you with actionable strategies for success in Facebook advertising.
Topics
- Debunking common mistakes in digital marketing, specifically in Facebook advertising
- Shifting focus from short-term gains to long-term cashflow sustainability
- Embracing change and evolving strategies in response to technology and marketplace dynamics
- Recognizing the limitations of advertising strategies and evaluating campaign effectiveness
- Rethinking ad testing and metrics for a more thoughtful and data-driven approach
- Insights on effective Facebook advertising strategies, including budget consolidation and user-centric approach
Links & Mentions
- Dylan Ander at SplitTesting.com
- Sarah Levinger
- Raoul van Heerden at eCom Ads
- Dara Denney on YouTube
Connect with Charles
- Connect with Charles Tichenor on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook Group
- Subscribe: YouTube, iTunes, Spotify
- Check out Disrupter School
Connect with Ben
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Check out Rodeo
Rick Watson, ecommerce influencer and strategy consultant at RMW Commerce Consulting, has helped many growing D2C brands navigate subscription strategies. It’s a challenging market because not all subscriptions are created equal. So, how do you create a subscription worth sticking around for? Give your customers access to something they can’t get anywhere else. The best subscriptions rely on variety to maintain their audience’s interest. On this episode of Subscription Radio, Ben and Rick discuss what products work best in a subscription model, why most brands can’t be subscription-only, and what questions to ask before moving your business toward a subscription model.
Show Topics
- When are subscriptions more hassle than they're worth?
- Should your brand be subscription-only?
- Don’t trick people into commitments
- Not all subscriptions are created equal
- Do you need a subscription model?
- Find out what people excel at
- What does it take to fulfill a product?
- Value consistency and focus
Show Links
- Check out RMW Commerce Consulting
- Connect with Rick Watson on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Check out Rodeo
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
Matt Bahr, founder and CEO of Fairing, understands the importance of attribution. This is why he chose to focus his company Fairing, formerly EnquireLabs, on collecting data to help companies understand the attribution of their customers. The goal at Fairing is to bring speed and scale to survey data in an effort to help solve the issue of attribution. The company helps its clients design surveys that help them determine who their customers are, where they came from, and what will keep them coming back. On this episode of Subscription Radio, Ben and Matt discuss the importance of customer surveys, what questions to ask, and how to use those answers to your competitive advantage.
Show Topics
- How Fairing helps solve attribution
- Get a competitive advantage
- Increase completion rate
- Let people classify themselves
- Find out where customers are coming from
- Create surveys with ease
- Let people come back to the questions
- Build a profile over time
- Understand your customers’ motivations
- Ask more than one question
Show Links
- Check out Fairing
- Connect with Matt Bahr on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Check out Rodeo
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
Subscriptions are your best source for recurring revenue. So, how do you keep customers from churning? The key is flexibility. Some people want their subscription to be as regular as clockwork, while others want to pause and pick up at their leisure. A flexible subscription model will help you keep both sides of your audience coming back for more. In this episode, Ben Fisher shares his experience as a serial entrepreneur, the importance of flexibility in subscriptions, and how convenience keeps customers happy.
Show Topics
- Spend money to save time
- Focus on returning customers
- Let people pause
- Offer flexibility
- Create a unique experience
- Give perks to direct buyers
- Build a middle ground
- Create convenience for customers
- Maximize LTV
- Give customers a happy medium
Show Links
- Check out PipeCandy
- Connect with Ashwin Ramasamy on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Check out Rodeo
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
Mike Duboe, general partner at Greylock, is an expert on DTC trends. As a growth leader in user acquisition at multiple ecommerce companies, Mike has seen the evolution of DTC firsthand. Today, DTC is less of a category and more of a channel. Whether it’s a new subscription model or NFTs, if you want to grow your DTC brand, you need to diversify your channels. On this episode of Subscription Radio, Ben and Mike discuss what growth looks like in a DTC brand, the rise of NFTs in commerce, and how to build the best subscription experience for your customers.
Show Topics
- Growth differs depending on context
- Optimize for profit over growth
- Diversify your channels
- Understand the commerce NFTs enable
- Use NFTs for subscription loyalty
- Don’t force-feed subscriptions
- Increase your keep rate
- Build a subscription experience
Show Links
- Check out Greylock
- Connect with Mike Duboe on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Check out Rodeo
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
Shawn O’Neill, founder of SpeedSense Web Performance, is a web performance guru who works with ecommerce brands at the enterprise level. If you’re wondering whether to optimize your website, Shawn is the person to ask. Because the faster your website is, the easier it becomes to hold the attention of your customers. On this episode of Subscription Radio, Ben and Shawn chat about how to speed up the loading time for a webpage, whether or not to go headless, and when to build a custom landing page.
Show Topics
- Make pages as static as possible
- Show the customer the page is working
- Load the most relevant content first
- Run analytics as early as you can
- Create a façade for videos
- Make up your mind on headless
- Know when to build a custom landing page
- Don’t make a monolith
- Be mindful of carbon emissions
- Own your site
Show Links
- Check out SpeedSense
- Connect with Shawn O’Neill on LinkedIn
- Check out Rodeo
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
Matt Mullenax, Co-Founder & CEO at Huron, understands how important it is to be there for your customers. Since Huron carries personal care and skin care merchandise as a subscription, it’s crucial for customers to have enough—but not too much—product on hand. One of the challenges of a subscription model is knowing when your customers will need to order more product. But if you know how to manage shipment timing well, they’ll always have the right amount. On this episode of Subscription Radio, Ben and Matt discuss ways to manage subscription timing, the importance of an authentic brand voice, and the pros and cons of using Amazon.
Show Topics
- Manage subscription timing
- Use survey data
- Foster long-term relationships
- Focus on your core values
- Let your brand evolve
- Take advantage of opportunities
- Make the most of your channels
- Humanize your brand
- Keep moving forward
Show Links
- Check out Huron
- Connect with Matt Mullenax on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Check out Rodeo
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
Tim Masek, founder of 1-800-D2C, wants to make life easier for ecommerce founders. Through his experience as a growth operator, Tim discovered the difficulty of making decisions about stacks for ecommerce brands. Many founders don’t have the specialized knowledge to be able to pick the optimal tools for their team. So Tim created a service to help ecommerce founders identify the best tools for their stacks. On this episode of Subscription Radio, Ben and Tim discuss how to pick the right tools for your stack, the benefits of a subscription-only business model, and how different brands are making the most of ecommerce.
Show Topics
- Fill in the gaps
- Help people find the right tools
- Trust founder interviews
- Be thoughtful about your choices
- Consider the subscription-only model
- Focus on one thing
- Innovate on ecommerce
- Take advantage of TikTok
- Unlock non-dilutive funding
Show Links
- Check out 1-800-D2C
- Connect with Tim Masek on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Check out Rodeo
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
Matthew Barnes, founder of Proteus Digital Lab, knows how to help DTC brands optimize their conversion rates for subscriptions. A conversion isn’t just an event; it’s part of a larger customer experience. If you want to get a customer to commit to a subscription, you can’t just focus on the conversion point. You have to consider the entire life cycle of the customer. On this episode of Subscription Radio, Ben and Matthew talk through ways to sweeten your subscription services for customers, how to get past that initial growth plateau, and why going headless isn’t necessarily your best option.
Show Topics
- Use data to accelerate growth
- Sweeten the subscription offer
- Grow your website alongside your business
- Follow customers over time
- Think about lifetime value
- Use subscriptions where they make sense
- Have a clear interface
- Don’t disincentivize customers
- Don’t reinvent the wheel
- Know your customer’s needs
Show Links
- Check out Proteus Digital Lab
- Connect with Matthew Barnes on LinkedIn
- Check out Rodeo
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
William Hicks, co-founder and president of Magic Mind, knows the value of turning one-time customers into monthly subscribers. The more subscribers your company has, the better your retention rates will be. But getting customers to commit to a subscription requires strategic action. You have to prove to your customers that a subscription is worth the commitment. On this episode of Subscription Radio, Ben and William talk through strengthening your subscription model, how to get customers to agree to a subscription, and why you shouldn’t look for a silver bullet.
Show Topics
- Invest in positive changes
- Pay attention to your model
- Focus on subscription
- Give your customers a guarantee
- Listen to your customers’ needs
- Don’t underestimate operational complexity
- Demonstrate success
- Utilize your financing
- Give customers an out
- Don’t look for a silver bullet
Show Links
- Check out Magic Mind
- Connect with William Hicks on LinkedIn
- Check out Rodeo
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
Matthew Holman, Head of Growth at QPilot, believes communication is the key to keeping subscribers long term. Most people don’t cancel their subscriptions because of the product itself. They cancel their subscriptions because they aren’t getting the right amount of product at the right time and in the right way. But if sellers listen to their customers’ needs and adjust their subscription packages accordingly, they’ll be able to keep their subscribers happy for longer. On this episode of Subscription Radio, Ben and Matthew discuss the importance of getting feedback from your customers, what you can learn from friction points, and how sellers can best meet the changing demands of their user base.
Show Topics
- Meet changing demands
- Know your limitations
- Monitor your delivery outcomes
- Regulate your subscriptions
- Communicate with the customer
- Listen to your customers
- Give reminders
- Take a step back
- Learn from friction points
- Find opportunities to upsell
Show Links
- Check out QPilot
- Connect with Matthew Holman on LinkedIn
- Check out Rodeo
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
Taja Dockendorf, founder and creative director of Pulp + Wire, knows the ins and outs of creative marketing strategies. If you want your product to stand out in the online retail world, you have to give your customer not only a great product, but a great overall buying experience. Everything from advertising to the packaging to your loyalty rewards contribute to the customer’s experience with your product. On this episode of Subscription Radio, Taja and Ben talk through strategies to create loyal customers for life. Taja explains how to add value to the customer experience, grow your brand past the $5 million mark, and make the most of your metrics.
Show Topics
- Design with the customer experience in mind
- Add value with small surprises
- Keep people interested
- Utilize social media
- Trust the people you hire
- Don’t get too close to the process
- Look at the metrics
- Let people choose for themselves
- Know what your consumer is looking for
- Give people the rewards they want
Show Links
- Check out Pulp + Wire
- Connect with Taja Dockendorf on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Check out Rodeo
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
Patrick Johnson, CEO at Progress Labs, is a brand-building and ecommerce expert. Subscription services are a major part of ecommerce, but are often underutilized and poorly managed. The key to success is finding a balance between subscriptions that are consumer-centric, while still providing a brand with the dependable recurring revenue they need to survive.
On this episode of Subscription Radio, Patrick and Ben brainstorm how brands can walk that fine line. Patrick shares his insight on what makes a good subscription service, how to upsell with intuition, and what you can do to give your customers a better subscription experience.
Show Topics
- Make your subscription unique
- Upsell with intuition
- Let your competition inspire you
- Give your customers a better experience
Show Links
- Check out Progress Labs
- Connect with Patrick Johnson on LinkedIn
- Check out Rodeo
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Connect with Joel Van Horn on LinkedIn or Twitter
Scott Norton, co-founder of Sir Kensington’s and founder of N+1 Ventures, knows a thing or two about marketing consumables in an online world. The internet has changed everything about the way we shop: how we buy, where we’re most receptive to advertising, and who we get our information from. The food industry is no different. From social media posts to internet cookbooks, the internet has shaped the way people buy and consume food. If you want your CPG company to keep up with the trends, you have to change your marketing strategy. Scott joined us on Subscription Radio to discuss CPG marketing, the pitfalls of e-commerce, and how to create a community for your brand.
Show Topics
- Build on ritual and celebration
- Help customers estimate their usage
- Create your own community
- Don’t fall prey to marketing FOMO
- Make membership special
Show Links
- Check out N+1 Ventures
- Connect with Scott Norton on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Check out Rodeo
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Connect with Joel Van Horn on LinkedIn or Twitter
High-growth DTC brands encounter roadblocks and questions on a regular basis. That’s because technology is often moving quickly, but different platforms and DTC support systems don’t always talk to one another. Patrick Johnson is an engineer with a background working for Red Antler and the CEO of Progress Labs. His work has attracted clients like Huas, Soma Water, Andie Swim, and many more. He’s found that the key to navigating the DTC landscape lies in educating clients on their options, so that they can make choices that will empower their brand in both the short term and the long haul.
Show Topics
- Differentiate on more than price
- The caveats of going headless
- The role of pre-optimization
- Engineers should educate and guide brands
- Care about more than conversions
Show Links
- Connect with Patrick Johnson on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Check out 1-Click Pony
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Connect with Joel Van Horn on LinkedIn or Twitter
Are you feeling subscription fatigue? With the subscription world getting more competitive, it takes more for brands to stand out. Rather than focusing on making a quick buck, brands need to recognize the need to promote long-term loyalty. That starts with simple things, like not pissing off your customers by shipping without warning, and ends with innovative tactics like data-based reminders and gifting programs. Dean Bakes, Chief of Staff for co-op commerce, has a long history of promoting customer acquisition and tech efficiencies for early-stage brands. He joined us on Subscription Radio to share his thoughts on transparency, customization, scaling, and more.
Show Topics
- Focus on reducing friction
- Customer loyalty and subscriptions go hand-in-hand
- Make smart decisions as you scale
- Bright ideas for subscription innovation
Show Links
- Check out co-op commerce
- Connect with Dean Bakes on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Check out 1-Click Pony
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Connect with Joel Van Horn on LinkedIn or Twitter
What happens when a subscription aficionado becomes a DTC investor? Alex Malamatinas is the founder and managing partner at Melitas Ventures, a VC fund that partners with innovative early-stage food and beverage companies like OLIPOP, Verb Energy, and MUD\WTR to take them to the next level. Alex joined us on Subscription Radio to share why customer experience is so important, and the different ways that the brands backed by Melitas are standing out to customers and investors alike.
Show Topics
- Customer experience is key
- Leverage the potential of SMS
- Look at owned tech as IP
- Introduce subscription flexibility
- Seek out new platforms to acquire customers
Show Links
- Check out Melitas Ventures
- Connect with Alex Malamatinas on LinkedIn
- Check out 1-Click Pony
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
Sometimes a scotch-taped-together tech solution is just what you need to jumpstart your subscription services. But if you grow fast enough, the tape won’t hold up. Dan Freed experienced this firsthand as he grew Formula, an incredible company specializing in personalized nootropics. In this episode, Dan shared how he’s reengineering Formula’s operations to provide the very best customer experience possible, and learning from the customer and competitors every step of the way.
Show Topics
- The formula for a great tech stack
- Getting out of “technical debt”
- You can’t improve what you can’t measure
- Beat competitors with a superior experience
- Why bootstrapping guarantees a quality product
Show Links
- Check out Formula
- Connect with Dan Freed on LinkedIn
- Check out 1-Click Pony
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
David Silverman is the VP of Brand + Digital at Brewbike, a mission-driven coffee company that exists to empower young people through entrepreneurial experience. Pre-pandemic, that was accomplished by giving students the keys to their own coffee business on college campus. That all changed in March 2020, when campuses closed and revenue went to zero overnight. Brewbike quickly created a Shopify store and launched a DTC model that remains a thriving sector of their business over one year later. David joined us to share the steps Brewbike took to embrace DTC, the core pillars of a successful subscription service, and what’s next as Brewbike expand to an additional six campuses this fall.
Show Topics
- Using Shopify as a base will take you far
- Applying online subscriptions to in-person sales
- Leverage conversational communication
- Make subscribers feel special
- Focus on subscription customization
- Communicate with subscribers at the right time
Show Links
- Check out Brewbike
- Connect with David Silverman on LinkedIn
- Check out 1-Click Pony
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Connect with Joel Van Horn on LinkedIn or Twitter
Streamlining workflows is a common business need. Consolidating the suite of apps you use for your subscription service is no different. Whether you are a brand or a developer, there are increasingly more and more ways that you can take the dozen isolated apps you currently use and turn them into a handful of hardworking, integrated solutions. In this episode, we explore what caused apps to become so soiled in the first place, and emerging ways to integrate them.
Show Topics
- The challenge of app consolidation
- Shopify’s new central hub
- The shortcomings of SMS and email marketing services
- The advantages of a custom Shopify solution
Show Links
- Check out 1-Click Pony
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Connect with Joel Van Horn on LinkedIn or Twitter
Shopify Unite 2021, the annual partner and developer conference, delivered much to get excited about. It also left us with some questions. How will bespoke themes transition to Online Store 2.0? Now that merchants can create payment gateways as an app, will there be extra fees? What is the future for Shopify Plus? We discussed the highlights and did our best to give you our predictions.
Show Topics
- Troublesome theme transitions to Online Store 2.0
- Enhanced developer toolkit with Hydrogen
- Create payment gateways as an app
- Calculate international payments
- Improved developer experience
- Shift in value of Shopify Plus
Show Links
- Check out 1-Click Pony
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Connect with Joel Van Horn on LinkedIn or Twitter
Should you buy or build? Hire an engineer? Go headless? These are the questions that can consume DTC brands, and there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. We were joined once again by Ben Kochavy, who helped shed light on the questions above. The key takeaway is this: there’s a time for brands to live on a platform like Shopify, and a time to go custom. There’s also a middle ground, where you can build custom apps for your Shopify-based business. What you don’t want to do is drown your early-stage company in engineering costs, or hobble your growth with systems that prevent agile pivots.
Show Topics
- When to buy versus build
- The pros and cons of custom
- Why Shopify is the best bet for new brands
- Tech doesn’t always add value
- Invest in custom apps
- Aim for fewer failure points
Show Links
- Check out ColdBru Digital
- Connect with Ben Kochavy on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Check out 1-Click Pony
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Connect with Joel Van Horn on LinkedIn or Twitter
DTC brands might see subscriptions as the go-to framework, but it’s not so simple. For supplements or other easily-timed products, they work great. But for other non-linear products, subscriptions are hard to get right. So, what’s the solution? Ben Kochavy of ColdBru Digital talked with us about the benefits of bundles, why cash flow needs to be taken as seriously as LTV and CPA, and how brands need to bring a VIP experience to reduce churn.
Show Topics
- Subscriptions are a tradeoff
- Bundles are sometimes better than subscriptions
- Cash flow is as important as LTV
- Churn is a big problem for subscriptions
- DTC brands need to bring a VIP experience
Show Links
- Check out ColdBru Digital
- Connect with Ben Kochavy on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Check out 1-Click Pony
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Connect with Joel Van Horn on LinkedIn or Twitter
Subscriptions may be the future. But that doesn’t mean they’re perfect for every brand. Some products and services lend themselves to subscriptions more easily than others, period. Other times, it’s simply in the approach. For example, is the delivery cadence appropriate? Is the customer ending up with too much or too little? Is an on-demand option possible? We don’t have all the answers, but we explored those questions and more in this episode.
Show Topics
- The issue of subscription replenishment
- The concept of “just in time” subscriptions
- The advantage of large brands
- Subscriptions as outsourcing
- Digging into the customer experience
Show Links
- Check out 1-Click Pony
- Explore Grove
- Explore Clockwork Nutrition
- Explore Daily Harvest
- Explore Motion
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Connect with Joel Van Horn on LinkedIn or Twitter
Subscriptions are becoming more popular than ever before. In fact, a recent report estimated that 75% of businesses that sell direct to consumer are expected to offer subscriptions by the year 2023. So what exactly counts as a subscription product, and when does the user benefit from a subscription model? In this episode, Ben and Joel dig into where subscriptions win, and where they sometimes fall flat.
Show Topics
- The three types of subscriptions
- Impacts of the hosting platform
- The importance of customization
- When the subscription algorithm fails
- The volume dilemma
- Dogfooding your subscription experience
- Subscription upsell tactics
Show Links
- Check out 1-Click Pony
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Connect with Joel Van Horn on LinkedIn or Twitter
In this inaugural podcast episode, Ben and Joel dive into their shared obsession with subscription eCommerce. While Ben comes from a background of deep Shopify expertise and Joel has spent his career on custom builds, both entrepreneurs are passionate about creating a stellar experience for brands and customers alike. In the world of subscriptions, the landscape is particularly interesting. Ben and Joel discuss everything from the birth of subscription DTC tools to recent changes at Shopify to what the future of subscription eCommerce may hold.
Show Topics
- Shopify’s first-mover advantage
- Flexibility as a must-have for subscription platforms
- The impact of Shopify changes on the subscription landscape
- Deciding whether to build or buy a subscription platform
- The difference between CPG and tech companies
Show Links
- Check out 1-Click Pony
- Connect with Ben Fisher on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Connect with Joel Van Horn on LinkedIn or Twitter