B2B subscription case study: exploring new/adjacent markets

We use a 2×2 grid to diagnose subscription performance. It’s helping our clients – b2b subscription companies in the information and data space – work through the steps to optimise their recurring revenues. And avoid slipping back.

One of our clients – an established subscription business with multiple brands – acquired a niche player. It was serving one of their market segments. Similar audience, different proposition. They were curious about taking the same proposition into new/adjacent markets. We like the spirit of the project, part innovation, part disruption, high growth.

We think you should master the net and gross revenue retention for the existing product before tapping into new/adjacent markets. Their revenues look strong enough, so we looked for other clues about the subscription fundamentals as part of our investigations.

The team wanted help to decipher the parts of the product that has the most value. It has been built over time to include news, content, tools, conference, etc. Moving into a new market requires decoding the product, to understand how to enter the market, get a foothold with the minimum viable product, through to their go to market strategy.

Using a mix of qualitative and quantitative insights from their customer base, we decoded the success of the current product. We also explored how to improve the existing product to keep in lock step with their current subscribers.

A useful by product of this discovery includes identifying a few levers the team can pull now. These levers include:

• Use case – expansion of existing subscribers because it is being used by multiple teams for different reasons
• Acquisition – we’ve clarified the sweet spot / ICP and how they are getting value to inform their targets in the existing market
• Communications – they now have clear descriptions in their customers’ words about the utility and value they deliver
• Promoters – we identified highly referenceable senior personnel in the industry who are keen to promote the service

We illuminated how their customers get value from both brands. Why they can sell both brands to the same accounts to increase the share of wallet. The segment who get the most use from it.

The move into a new/adjacent market is the right call for this team. The existing product has great traction and strong sentiment measures including must have score. Next up we are taking a prototype of the decoded version of this successful formula into test with a new set of customers.

Into b2b subscriptions and want to learn more? contact andy@substribe.co