Continuity is a fancy term for recurring profits, like a membership site that your customers pay for each month they remain a member. From a marketing standpoint, continuity is awesome because it means a steady income for you.
But from a customer standpoint, continuity can either be a wonderful thing or terrible headache, depending on… YOU, the marketer.
Let’s face it – you would love to have as many paying subscribers to your continuity program as possible, and you would like to keep them as members as long as possible.
But some marketers take this too far. WAY too far. Unscrupulous marketers (which you are NOT) will make it difficult for members to cancel. Worse yet, they will force customers into continuity membership against their will. For example, they’ll hide the fact that the customer will be billed monthly. Because this is illegal, we see less of this technique than we used to, but it’s still out there.
The second thing less than honest marketers will do is offer Product A for $1, and then attach one month’s free membership to Membership B for free. Of course, after the first month then the customer is seeing a charge on their card that they didn’t expect – the charge for Membership B. If they didn’t read the fine print on the sales letter closely, or if they forgot they needed to cancel, they’re going to think they’re being ripped off. And while you can argue it’s legal, it’s not going to earn the marketer any brownie points with the customer. In fact, that customer will likely never do business with them again.
But here’s the question we should be asking these marketers: Why do they find it necessary to hide Membership B behind Product A? If the membership is so great, why not promote that and use Product A as a bonus?
Here’s the lesson we can learn from this: How you treat your customers today will directly affect your income tomorrow. If you try to hide your continuity in any way, your business and your reputation is going to get hurt.
Instead, make Membership B an amazing value, and then brag about it to the moon. Tell customers up front that it’s $1 today and $47 a month after that. Let them know 3-5 days prior to charging them that you will in fact be charging them, and if they want to cancel, here’s how they can do that.
And if you’re worried this will lose you subscribers, let them know they’re going to get a powerful bonus each month, something that will stick them to you like glue.
The subscribers you keep will love you. You won’t have to worry about your name being dragged through the mud on social media. Your customers will TRUST you and want to buy more stuff from you. And affiliates and fellow marketers will WANT to promote you hard and often.
Bottom line: Treat customers like you would want to be treated, and you’ll build a business that will last a lifetime – not just until you get found out.
