How I Started Selling Subscriptions Online [Part One] - My Email Marketing Launch For This New Subscription Business Model

In July 2023, I launched a new marketing subscription service called The Spark. It’s an online subscription where subscribers receive weekly content marketing prompts via email and also have a members area where they can access the content prompts for as long as they remain a subscriber.

This was a brand new business model for me as I had never offered an online subscription before. I was excited to test the concept with a “soft launch” and see how well it was received by my target audience of solo entrepreneurs and business owners DIY-ing their marketing.

In this blog, I’ll share the basics of how I launched this new subscription service to my email list. Stay tuned for future articles on the social media launch and how I created the product.

How I launched my first online subscription service

After initially teasing for about 10 days that the subscription service was coming, I offered my social media followers the link to the sales page by request if they wanted early access. I did this on the evening of 25th July and secured some sales immediately. This gave me confidence that the sales page was good enough to start converting leads to customers. I was good to go with my email marketing campaign the next day.

I used an early bird incentive to purchase before midnight on 31st July: a discounted price of £25 (which I ended up keeping as full price because it sold so well) and access to a VIP online event happening in September.

How I used email marketing to launch the online subscription service

Between 26th July and 31st July I sent eight sales emails promoting the subscription service. I did this alongside promoting The Spark on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.

I found it interesting that all of the emails generated both sales and unsubscribes - apart from the final email which was sent at 8pm on the final day of promotion and only to people who had clicked a link but didn’t buy.

Here’s an overview of the launch email campaign results including:

• Percentage of people marking the email as spam (technically I am NOT a spammer as everyone opted in to my email list; some people are just annoying and flag emails as spam when they aren’t)

• Percentage of unsubscribes

• Open rate

• Click rate

• Goals = the number of subscribers who took action on the email and purchased the subscription

• The revenue generated by sales of my online subscription service from the emails

My key takeaways from the sales email data for the launch of the subscription service

I learned so much from this initial campaign selling my first ever online subscription service. Overall I made 54 sales from the early bird launch and 23 were attributed by Kartra to a click from one of these eight sales emails.

Here are my key takeaways from the email marketing side of the launch:

• The more emails I send, the more sales I make.

If I’d only sent 1 email on cart open day, I’d have missed out on 2 sales.

• Folks will always unsubscribe and that’s OK.

If I’d sent fewer emails because I was worried about 0.1% - 1.8% of my list unsubscribing, I’d have made less sales.

• My subscribers are early birds, not night owls.

I sent an email to everyone who had clicked at 8pm on the final day and no one bought from that email.

• The announcement email got attention (and sales)

I always use NEW in the subject line when something is new and this email had a selfie of me in it - I think this helped make a connection and thus sales.

• The curiosity factor gets more opens

The subject line for the email on 27th July was “VOILA”. It made no reference to what was inside, and that email made sales.

• Testimonials are essential 

The emails that made the most sales included screenshots of social proof and written testimonials - you can’t skip this bit!

The more I look at this, the more nuggets of marketing gold I can dig out. But I think as a starter for ten, this is good. And I hope you leave this email understanding that:

More emails = more sales.

How email marketing contributed to the overall number of sales of my online subscription service

If I made 23 sales from this email campaign and overall made 54 sales, where did the other sales come from? I’ll write about the social media side of this launch in a future blog but for now, I can shine a light on how the email marketing contributed to the total number of sales.

> 41 of the 54 people who purchased The Spark were already on my email list.

> Many of them opened the emails but perhaps didn’t click through and complete the purchase for Kartra to track that sale against that email. 

> They either purchased from me sharing the links on social media or directly with them. Or another roundabout way.

> Most people who purchased got emails which reminded them to buy and explained in detail why they needed the offer. The emails definitely contributed to the majority of the sales I made.

Overall results of using email marketing to launch a new online subscription service

During this launch, my sales emails drove a lot of traffic to the sales page for The Spark subscription service and I wouldn’t have made as many sales as I did without using email marketing.

There is a crossover between my email list and social media audience and email amplified the reach of the promotional messages I shared across my socials. My social media reach is always reduced when I’m linking out to a sales page which makes sense as the aim of social media is to keep people on the platform, not send them to an external web page.

Collectively, I have more followers on social media than I do email subscribers but the conversion rate for the email audience was much higher than for social media. This is probably down to the reduced reach on socials when I’m selling and not being able to post the link to the sales page on the grid on Instagram (I had to point people to the link in my bio).

My goal is always to grow my email list with ideal clients for my offers and this launch only cemented that this strategy should take priority over growing a social media audience. My ultimate goal is always to get my social media followers onto my email list where I can link them directly to my offers and content. 

Useful links:

✨ If you’d like to check out The Spark subscription service and how it can support you with your content marketing and nurturing your email list click here >> Subscribe to The Spark.

📧 If you want to start, grow and nurture an email list so that you can make more sales >> Check out my signature email marketing programme, Electric Email.

💌 If you want to get more people opening your emails (so you can get more clicks), download my FREE guide >> 10 subject line tactics to get your emails opened.

Ask me anything about the launch or email marketing in the comments. I reply to every one!