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I'm finding it much more difficult selling recurring memberships then lifetime offers

by Bkelly301
3 replies
I know this sounds like it would be obvious, but I am finding that people are not really interested in buying what I am selling after I switched to a recurring fee.

I have a course with a LOT of content in it (and I'm constantly adding more), and I was selling it for $47/lifetime for the last year. For the last 6 months, I have been making about 20 to 25 sales per month. In total, I have made about 120 sales at the lifetime pricing. I have only had 1 person ask for a refund too. It's not a ton of sales, but then again I'm only getting about 250 - 300 visitors to my website per day.

Anyway, as of May 10th (almost 2 weeks ago), I switched my pricing up to $10/month or $97/year. I figured that people would have no problem signing up at just $10/month. I offer a 30-day money back guarantee, and I make sure that they know that it is super easy to cancel at anytime.

I figured that people would actually be more inclined to "try it out" for $10/month then to pay $47.

Well, since I have changed this pricing to recurring...I have had to people sign up for the $97/year and 1 person sign up at $10/month. However, the way things have been going, I would have probably made about 10 sales over the course of the last week had I still had the lifetime pricing available.

Since I have changed my pricing to recurring, I have been very motivated to consistently be adding new content because I want to make sure that anyone who signs up will want to stick around for a while.

Here's what I'm thinking:

1.) I may need to give it more time to really get an accurate test of whether or not this is a good price.

2.) Maybe people are just generally turned off by recurring billing, despite the fact that it's really not a lot of money per month and I let them know that it's extremely easy to cancel at anytime.

3.) Maybe I may need to venture into paid advertising. However, I don't know if I'm willing to risk paying money on advertising with no guarantee that it will result in making more sales.

What do you guys think?

I'm not in the MMO niche either.
#difficult #finding #lifetime #memberships #offers #recurring #selling
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  • Profile picture of the author Sid Hale
    Originally Posted by Bkelly301 View Post

    ...as of May 10th (almost 2 weeks ago), I switched my pricing up to $10/month or $97/year. I figured that people would have no problem signing up at just $10/month. I offer a 30-day money back guarantee, and I make sure that they know that it is super easy to cancel at anytime.

    I figured that people would actually be more inclined to "try it out" for $10/month then to pay $47.
    Assuming that nothing has changed with regard to your advertising and sales page... how did you determine that people would suddenly be willing to pay twice as much ($97/yr vs. $47 lifetime) for the same product?

    Every product has some level of perceived value, and doubling the price means that you have to 1) overcome the buyer's notion of what that value is, and 2) compete with everything else that the buyer might spend their $97 on.

    Your product may have seemed cheap at the original pricing, but your new price might be out of their price range.

    Subscription pricing shouldn't be seen as a way to disguise a price increase, but rather as a way to make your existing price more affordable for those who can't pay the $47 up front.

    Try charging $5/mo to bring your pricing more in line. You'll still make $60/yr (vs. the original $47). That's essentially the same as charging them 25% interest for the option of paying the original price over the span of one year.
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  • Profile picture of the author jbsmith
    I would also try and just test different lifetime offers - try going to $67 and then $97 (without the monthly option). I have had businesses where the market doesn't want recurring but would be willing to pay more IF I only give them a higher-priced fixed offer...by giving them $10/mo or $97/yr you can still create this negative mindset by showing them the recurring rate.
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    • Profile picture of the author Bkelly301
      Originally Posted by Sid Hale View Post

      Assuming that nothing has changed with regard to your advertising and sales page... how did you determine that people would suddenly be willing to pay twice as much ($97/yr vs. $47 lifetime) for the same product?

      Every product has some level of perceived value, and doubling the price means that you have to 1) overcome the buyer's notion of what that value is, and 2) compete with everything else that the buyer might spend their $97 on.

      Your product may have seemed cheap at the original pricing, but your new price might be out of their price range.

      Subscription pricing shouldn't be seen as a way to disguise a price increase, but rather as a way to make your existing price more affordable for those who can't pay the $47 up front.

      Try charging $5/mo to bring your pricing more in line. You'll still make $60/yr (vs. the original $47). That's essentially the same as charging them 25% interest for the option of paying the original price over the span of one year.
      Well, I thought that I had my product priced a little low before. However, actual sales are really the only true determining factor.

      Maybe I'll give it another month and a half and then I'll try something like a $5/month option.

      Originally Posted by jbsmith View Post

      I would also try and just test different lifetime offers - try going to $67 and then $97 (without the monthly option). I have had businesses where the market doesn't want recurring but would be willing to pay more IF I only give them a higher-priced fixed offer...by giving them $10/mo or $97/yr you can still create this negative mindset by showing them the recurring rate.
      I see...I guess this recurring thing just scares people off. I'll give it a shot for a few more months and maybe switch it up again.

      Thanks for the replies!
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