5 ways to monetize without losing customers

TLDR:

Recently, the owner of X (formerly known as Twitter) Elon Musk has proposed a monthly subscription to use the platform in a bid to “combat the bots”. Amazon Prime Video is expected to charge an additional $2.99 monthly fee for ad-free streaming on top of their $7.99 monthly subscription. Though both companies have established more than enough authority in their respective niches to stay well afloat in spite of such a decision, you can expect many people to migrate to rival platforms, and you may be one of them.

And if you are one of them and happen to be a small business owner, just imagine what’d happen if you tried to monetize the incorrect way.

You’d be bankrupt.

The odds are very high that even if you have established enough authority in the domain of your respective niche, it’d pale in comparison to the likes of X and Amazon.

But naturally, you’d want to cash in any authority you’ve managed to create, but how can you do it without losing customers?

The concept of value-based pricing involves setting prices for your products or services based on the perceived value it provide to customers.

To measure this, you can look to conduct market research to understand what customers within your niche value the most about the type of products or services you sell, segment your audience based on the fact that different customer demographics would hold your products or services in varying regard, and customizable pricing to cater to the specific needs and budgets of each customer segment.

You can also look to communicate your value, with the idea behind it being you create such a perception of your products or services that customers would feel stupid not to buy them. It is imperative to convince them that they’d be getting a bigger bang for their buck by purchasing what you have to offer and converting them into regular customers.

One way to achieve this is by stacking add-ons to currently existing products or services offered without a significant change in price.

With this, you can provide a basic version of your product or service for free to let customers have a concrete idea of what you sell, and charge a fee for the full version. This allows customers to experience what you have to offer without any significant monetary investment.

The best ways to make this work include highlighting the tangible value of the basic version, tiered plans to cater to different user needs and budgets, and resources and tutorials to help users navigate through the full version seamlessly.

Though Musk is getting widespread criticism for his aforementioned proposal, subscription models can be justified as long as they’re done right, with one of the most obvious ways being to not have your offerings behind a paywall.

With justifying subscription models, look to add value over time by continuously enhancing your products or services, flexible plans that cater to very specific needs at a reasonable price, and free trials for prospective customers before committing.

Whether its the digital world or the real world, ads are everywhere no wonder where you go (unless you use an ad blocker for the former). It’s considered to be a very lucrative source of revenue, but at the same time it can also be a just as lucrative force to drive your customers away.

To avoid that, you can incorporate ads that are non-intrusive, like banners or sponsored ads that don’t ruin the user experience by being forced to watch the first 5-10 seconds before skipping, and ensure quality control by displaying ads that align with your business’ value and standards.

Partner up with other businesses to promote their products or services on your platforms to your customer base, and earn commissions for each successful referral or sale generated through your platform.

Factors to take into account for affiliate marketing include relevance of the interest of your customer base and quality assurance.

In order to grow as a business, you have to see a stream of revenue coming through at some point, but it should not come at the cost of losing a large portion of your customers. Instead, monetize in a manner that wouldn’t turn your customers away for good, but actually be willing to help you grow monetarily for value you’ve provided them all this time.