The world’s best companies across every major industry use Zuora to nurture and monetize subscriber relationships. And at our recent Subscribed Live event in New York, we got to hear directly from modern business industry leaders who are on the front lines of business growth and innovation in the Subscription Economy. 

While they represent companies of all shapes and sizes, what our customers share is a passion for action, a focus on the future, and a dedication to a customer-first approach. Keep reading to learn their strategies for leveraging the latest tech to reinvent subscriber relationships and scale for growth.  

Watch now: Subscribed Live New York on demand 

Analyzing customer activity to create the essential subscription

By staying agile and constantly adapting to shifting subscriber demands, The New York Times has crafted a strategy to become THE essential subscription for over 10 million customers worldwide. So, what can we learn from their success in the Subscription Economy? 

According to Ken Houseman, VP of Product Management, The NYT continually analyzes customer activity to reveal usage trends and uncover growth opportunities. 

What are these key trends? It all has to do with engagement:   

• The more engaged customers are with the product, the less likely they are to churn
• Features across products that correlate with customer retention also drive engagement

“The more engagement we drive within our products, connecting them across the ecosystem, the more value our subscribers find in our bundle and are willing to pay for it.”

– Ken Houseman, VP of Product Management

To maximize the growth opportunities revealed by these usage trends, The NYT has implemented a 3-part strategy to drive engagement within products and across the bundle: 

• Expand the product portfolio, with differentiated and tailored products, features, and offerings that align with subscriber interests, perspectives, and preferences
• Become more valuable to more customers by moving beyond the basics and meeting everyday life wants and needs with essential qualities 
• Connect products by making it easy to navigate across the bundle to further drive engagement and retention

“We want to provide our subscribers with the most meaningful, tailored news [and] deepest passion exploration. Because those daily habits create a connection. And those connections become essential and essential, authentic connections drive success.”

– Ken Houseman, VP of Product Management

Watch now: The New York Times: Creating the essential subscription 

Harnessing the power of customer data 

One of our most exciting Subscribed Live product announcements was the new Zuora Warehouse, which gives Zuora customers the analytics and workflow tools they need to centralize and maximize their data.  

Industry leaders like Rishi Kaushal of Entrust and Kevin Schuller of MarketWise Solutions are already leveraging their customer data to: 

• Surface key metrics, including retention, churn, customer lifetime value (CLV), and customer acquisition costs.
• Drive a subscriber-led growth strategy, with CLV at the center. Use subscriber metrics to power a flywheel of growth, nurture subscriber relationships, and increase retention. 
• Enable dynamic pricing and tailored subscription bundles. Use predictive analytics to perfect pricing and offer customers additional features, products, and bundles that will deliver maximal value for them.  
• Maximize cross-sell/upsell opportunities. Share insights and learnings with sales and marketing teams to help move customers through the funnel and monetize the relationship.

“If we’re able to harness the data we do have, using some predictive analytics, we’ll actually provide some recommendations back to a customer that says, ‘Based on your investing style or your investing goals, maybe there’s’ a subscription that might be better suited for you.’ And we see that as our opportunity to unlock greater value.”

– Kevin Schuller, VP of Financial Systems, MarketWise Solutions

Watch now: Entrust and Marketwise: Choosing the right tech 

Focusing on the customer and scaling for growth

Creating a nimble digital experience for customers requires scalable tech and platform capabilities, plus insights into lifetime value and customer needs. For eMoney CFO Megan Murray, Zuora is a catalyst for embracing transformation and delivering better client experiences.

“Solve for the problems of your customers first. If you keep that in mind, you’re going to optimize your organization along the way.”

– Megan Murray, CFO, eMoney

At eMoney, the journey to doing modern business happened in several phases:

• Moving to a single monetization platform that enables a subscription business model, optimizes the customer experience, and scales for growth.
• Optimizing workflows by moving from siloed, legacy tech to a full, seamless view of end-to-end processes across the business. 
• Looking to the future by leveraging the latest innovations to act on data and continually nurture subscriber relationships. 

“It’s that passion and focus on the customer is what brought us to Zuora. Back in 2018, we were still having our clients fax us their credit card numbers, if you can imagine that. So we were on a very antiquated platform […] We needed a platform that understood where we were going, helping us get into the subscription economy and build a business model around a SaaS offering. We needed it to scale, but we needed it to deliver an optimal experience to our customers.”

– Megan Murray, CFO, eMoney

Watch now: eMoney Advisor: Elevating the client-advisor relationship 

Want to learn more? 

Watch and share recordings of all the Subscribed Live keynotes, customer stories, and product demos here. And to learn more about how Zuora can help your business flourish, talk to one of our experts.  

Don’t forget to check out our other blog posts in the series to get the scoop on the exciting new products and innovations we announced at the event:

• 3 reasons Zuora for Consumption is the total package
• Zuora Command Center — developed for your Zuora admin heroes
• Power up your subscriber-led growth engine

Written by:
Amy Konary – Founder and chair of the Subscribed Institute