green(er) grass and high tides: the art of the upsell

exec summ: I am on emusic’s monthly subscription plan. emusic wants me to buy more music, also known as incremental purchase. here is how to make that happen: make me want it.

emusic subscription service: the basics

I have had my emusic membership for several years. pros: drm-free, high quality mp3 files, a decent and expanding catalog. cons: once and done downloading; no encores. if I lose the file and want to download it again, I have to pay again. a basic subscription is $11.99 a month, with songs costing $0.49 to $0.79 each. the subscription is use it or lose it: if I fail to use my credit for the month, I lose the money. I am ashamed to say this happens way more than it should – I need to set up better reminders!

emusic strategy for incremental purchase is broken

as a business, I am sure emusic appreciates the steady revenue stream that subscriptions represent. I am sure they would appreciate it even more if I (and otrher subscribers) spent money above and beyond my subscription. to that end, they send newsletters with featured artists for the month. I also receive several emails each month promoting sales. below is one I received yesterday.

as far as I can tell, all subscribers get the same newsletter and sale emails. I say as far as I can tell because the promotions feature a wide variety of artists and genres. some I have purchased in the past; others are new to me. it is possible that emusic is personalizing emails for every recipient, but in my case at least, there is almost never an instance where I shout “how did they know?! I must own that now!”

in addition to what appears to be a generic merchandising strategy, I do not perceive any variation relative to where I stand on purchases for that month. regardless of whether I have spent half, all or none of my monthly credit, I get the same emails with the same generic assortment.

it’s (not just) money that matters

for example, note the offer on the right in the email above. if I spend an extra $50 on top of my monthly subscription, I will get a $65 credit, the equivalents of a 23% discount on my incremental purchase and nearly 20% on my total cost for the month. not a bad deal – if I want to buy $76.99 worth of music in a given month.

$77 is over five times the amount I normally spend. yes, the “booster pack” gives me an extra 60 days to use the credit, but even that translates to an average monthly spend nearly three times my normal rate. here is the broken piece of the merchandising strategy:

emusic is telling me that by spending more I can save more,
but they are not helping me understand why that is valuable to me

use the data, luke – personalize the offer

• you know what I like. getting a hefty discount on additional music only matters to me if I spend more money. how can emusic make the additional credit worth the incremental purchase cost to me?
  • easy – just use information I have already provided.
    • in the past I have bought full albums from artist ranging from army navy to yeasayer. how about an email promoting other albums in those artists’ catalogs?
    • emusic has a great “save for later” feature. I use this when I am exploring new music or when my balance is low. can you say “low hanging fruit?”
• I want it all now. but wait. why offer a discount on music I have shown I am likely to purchase at some point anyway at regular price?
  • here’s where my monthly purchase status comes into play.
    • when I have not yet bought in the monthly cycle, emusic offers generic promotions.
    • If I make a purchase, they personalize the promotions by genre or by “others who bought x also bought” a la amazon
    • if I max out for the month, they go for the gold, offering other albums by the artist and/or items from my save it for later bin
• fly me to the moon. bonus tips on booster pack strategy.
  • emusic should save the booster pack promotion for customers who are close to or over their subscription for the month. I am unlikely to spend money for additional music if I am not even close to maxing out my credit yet.
  • the email above promotes the highest-priced booster. I have never purchased a booster pack. for customers like me, emusic should consider offering the $10 booster with a first time buyer bonus of $1 instead of 50 cents.