Pre-Launch Checklist for a New Subscription-Based Business

Want to start your subscription business like a pro? Then, here’s your 9-step pre-launch checklist that ticks all the boxes for a successful launch!

You might be overwhelmed by the myriad of things to manage. From the market research to legal privacy policy and onboarding email sequence, you don’t want to miss any of them! 

Here’s where your endless research and scrolling finds an answer! A proven checklist for an easy launch without pulling your hair out!

So, ready to hit the ground running? 

9-Step Pre-Launch Checklist for New Subscription-Based Businesses

Here’s our 9-step launch readiness checklist for every subscription business owner:

1. Product Readiness:

• Define a Unique Business Proposition

Identify your product’s unique offerings. This helps to stand out from the sea of subscription businesses. For example, you could start a pet product subscription. This could deliver organic pet treats, supplements, fresh pet food etc.

• Research Your Market & Audience

Research the key market trends & opportunities. Ask if your product solves a market problem. Understand your audience’s pain points, needs, etc. 

• Product or Service Offerings 

A great subscription experience starts from day one. Select features that offer personalized services, prioritizing customers’ preferences and needs. You could ask key questions about their expectations, needs, and challenges.

The right pricing model makes the payment flexible and convenient. Set up unique tiers that combine benefits and rewards for a specific audience segment.

For instance, to charge users based on usage leverage the pay-as-you-go model. 

• Product Meets Quality Standards.

Verify the functionality, usability, and performance before the final delivery. Perform beta testing to ensure it meets all essential quality standards. Also, test all the contact forms and signups on your membership site.

2. Legal Aspect:Registering Your Business 

Decide the right business structure based on registration, profits, liability, and taxes preferences. Sole proprietorship, LLC, and corporation are the three types. 

For example, a sole proprietorship is easy to set up but doesn’t offer liability protection. LLCs offer liability protection, but businesses often struggle to raise capital.

• Adding Privacy Policy

Privacy policy informs what data your site collects and how you’ll handle the data. It ensures user data is protected and builds transparency and trust. GDPR and CCPA require businesses to have a clear privacy policy. 

• Craft a Legally Binding Terms of Service

Your subscription can’t appease every customer. Right? A term of service builds a fence that reduces your liability. Ensure your terms of service cover all aspects. Cover what’s allowed and not allowed for users, refund & cancellation policies, payment clauses, etc.

• Setting up a Business Bank Account

Regardless of the size, niche, and structure — maintain a separate business account. Tracking your expenses & income, tax filing & accounting just got easier! 

Recurring payment systems like Stripe and Chargebee need a separate business account.

• Comply with Regulatory & Data Protection Laws

Subscriptions are more than delivering a product or service to your customer’s doorsteps or inbox! Adherence with the regulatory compliance and data protection laws is crucial. This ensures the smooth operation of your business. 

GDPR, the FTC Act, and California’s Automatic Renewal Law are a few key laws to be aware of.  

⚡Related: Legal Considerations for Running a Subscription-Based Business

3. Payment & Billing:

• Payment Processing & Recurring Billing:

Integrate secure gateways with subscriptions and recurring billing systems. Stripe, PayPal, and Checkout.com are examples of secure payment gateways.

• Easy Refunds & Cancellation Policy:

Do you have a customer-friendly refund & cancellation policy? In fact, the FTC’s cancel-to-rule advocates for easier cancellation, auto-renewal, and even free trials. 

• Billing Structure

Flat-price, tiered pricing or pay-as-you-go pricing? Your billing structure must align with your business model and target audience. 

A fixed pricing is right when they pay the same price for every billing cycle. To charge on units, move on to a more flexible pay-as-you-go model.

• Automate Subscription:

Have you automated new subscriptions, pauses and cancellations? This way, you earn more time for content creation.

• Manage Payment Failures:

Like it or not — payment failures are a setback for your business growth and revenue. It could accelerate the customer churn. 

Ensure you have a payment recovery system to handle such setbacks. First, keep your customers in the loop about the payment issues and recommend an action plan.

Set up a dunning system that alerts users to failures and notifies them about upcoming payments.

• Ensure Tax Compliance: 

Comply with the regional and country tax procedures. This prevents you from landing into legal tussles. For the U.S., it’s a sales tax, while for the E.U., VAT applies to digital goods. So, check what’s the law of your land!

4. Branding & Marketing:

• Prepare Pre-Launch Email List:

Building an email list is essential for growing your subscription business. Create a lead-generating landing page where people sign up for your email list. 

Generate traffic to your landing page through social media, paid ads, blogs, etc. 

• Use Lead Magnets or Early-bird discounts

Capture lead magnets with value-driven templates, checklists, and cheat sheets. Surprise your audience with pre-release buzz. Also, early-bird offers, discounts, and deals hit the stroke of interest.

• Set Up Social Media & Content Channels

Choose the social media platforms that align with your audience and business. 

Instagram & TikTok are perfect for fashion & lifestyle brands. In contrast, X works great for tech and Saas. Intrigue your audience by saying, “Watch this space for something exciting!” 

• Consistent Branding

Weave a consistent brand story to resonate with your audience! Look beyond visual aesthetics to find your unique voice.  

Highlight your unique business proposition through mission, brand message, and visual story. If you build sustainable products, promote them in your content.

• Prepare Analytics & Attribution Tools

Go ahead and measure your marketing impact. Attribution & Analytics helps you with this. 

Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Mixpanel, etc., are popular analytics tools. Dreamdata, Adobe Analytics, and Hubspot are top attribution tools.

• Establish a Content Strategy

Create a content plan to establish better content workflows. Block specific days for different platforms. Find a suitable time when your audience is most engaged.  

5. Analytics & Metrics Tracking:

• Core Business Metrics

Track your subscription business health if you’re eyeing long-term business success. 

Key metrics: Monthly Revenue Rate, customer acquisition cost, LTV, and churn rate

• Customer Metrics

These metrics offer insights on customer base and revenue growth. 

Key Metrics: Active subscribers, new subscribers, free-to-paid conversions, engagement

• Revenue & Billing

Evaluate the financial performance of your business & efficiency of billing. 

Key Metrics: MRR, ARR, Refund rate, CLTV

• Financial & Operation Metrics 

Your subscription’s success is all about navigating through ups and downs! Predicting the lows in advance helps your business to climb up the success ladder.   

Key Metrics: MRR, cash flow, retention rate, support cost per customer

6. Security:

• 2-Factor Authentication

An extra security layer like 2-factor authentication significantly reduces security breach incidents. Users verify their identity with password and code. Even if intruders compromise the password, they have to crack the passcode as well.  

• Reliable Web Hosting

Avoid risking your website to unknown hosting providers. Choose a reliable hosting provider like Hostgator, Hostinger, or DreamHost. Ensure your hosting has security features and protection against brute force attacks. 

• Use Secure Payment Gateways & CVVs

Choose payment gateways that comply with security standards and payment methods. Add AVS and CVS fields to verify during checkouts. 

• SSL Certificates

HTTPS is essential for subscription websites. Your customers know that they are accessing a secure website. It helps to verify website ownership, encrypt communication, and win user trust. 

• Enable Backups

Set up automatic backups for your website. This helps to restore data when something goes wrong. It’s your biggest insurance plan against accidentally or intentionally losing your website files.

7. Customer Support & Onboarding:

• Streamlined Onboarding

Does your subscription site offer seamless onboarding? Craft a thoughtful and welcoming mail onboarding members to your platform. 

• Provide Customer Service Across Multiple Channels

Excellent customer support is no longer a bonus but an essential service. Extend support across multiple channels. Email, live chat, phone support, and social media are powerful channels.

• Create a Knowledge Base and FAQs for Subscription

A knowledge base where customers can search for anything is an asset!  Add how-to guides, FAQs, and walkthrough videos to your website.

• Collect Member Feedback and Testimonials

Feedback & testimonials are social proof and word-of-mouth marketing! Pop-up surveys, live chat feedback, and email surveys are great channels for sharing testimonials.

8. Technical Readiness

• Test Membership Signup and Cancellation Process 

Simulate the signup for various user scenarios and test user permissions. Ensure the user can access features and content specific to their role. 

Create a robust login that’s immune to security breaches. Test the cancellation workflow and interfaces. 

• GDPR/CCPA Compliance for Member Data 

Do you fret paying penalties or legal tussles? Create enough transparency about the way you collect and use your member data. 

Your member data typically includes member names, emails, and payment data. Value customer content while sharing information with third-party tools.  

• Monitoring Uptime & Performance for Your Site

A good uptime and performance can slow down customer churn! Check the site’s speed, functionality, and responsiveness. 

High-performing websites can manage peak loads and an extensive user base. Measure your site’s KPIs like traffic, CLV,  MRR, and engagement.

9. Launch Planning:

• Define Launch Goals 

Set a clear launch goal for the actual launch. This could be building your initial audience, increasing traffic, or establishing a loyal following. Craft a launch campaign tailored towards it!

• Identify Your Target Audience

Who does your target audience include? Gather enough customer data and craft detailed personas. Tune your launch campaign to their needs and preferences.

• Gather Launch Assets

Ensure all your launch assets are set up! Landing pages optimized with compelling headlines and CTAs. Demo videos & PR kits are ready to shoot. Email campaigns crafted for maximum engagement.

• Pre-Launch Buzz

Generate some pre-launch buzz and excitement to build momentum! Share demo, feature highlights, and teasers across different channels.

• Create Product Documentation

Ensure you have product manuals and user guides in place. This guides users through their customer journey!

• Grand Launch Day

Finally, it’s time to go live with your subscription site! Once it goes live, send emails to celebrate the grand launch. Announce the launch on social media with an exciting post. 

Ready, Set, Launch Your Subscription Business

Your subscription business is all set with a unique proposition and pricing model! 

Follow our 9-step product launch checklist to launch your subscription business with confidence! Building a subscription website with top-notch features? Choose a white-label solution like Fanso.io with sophisticated features and best-in-class technology.

From custom subscription plans to live streaming and e-commerce stores, Fanso.io is a one-stop destination for everything! Let’s connect on a 15-minute call! From niche feasibility to final launch, we’ll help you kickstart your community platform today!

FAQ- Related to Pre-Launch Checklist for a New Subscription-Based Business

1. How to start a subscription business?

Follow these steps to start your subscription site:

• Define your niche and target audience
• Choose the right subscription platform
• Design and build your subscription site
• Create compelling content to offer ongoing value
• Set up a reliable payment gateway and methods
• Promote your subscription site
• Track and monitor your site

2. How to launch a subscription box?

Here are the important steps to launch your new subscription box:

• Determine a unique subscription idea
• Price your subscription box right
• Choose your subscription model
• Develop your subscription box prototype
• Build your unique brand identity
• Set up your online store
• Promote and launch your subscription box
• Scale your subscription business

3. How can I reduce the churn rate from the start?

Provide flexible subscription options, smooth onboarding, and collect user feedback to reduce the churn.