Episodios

  • The First Subscription Fixes I’d Make If I Only Had a Few Days

    The First Subscription Fixes I’d Make If I Only Had a Few Days
    Feb 10 2026
    If I only had a couple of days to improve a subscription program, this is exactly where I would start.

    In this episode of Subscription Prescription, I walk through a mini subscription workshop focused on fast, high-impact fixes. These are practical changes you can make quickly to increase subscription opt-in, reduce churn, and improve retention without rebuilding your entire stack. We cover:
    • Why defaulting to subscribe and save matters and how small design changes drive uptake
    • How to upsell subscriptions in the cart when customers choose one-time purchase
    • Turning billing reminder emails into value reminders instead of charge notices
    • What to fix first inside your cancellation flow to improve save rates
    • When aggressive discounts actually make sense for retention
    • How a simple splash screen or founder video can reduce cancellations
    • Building an onboarding sequence that reinforces value and sets expectations
    • Longer-term offer tests like bulk subscriptions, starter kits, and gifts
    This episode is built for operators who want results quickly and need a clear order of operations for improving subscriptions. New episodes of Subscription Prescription drop every Tuesday. Subscribe to stay notified.

    Get our weekly newsletter in your inbox: https://newsletter.thesubscriptiondoc.com
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    11 m
  • Subscription Claims, Compliance, and Where Brands Get Burned - An Interview with Natascia Taken

    Subscription Claims, Compliance, and Where Brands Get Burned - An Interview with Natascia Taken
    Feb 3 2026
    Claims are one of the fastest ways subscription brands grow and one of the fastest ways they get into trouble.

    In this episode of Subscription Prescription, Natascia Taken walks us through the do's and don'ts of claims.

    We talk about the legal reality behind the claims brands make across product pages, ads, emails, testimonials, and influencer content. This is an area most founders and operators think about too late, usually after copy has already converted and risk has already piled up. We cover:

    • Why copying competitor claims is one of the biggest legal mistakes brands make
    • The difference between supporting a benefit and claiming an outcome
    • How testimonials and influencer quotes are treated as brand claims
    • Where the FDA and FTC draw the line on supplements, food, beauty, and consumer products
    • Why subscription practices around cancellation and pricing are getting increased scrutiny
    • How to think about defensible claims without killing conversion
    Connect with Natascia directly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natascia-taken-b17b1b79/

    If you run subscriptions in supplements, beauty, wellness, food, or consumer products, this episode will help you understand how to market confidently without creating unnecessary legal exposure.

    New episodes of Subscription Prescription drop every Tuesday. Subscribe to stay notified.

    Get our weekly newsletter in your inbox: https://newsletter.thesubscriptiondoc.com
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    32 m
  • The Fastest Way to Grow Subscriptions Isn’t Retention (Here’s Why)

    The Fastest Way to Grow Subscriptions Isn’t Retention (Here’s Why)
    Jan 27 2026
    In this episode of Subscription Prescription, I break down a question that comes up constantly when auditing subscription brands. Most teams instinctively focus on retention, trying to squeeze incremental gains out of month-to-month renewal rates. But what if the biggest lever is actually before the first order ever happens?

    Using a simple, real-world math example, I walk through:
    • Why cutting churn in half is often harder than it sounds
    • How small improvements to conversion rate and subscription opt-in can drive the same growth as major retention overhauls
    • The tradeoffs between retention optimization and offer testing
    • Why acquisition and retention cannot be treated as separate strategies in subscriptions
    • How things like default subscribe-and-save, bulk subscriptions, and offer positioning can make retention easier downstream
    If you’re trying to grow subscription LTV, improve renewal rates, or decide where to invest your time this year, this episode will help you think about subscriptions more holistically.

    For visuals and the full math breakdown, check out the newsletter or watch the episode on YouTube. New episodes drop every Tuesday. Subscribe to stay notified.

    Subscribe to our weekly newsletter: https://thesubscriptiondoc.com
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    9 m
  • How Wellbell Got to 87% Subscription (Offer, Education, and Retention Playbook)

    How Wellbell Got to 87% Subscription (Offer, Education, and Retention Playbook)
    Jan 20 2026
    In this episode of Subscription Prescription, I’m joined by Hattie Gilpin, Director of Operations at Wellbel (a hair, skin, and nail supplement brand that’s ~87% subscription) and a founder of HAM, a new analytics platform built for subscription operators.

    We dig into the real problems subscription brands face when their data is split across tools (or disappears after platform migrations), and how operators can get clarity without staring at 50 reports.

    Hattie also shares what’s helped Wellbel build a subscription-heavy business: education-first onboarding, community-driven insights, and an intentional retention strategy that actually matches how customers consume the product.

    What we cover:
    • Why subscription brands lose critical history during migrations — and how to prevent it
    • How Wellbell drives subscription adoption without forcing subscription-only
    • The onboarding + education playbook to reduce “it’s not working” cancellations
    • Using post-purchase + support data to find holes in the customer journey
    • How to think about cohort performance: offers, billing cycles, variants, and seasonality
    • A simple “crash course” on subscription analytics (what to look at first)
    For more insights like these, subscribe to our weekly newsletter: https://newsletter.thesubscriptiondoc.com

    Connect with Hattie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harriet-gilpin/

    Learn more about HAM: https://goham.io
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    46 m
  • How to Use Discounts, Gifts, and Promotions Without Killing Your LTV

    How to Use Discounts, Gifts, and Promotions Without Killing Your LTV
    Jan 13 2026
    In this solo episode of Subscription Prescription, I dig into one of the biggest headaches in DTC subscriptions: offer strategy. Should you run a discount, add a gift, or push a limited-time promotion? I break down the good, bad, and overlooked strategies behind each of these tools—and how they impact your conversion, margin, and long-term retention. We’ll cover:
    • When discounts work—and when they actually hurt your LTV
    • How to use gifts to drive value without overspending
    • Smarter ways to run promotions that don't trigger churn
    Whether you're planning your Q1 campaign or trying to optimize an evergreen flow, this episode gives you tactical ideas to use right away. Learn more at https://thesubscriptiondoc.com
    Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewholman
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    16 m
  • CRO for Subscription Brands: Fix Your Funnel and Boost Subscription Take Rate

    CRO for Subscription Brands: Fix Your Funnel and Boost Subscription Take Rate
    Jan 6 2026
    Most brands think CRO = button colors and checkout tweaks. It’s not.

    In this episode of Subscription Prescription, I’m joined by Anthony Morgan (CEO & Founder of Enavi) to break down what real conversion rate optimization looks like for ecommerce subscription brands and where the biggest wins actually hide (hint: it’s usually not checkout).

    We cover how growing brands diagnose funnel bottlenecks, why product discovery is breaking your growth, the “inside funnel” metrics Anthony uses, and the simplest subscription unlock we see brands miss: communicating clear subscription value props directly in the buy box.

    What you’ll learn:
    • What CRO actually is (influencing behavior + validating with experiments)
    • The 4 “inside funnel” metrics (and where most Shopify brands struggle)
    • Why checkout optimization is often a time-waster
    • How to improve product page performance when paid traffic lands on PDPs
    • The North Star metric Anthony likes: Revenue per User (ARPU) — and why segmentation matters
    • The fastest subscription lift: subscription value props in the buy box (and how one brand saw a 51% increase)
    Tools Anthony recommends: GA4, Hotjar, Heatmap.com, Microsoft Clarity, Intelligems, Convert

    Connect with Anthony: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonycmorgan/
    Learn more at Enavi: https://www.enavi.co/

    If you’re trying to increase conversion, improve subscription take rate, and make more money from the traffic you already have — this episode is for you.

    Subscribe for weekly episodes every Tuesday: https://newsletter.thesubscriptiondoc.com
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    36 m
  • Happy Holidays! Last Episode of the Year

    Happy Holidays! Last Episode of the Year
    Dec 9 2025
    Wishing you and your team the best end to 2025 you can have. We're off until January. See you soon!

    For more info, visit https://thesubscriptiondoc.com
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    2 m
  • Subscription Armageddon: 4 Experts Break Down What’s Broken (And How to Fix It)

    Subscription Armageddon: 4 Experts Break Down What’s Broken (And How to Fix It)
    Dec 2 2025
    In this special roundtable edition of Subscription Prescription, I sat down with three of the sharpest minds in the DTC subscription space:

    👉 Bryan Starck – Founder of 100 Degree Celsius
    👉 Jordan Narducci – Founder of DTCPG
    👉 Andriy Rudnyk – Founder of Good Subscription Agency

    Together, we unpacked what’s really broken in subscription software and strategy - and what is changing in 2026. 💥

    Topics we cover:
    • Why your subscription opt-in rate might be hurting your LTV
    • The dirty secret behind second-order churn
    • The real reason subscription analytics suck
    • How to personalize cancel flows and retention messaging by subscriber journey
    • The future of Subscription 3.0 (AI, SMS, customer-led experiences)
    • Why most brands are failing at org-wide subscription alignment
    • The truth about CAC-to-Payback vs CAC-to-LTV
    • What we’d build if we burned all the subscription apps down and started over

    Plus: a bonus discussion on the future of DTC subscription conferences and what format would actually serve brands best.

    This isn’t theory. These are real-world insights from people who are deep in the trenches with top-performing brands every day.

    📩 Subscribe for more episodes every Tuesday
    🎧 See past newsletter and podcast episodes: https://newsletter.thesubscriptiondoc.com

    👥 Connect with the guests:
    • Bryan Starck - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanstarck/
    • Jordan Narducci - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-narducci/
    • Andriy Rudnyk - https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%87%BA%F0%9F%87%A6-andriy-rudnyk-77111399/

    #subscriptions #dtc #ecommerce #retention #subscriptionapps #LTV #churn #SubscriptionPrescription
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    1 h y 29 m