Brand Loyalty in the Subscription Economy: How HelloFresh Uses Creators to Reduce Churn

When Birchbox first blew up in the early 2010s, it became a pioneer in what we now call the “subscription economy.” The brand’s approach of sending customizable boxes with curated samples of makeup and beauty products suddenly made products more accessible. Customers got the chance to try samples of trending brands and viral products to see if they’re something they’d want to buy.

But without a solid strategy to retain its subscriber base, Birchbox eventually fell into obscurity as new brands entered the market with stronger marketing strategies. It even stopped operating at some point but has since been revived, albeit with a much lesser bang than before.

This rise and fall of Birchbox serve as a lesson on the importance of nurturing brand loyalty for subscription-based companies.

In this post, that’s exactly what I’m going to look at. I’ll break down the reason why brands need customer retention to thrive in the subscription economy and how companies like Hello Fresh use influencer marketing to do just that.

 

Why Subscription Brands Need to Prioritize Customer Retention

Every business wants to attract new customers. And it makes sense because you need more customers to keep the business running.

The trouble begins when brands start to prioritize acquisition more than customer retention. You’re spending all your money and energy to draw in new customers, partnering with influencers and providing them with discount codes to encourage signups. But once those customers start buying from you, you stop trying to get their attention.

That’s how you ultimately lose them to other businesses that are better at nurturing customer loyalty.

And for subscription-based brands whose whole business model relies on retaining an existing subscriber base, this could spell death.

I remember when HelloFresh started introducing meal kit subscriptions shortly after the Birchbox boom. They worked with a ton of influencers, including the YouTubers I follow, to drive more signups through discounts and promo codes.

 

 

Unlike Birchbox, the brand continues to be a major player in the subscription economy because their priorities go beyond customer acquisition. They’re still investing in influencer marketing to draw in new customers. But they’re also backing it up with efforts to drive brand loyalty and reduce subscriber churn.

Here’s a breakdown of the top reasons why retention should be incorporated into your subscription marketing efforts.

 

Drives Exponential Profitability

Customer retention boosts profitability because it costs less to retain existing customers than to attract new ones. In fact, you could spend anywhere between five to 25 times more to acquire a new customer vs. retain an existing one. That’s why even just a 5% increase in retention rates could exponentially increase profits by up to 95%.

 

Maximizes Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

Retaining customers ultimately improves customer lifetime value (CLV) as customers make repeat purchases throughout their life cycle. This is especially beneficial for subscription models, where the initial cost to acquire a customer often outweighs their first few payments.

A prolonged subscription lifecycle gives you the opportunity to recover acquisition costs and generate continuous profit. Long-term subscribers are more likely to engage with higher-tiered upgrades, cross-sells, or add-ons.

 

Improves Brand Advocacy

With strong brand loyalty comes organic brand advocacy. Loyal customers do your marketing for you as they organically feature your brand’s products or services in their social media content. They’re also likely to recommend you to friends and family, helping you attract new customers through word of mouth.

 

How Influencer Ambassadors Drive Brand Loyalty

Influencers have always been at the forefront of subscription marketing, helping brands grow their subscriber base. But influencers aren’t just for signing people up. In fact, influencer ambassadors play a vital role in keeping subscribers engaged and involved throughout their lifecycle.

Let’s look at how influencers can drive brand loyalty as ambassadors.

Creating Familiarity through Repeat Exposure

Influencer ambassadors integrate your products or services naturally into their content over months or years. This ongoing exposure builds deep familiarity with the audience, driving repeat business for your brand.

As an avid fan of Tucker Budzyn, I keep seeing the meat subscription service, Butcher Box, in his videos. And I’ve become pretty familiar with the service’s offerings. While non-subscribers might be convinced to sign up for the service, existing ones might be reminded about what a good deal they’re getting.

Building Authentic Trust and Credibility

When an influencer ambassador keeps using a product and champions it, it signals to the audience that the brand is indeed reliable. The brand’s ongoing presence in the influencer’s content adds authenticity to the partnership, as it gets people to think: “Hey, this influencer genuinely loves the product.”

This builds trust among audiences, which is the foundation for brand loyalty. People become loyal to brands they trust.

Fostering a Sense of Community

As influencer ambassadors share their real-life experiences with your product or service, their content resonates with your existing customer base. It makes them feel like a part of something, fostering a sense of belonging. So they help to build a community around your brand and its products or services.

Driving Renewed Interest

Customers can get tired of your product lineup at some point. Once they lose interest, these customers will stop keeping up with what’s new.

Influencer ambassadors help to drive renewed interest in your offerings by highlighting new products and updates that bring your customers back. Their content re-engages customers who would’ve otherwise stopped buying from you altogether.

Case Study: Hello Fresh

Hello Fresh has consistently invested in influencers to promote their meal kit subscription service. They work with influencers who educate their audiences about how the service works as they demonstrate how easy it is to cook with the recipes and pre-portioned ingredients.

The messaging focuses on making mealtime easier and easing the mental load of figuring out what to make.

From busy professionals to tired parents, the messaging remains consistent across different segments. Every influencer partner helps to highlight how Hello Fresh improves their lives with easy-to-follow recipes, diverse cuisine options, and portioned ingredients. They also sweeten the deal with promo codes that incentivize people to subscribe in exchange for free meals and discounts.

While this subscription marketing strategy is effective for attracting new subscribers, the brand doesn’t stop there. Realizing the importance of customer retention to keep their business running, they also heavily invest in influencer ambassadors to nurture brand loyalty.

Ongoing Exposure

The brand partners with influencers who repeatedly create content for ongoing exposure. This helps to keep the brand top of mind for existing subscribers and potential ones alike.

Seeing their favorite influencers using a service that they too use is a great way to foster a sense of community and loyalty in subscribers.

New Recipe Awareness

As much as people love Hello Fresh’s convenient meal prep service, menu fatigue creeps in at some point. Although there’s an expansive menu selection to choose from, long-time subscribers could get bored if there’s nothing new.

So the brand routinely introduces new items to their recipe lineup, which keeps things fresh and exciting for subscribers.

That’s not all—Hello Fresh promotes these new recipes with the help of influencer ambassadors. Instead of simply adding new recipes and hoping subscribers will find them, they drive awareness through relevant creators. These creators will demonstrate how to cook the recipe as they share how much they enjoy it and how easy it is to prepare.

Existing subscribers then learn about the new recipes through this influencer content and feel inspired to try it out.

In some cases, simply seeing a new recipe on the website may not be enough to inspire subscribers to try it. But seeing real people cooking it and loving it usually does the trick.

Influencer Events

Hello Fresh further adds excitement to their new recipe launches with collabs that involve event leaders like Time Out. The “Sensory City” collab features 17 signature dishes from 17 different cities, offering subscribers a chance to go on a gastronomic adventure as they explore new flavors from cities around the country.

The brand put together an event to promote the collab and invited select influencers to try the new recipes. Each influencer created content to share their experience and highlight some of the dishes they sampled at the event.

This helped to drive awareness about the collab, with influencers providing information about when the new recipes will drop.

While the collaboration added novelty and excitement to provide existing subscribers with new experiences, influencers played a key role in spreading the word about it.

Bonus: Strategic Influencer Selection

Another key reason why Hello Fresh’s subscription marketing works so well is because they’re strategic with the creators they work with. Specializing in food doesn’t automatically mean the brand works with food influencers.

Granted, they also work with select influencers in the food industry. But their influencer ambassador program is held together by creators across different segments.

The brand’s subscriber base is made up of real people facing a very real challenge with cooking and daily meals. They’re not professional chefs or even experienced home cooks. Even those who have the skill don’t necessarily have the time or energy to put together elaborate meals on the daily.

Hello Fresh knows this. That’s why they deliberately partner with influencers their subscriber base can relate to—whether that’s the athlete who’s always on the move or the working mom who barely has the time to cook as she juggles work and parenting duties.

This strong sense of relatability helps audiences connect to the influencer and their experiences, which eventually builds a stronger connection with the brand.

Best Practices to Drive Brand Loyalty with Influencer Ambassadors

This Hello Fresh example should give you an idea of how you too can retain your subscriber base with a solid influencer ambassador program. Check out these best practices to further guide your efforts:

Build Long-Term Ambassador Relationships

Transactional, one-time partnerships don’t do much for brand loyalty. You want your influencer ambassadors to stick with your brand just like your subscribers. Sign on influencers as long-term ambassadors where they repeatedly create content about your brand, reinforcing its credibility and building familiarity.

Check for Audience Overlap

While you want to work with multiple influencers to maximize campaign impact, there’s no point in paying different influencers to reach the same loyal customers repeatedly. Make sure to check for audience overlap between creators, so you can focus on influencer ambassadors who can each reach a unique audience.

Platforms like Influencity come with a Follower Overlapping Feature that lets you compare the percentage of unique and shared followers between different influencers.

Make Space for Authenticity

Influencer content performs best when it’s authentic. Encourage ambassadors to authentically share how your products or services make a difference in their lives. Align on messaging to maintain consistency but give them enough creative freedom to make it their own. This ensures that audiences can relate to their content, allowing for better resonance.

So even if you want ambassadors to focus on how your service makes their lives easier, how a working mom shares her experience will be very different from how a healthcare worker living on their own shares their experience.

Reward Ambassadors with Exclusive Perks

Incentivize influencer ambassadors with exclusive perks that make them feel like a part of your brand. Beyond affiliate commissions, you could reward them with free merchandise, complimentary services, event invites, and more.

Win Brand Loyalty with the Right Influencer Partnerships

An influencer who consistently vouches for your brand doesn’t only win over new customers but also helps you keep existing ones. Make the most of the tips and best practices shared above to win brand loyalty through influencer ambassadors.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is subscription marketing?

Subscription marketing is a strategy for acquiring new customers and retaining them through a subscription-based model. Customers pay a recurring fee to access a brand’s product or service.

What is the importance of brand loyalty?

Brand loyalty is essential for lowering acquisition costs, as you get repeat business from loyal customers and win over new ones through word-of-mouth recommendations. It also strengthens customer lifetime value, driving better profitability over the long run.

How do influencers drive customer retention?

Influencers drive customer retention through repeat exposure that puts the brand top of mind for existing customers. They also drive renewed interest and build awareness about updates and new products, which is necessary for repeat purchases.