Best Of The Best

Now that Sirius has rolled out the "Best Of Sirius/XM" packages and is on the verge of starting the first ever ala-carte packages, they need to start thinking more about marketing. I know that there is going to be some sort of advertising campaign (I hope!), but how do we get new subscribers and expand their services once they are on board?

The holidays are coming up and people get into that spending mood. That mood may be somewhat tempered with the state of the economy. How do you get people to buy a service? Let's start with a "but one, get one free" radio program for new subscriptions. People love thinking they are getting something for nothing. Give them a radio for free when they purchase a radio and sign up for a 2 year plan. Sirius can them offer a 1 year ala-carte plan for $84 to go on the new radio. This would make a great holiday gift.

How about volume subscriptions? Buy a bundle of say 5 radios with ala-carte subscriptions at a discounted rate. A one-stop shopping experience this year.

Once you get them in the door with a subscription, how do you sell them on more services? How about free preview weekends, similar to what the cable companies do? Offer the Best Of Sirius/XM packages for a free weekend every 6 months. Get consumers checking out the additional offerings. Once they know what they are getting, it becomes easier to sell them on the product.

Customer happiness and retention must be key. Signing up for these services should be very simple. Add the new "Best Of" packages with existing subscriptions to customer's existing bill without any renewals or penalties. If they prepaid, ask them to prepay the $4/month for the remainder of their term up front. If they are monthly, add the $4 charge to their bill and leave it at that. When customers feel that it is too much of a hassle to add the service, they will avoid it.