Revenue streams are the arteries that deliver cash to your business. They represent the ways that your business generates income from each Customer Segment for what they are truly willing to pay.
A solid business has multiple revenue streams that are connected and support each other. A business that relies on a single source of income is like an egg in one basket-it risks going into oblivion when that revenue stream dries up.
Subscriptions
Subscriptions are a great way to drive recurring revenue. They involve selling products or services on a recurring basis instead of as one-off purchases. This can be in the form of curation subscriptions (like magazines), replenishment subscriptions (like toilet paper or coffee), or access subscriptions (like movie or music streaming).
Companies that offer a subscription model often rely on customer acquisition tactics like paid advertising, content marketing, and search engine optimization to generate initial buzz. However, these tactics typically require substantial upfront investments that may not be recovered for months or even years.
Subscriptions are a great solution for companies that can deliver value on a consistent, ongoing basis and want to avoid the high customer acquisition costs associated with traditional sales models. They also provide an excellent opportunity to build long-term relationships with customers and establish loyalty. Almost any product or service can be sold using this model. It’s a good fit for both digital and physical experiences.
Licensing
Licensing is a way for companies to increase revenue without having to invest in new products or processes. It allows them to gain access to a proven product and enter markets more quickly by partnering with a company that has already invested in manufacturing, marketing, and sales. In addition, licensing offers the opportunity to share valuable data and customer information with other parties.
Content owners need a single source of truth to manage licensing agreements at scale. Unfortunately, the tools and technologies designed for traditional Pay TV distribution partnerships are not well suited to OTT streaming models and hybrid monetization models. Manual data entry and reliance on legacy systems make it difficult to programmatically ingest, normalize, and analyze critical licensing data.
Taking on a license can also open up access to distribution channels that wouldn’t be possible through conducting a private label business or purchasing products from a branded vendor. For example, a sports team may license jerseys to apparel manufacturers that are manufactured under the team’s brand name.
Advertising
Advertising is a key component of any business. It allows companies to introduce new products and services to their audiences. It also helps them build brand awareness, which is an important step in attracting potential customers. For example, a newly opened pet grooming salon could use advertising to increase its audience base by introducing the brand to dog owners.
Websites or apps that only monetize through advertising usually do not have other methods of revenue generation. They would be very careful about interrupting the user journey in ways that create revenue in another way (such as product sales or subscriptions).
In-app advertising can be a great source of revenue. Rewarded ads let developers show in-app content to users, while allowing them to try it for free. This is an increasingly popular monetization model, and many developers are discovering that it works well with other monetization strategies like IAP. In fact, some apps are even experimenting with hybrid monetization models, where ads co-exist with IAP without cannibalizing revenues.
Referrals
Referrals are a valuable source of new business. They can help you increase your website traffic and boost your sales. However, monetizing referrals requires you to track the source of your visitors and measure their engagement level. This can be done by using Google Analytics.
You can see your referral traffic by logging into your Google Analytics account and selecting “Traffic Sources.” Then click on the tab labeled “Referrals.” You will then be able to view a graph showing a one-month period of referral traffic.
To monetize your referral program, you need to offer incentives to both the referrer and the referred-in friend. These rewards can be cash, discounts on future purchases or services. You should also use gamification and smart psychological tools to motivate participants.
For example, Dollar Shave Club generated a billion-dollar subscription service by launching a week-long pre-launch referral campaign that included milestones such as free shaving cream (for referring five friends) and a lifetime of free razors (for referring 25 friends). In addition to rewarding participants, you should use a variety of methods to encourage them to continue sharing, including booster campaigns that create time jeopardy and the fear of missing out.