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Branding in a Subscription Business
Freepik, a leading online platform for graphic design assets and audiovisual resources, has long been a go-to destination for designers seeking a vast collection of premium-quality photos, videos, vectors, illustrations, icons and templates. Freepik undertook an ambitious branding project aimed at expanding its subscriber base by identifying and offering subscription services to users who will benefit from it while at the same time continuing to cater to the needs and fulfilling the expectations of non-subscribers.
We spoke to Carlos Cantu (Carlos), CMO at Freepik and a highly experienced marketer, who is spearheading the business’s branding initiative. In this article, he explains Freepik’s Freemium model and discusses their focus on branding to grow the company’s subscription business.
The User Journey from Freemium to Subscription at Freepik
Founded in 2010 by brothers Alejandro and Pablo Blanes and their friend Joaquín Cuenca, Freepik started as a tool for designers who wanted to find visual assets easily. Over the years, the Freepik Universe has been expanding non-stop. Its community is growing every day and its goal is to provide the best quality resources to its users. It works with more than 550 employees, 600 exclusive remote designers and more than 42,000 registered contributors.
Carlos explained that Freepik has a Freemium model wherein millions of people who visit the site can search for visual assets and download them even without registering. They observe user behaviour and try to influence those for whom a subscription service would be beneficial, to move from a freemium service to a subscription service. They create user journeys which help them understand if it’s relevant or not for the user to be offered a subscription.
Here is how they curate the user journeys from freemium to subscription, as explained by Carlos:
1. The Freemium Model
Freepik’s freemium model offers a good service not just for free but in an easy-to-use manner even without registering. This gives us a lot of traffic but we cannot have users’ email IDs and cannot connect with them. This however gives us insights and an initial layer of data and trends about why the users visit our website, what they are looking for, what they care for and where they click and download.
Examples
- Evernote: Note-taking app with free and premium versions. Premium adds offline access, larger uploads, and better search.
- Slack: Team communication tool. Free version for basic chat, paid plans for unlimited history and advanced features.
- Trello: User-friendly project management tool. Free version offers boards and cards, while Business Class adds integrations and more.
2. Registration
Then, we enable them to download more content if they register, allowing us to start a conversation with them. Once they register and start using the site more and downloading more stuff, we can communicate with them through newsletters and other ways of communication.
Why Registration Matters
- Customer Data: Capture and store vital customer information for better insights.
- Personalisation: Tailor interactions and offerings to individual preferences.
- Sales and Support: Streamline lead management, sales, and customer support.
3. User Profiling
We also do a very good job of correctly profiling our users to decide who should be offered the subscription service. For example, for a particular user, if we know that subscription services are not going to add value and just registering is enough, then we don’t try to convert them. If we push, their experience is going to be poor – they will leave and probably they will even stop using the service.
The Importance of User Profiling
- Personalisation: Enables tailored user experiences.
- Targeted Marketing: Increases campaign effectiveness.
- Improved Customer Service: Enhances support efficiency.
4. Subscription Offer
As we learn more about the users, we are able to offer them more meaningful content and highlight the services we think are valuable to them. We also convey to them how they can benefit by subscribing, like being able to download more content and have access to a bigger catalogue. But we do not keep our best content gated as we want to offer high-quality content to every user. We understand when a user would benefit from a bigger catalogue when there are more downloads per month and offer subscription services accordingly.
Also, we follow a unique recommendation mechanism wherein non-subscriber users need to give us credit when downloading content from us. Subscribers don’t need to do that, making it more convenient and flexible for them.
Examples of Subscription Offers
- Streaming Services (Netflix): A Standard Plan offers high-definition streaming and access on multiple devices while a Premium Plan offers 4K streaming, access on multiple devices, and Ultra HD content.
- Meal Kit Delivery (HelloFresh): A Classic Plan offers subscription for meal kits, starting at $7.49 per meal. A Family Plan offers subscription for meal kits, starting at $6.99 per meal.
- Software (Adobe Creative Cloud): A Photography Plan offers access to Photoshop and Lightroom while an All Apps Plan offers full suite of Adobe creative software.
5. User Engagement
Once they subscribe, there’s another cycle to keep them engaged and ensure a good experience. So, our customer service team is key for us and it’s throughout the funnel, not only with subscribers because we offer customer service to every user. That’s also a very important tool for us to better understand how to keep our users happy and engaged.
Advantages of User Engagement
- Customer Satisfaction: Engaged users tend to be more satisfied with the product, service, or platform they are using. When customers have positive experiences, they are more likely to become loyal and repeat customers.
- Customer Retention: High user engagement often leads to improved customer retention rates. Engaged users are less likely to churn or switch to competitors because they find value in the product or service.
- Increased Revenue: Engaged customers are more likely to make repeat purchases and spend more over time. They may also be more receptive to upselling or cross-selling efforts, leading to higher revenue generation.
Growing the Subscription Business with Branding
Freepik’s Freemium model ensures robust website traffic – there are more than 150 million visitors to its properties per month. However, the challenge is how to convert these visitors into subscribers. Carlos explained that a good brand reputation which is valued by its users and potential customers will help improve the conversion rate making the switch from freemium to subscription services easier. Thus, Carlos and his team are focused on establishing the brand Freepik and positioning it well to match the company’s mission, vision and values.
Carlos said – We are a 10+ years old company, so, we are revisiting our mission, vision and values and deciding the right brand architecture to establish the brand. Our efforts are guided by a combination of two things mainly:
- The first is to go back to the origin and purpose. We’re lucky to have our founders as part of the leadership team who give us a lot of clarity in terms of how it all started and bring us back to our essence as a company and as a service.
- Second, we aim to become a very user-centric company and service. So, we try to understand the reasons why users come to Freepik, what they really need from us, and what can we do for them that is unique or better than anyone else.
In the end, marketing is about observing how people behave and what they need from you to be persuaded about something. So, observing people’s behaviour is the key here and we have a lot of data as we have 150 million people visiting our sites every month and searching for content which gives us a lot of insights.
Carlos’ Marketing Journey
Carlos’ career started in Mexico in advertising at a time when there was no digital marketing or advertising. He spent more than 15 years in advertising, first as a copywriter and then as a creative director, working for international agencies with a good mix of international and local brands spread across diverse categories – Unilever, Danone, Land Rover and Ford, to name a few.
The last advertising agency he worked for was Cheil, a Korean agency that is part of the Samsung Group. The experience at Cheil proved quite relevant as it was focused more on digital and mobile which made Twitter reach out to Carlos when it wanted to start an office in Mexico. Carlos’ role at Twitter gave him the opportunity to work in both strategy and creativity, helping some of the biggest brands build their social media strategy.
Carlos joined Freepik, impressed by its products and the management team. He found it to be a fast-growing company with very strong leadership. The opportunity to build a strong brand for Freepik attracted him to the role, which has kept him busy since the time he came on board.
Final Thoughts
When asked about his advice for the readers, Carlos said:
You need to always use data but listen to your gut feeling also, particularly in human behaviour, user experience, and marketing. As per my experience, data will never be enough. Your gut feeling is a good guide if it’s been informed by experience.
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