Monetisation not paying off?

The same old proposition with a bit of a haircut will not successfully support a shift in the commercial terms of trade with customers.

Monetisation is just not something you can add-on.

There are lots of conversations starting up again here about helping people to ‘monetise’ their service. And when I hear what some have been advised to do, and how, unsurprisingly, it didn’t work, it makes me want to rant, at least a little.

This is, without doubt, a year where business models are ripe for rethinking – as they always are when leaner times hit the world. But finding new ways to charge customers for what you offer doesn’t mean it’s as simple as charging in a new way.

Right now, especially in media and content, there are ‘experts’ who are peddling their ‘we made subscriptions work, you can too’ wares to anyone who needs to get away from ads as their sole revenue source. Similar things are happening in other sectors. The ‘you can be like…’ train has left the station once again.

My advice is to shut the door in their face.

Rethinking a business model is not the same as bolting on a new way to charge and expecting all to be well. Every business needs a different formula – even compared to a close peer – and no business model change will work without thinking holistically about the entire value proposition and service experience. Customers (i.e. all of us and everyone else) aren’t stupid: the same old proposition with a bit of a haircut will not successfully support a shift in the commercial terms of trade you want with us.

It’s an insult, and your customers won’t take it lying down.

My favourite customer insult, ‘pay us to take away the ads’ is already raising its ugly head again. This translates as ‘what we normally give you is shit - pay us to make it less so’. That’s not a business model; that’s an apology that you couldn’t think of something good enough in the first place. I’ve met two startups in the last week alone who’ve been ‘advised’ to adopt this approach. Both have infinitely more commercial potential than this crude model would achieve – but they’ll need to make a few changes elsewhere to make it work.

If you want to reinvent your commercial relationship with the people that pay your wages – and many businesses need to do that urgently – you need to reset the promise you make them and how you fulfil it. That doesn’t mean you have to rip everything up and start again. It does mean focusing on creating a different kind of value (which isn’t always higher, and isn’t always more expensive) which you substantiate with a series of changes in the overall value proposition, product and service experience.

Those changes will be specific to you and your offer. If they’re not, they’re wrong. You are unlikely to put on a random person’s clothes which both fit perfectly and make you look better, so don’t expect to ‘adopt’ someone else’s business model under the guise of an easy route to monetisation.

And breathe…