Billing Communications and Subscription Categories

With the Campaign Subscription Categories feature, Customers and others with whom user communicates via Bulk Email can choose which types of Campaign communication they want to receive.

NetSuite has 5 default Subscription Categories - Billing Communication, Marketing, Newsletters, Product Updates, and Surveys. By logging in to the Campaign Subscription Center, recipients can choose which subscriptions they want.

Billing Communications is one of the default Subscription Categories mainly because there is a number of Customers that are interested in receiving Billing Information related to products being offered by the Company. Subscription billing models come in a variety of different flavors and apply to many different categories of businesses.

Here is a punch-list of items/questions for user to consider as to why Billing Communications plays a vital role in Marketing Campaigns:

1. Be clear on the structure of subscription offering:

• How many subscription plans is user offering? One plan or multiple plans?
• What is the billing cycle interval? (Monthly, Quarterly, Bi-Annual, Annual?)
• Does user offer free trials?
• Does user's subscriptions auto-renew, or terminate on some date?
• Does user's business require one-time payments?
• Does user need optional items to be added? (Add-ons)
  
  2. Define how you will price your subscriptions:

• Is user charging a flat fee per month?
• Does user have a variable pricing component? (Requiring 'metered billing')
• Does user's pricing change based on usage? (Tiered pricing?)

3. Communication Requirements:

• How and when would user like to communicate with the customers?
• What are user's data integration needs? CRM? Finance/Accounting? Mailing lists?
• How important is it for the billing + subscriber status to be synced up with user's application?
• Please understand that once in a while, companies would rather send a Billing Update to the customers rather than explaining to them one by one the changes made on the Billing i.e. increase/decrease in service fee, rebates, etc. Also, customers are interested in getting Billing Communications as this would help them in budgeting, planning, and even deciding whether they'd continue the service or not.