🧠 Everything is a Subscription

Today’s Edition of Captivated: Everything is a Subscription: The Psychology Behind What Keeps Us Subscribed - Without Even Realizing it

“Just $7.99 a month.”

It started as one subscription.

Then another one. And another one.

At first, it felt convenient.

Now, you’re paying for a dozen different things every month, and you don’t even use half of them…

Streaming services. Gym memberships. That app you swore you’d use. The grocery delivery you forgot to pause.

You meant to cancel some of them, but... life happened.

Turns out, that’s not just you, it’s by design.

Companies want you to stay subscribed.

And they’ve mastered the art of making sure you do, with a healthy dose of consumer psychology...

(continues below).

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⏩️ Too Busy to Read the Whole Thing?

• Read the tl; dr at the bottom

• 🎧️ Listen: scroll all the way to the top and click: Listen Online

🧭 INSIDE THIS EDITION

• Another One

• Smart Tool You Can Use #1

• Did You Know?

• What's the Big Deal?

• The Psychology Behind It

• Smart (& Free) Tool You Can Use #2

• Steal this Strategy for Yourself

• tl;dr

• Smart Tool You Can Use #3

📈 DID YOU KNOW?

The average consumer spends $219 per month on subscriptions, and nearly 50% of people underestimate how much they’re actually paying.

🤔

 .. What’s the Big Deal? ..

Subscriptions weren’t always the default way to buy things.

But today? Everything is a subscription.

Streaming services. Food delivery. Software. Clothing. Even car features.

Companies want you locked in to subscriptions because it means predictable revenue.

But getting you to sign up isn’t even the real challenge.

The real money is in keeping you from canceling.

So, they use psychology that makes canceling feel exhausting, inconvenient, and even irrational.

As a result,

• You stay subscribed longer than you meant to.

• You forget about services you don’t even use.

• You hesitate to cancel, even when you want to.

🧠

 .. The Psychology Behind It ..

1: 🧠 Commitment Bias: "You’ve Already Invested This Much, Might as Well Keep It": 

Your brain hates admitting something was a waste. 

This is the sunk cost fallacy, or, once you’ve put money, time, or energy into something, your brain clings to what you’ve already invested, even when walking away would be the better move.

That’s why people stay in relationships that aren’t working, jobs they hate, projects they should’ve abandoned long ago, annddd subscriptions to things they don’t use.

• “We’ve been together for five years, I can’t just leave now.”

• “I’ll start going to the gym next month.”

• “I should cancel this streaming service… but what if I want to watch something later?”

🧠 In Action: Audible’s “pause” feature: instead of canceling, you convince yourself you’ll use your credits later.

2: 🧠 The Friction Trap: Companies Make Canceling Feel Like a Chore: 

The human brain is wired for cognitive ease.

We instinctively choose the path of least resistance. Companies tap into this by designing Dark user experience patterns that increase friction when you try to cancel, making it inconvenient on purpose.

Ever notice how signing up is one click, but canceling requires multiple steps, phone calls, or even mailing a request?

• Companies add extra steps so canceling feels like too much effort.

• Some hide the cancel button deep in settings.

• Others force you to call customer support (where they’re trained to try to talk you out of it).

🧠 In Action: Amazon Prime makes you click through six different pages to cancel.

3: 🧠 Loss Aversion: "If You Cancel, You’ll Miss Out":

Your brain hates losing things more than it enjoys gaining them, a principle called loss aversion.

Studies show people experience twice as much pain from losing something as they do joy from gaining something of equal value.

That’s why subscription services remind you of everything you’ll lose when you try to cancel.

• "You’ll lose all your playlists and saved data!"

• "This deal won’t be available again!"

• "Your premium features will be gone forever!"

🧠 In Action: Spotify warns you that canceling means losing your "Premium Experience."

4: 🧠 The Power of Defaults: "If You Do Nothing, You Stay Subscribed": 

Your brain defaults to inertia, sticking with whatever is already happening.

This is why companies rely on auto-renewals. Studies on default bias show that people are far more likely to stick with a pre-selected option than to actively change it.

• Companies bank on you forgetting about free trials.

• They auto-renew at full price, often without a reminder.

• Even when you remember, you don’t feel like dealing with it.

🧠 In Action: The Free Trial Trap: you sign up for a free trial, forget to cancel, and suddenly you’re paying $14.99 a month.

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🥷

 .. Steal this Strategy for Yourself ..

1 - Reduce Friction for Customers Who WANT to Stay

• Make it easy to update preferences instead of canceling.

• Offer a “pause” option instead of full cancellation.

• Create reminder emails that re-engage inactive subscribers.

🧠 In Action: Duolingo’s “streak saver” gives users one free skip to keep them engaged.

2 - Use Loss Aversion to Reinforce Value:

• Remind customers what they’ll lose if they cancel.

• Show “before & after” scenarios of life with/without your service.

• Offer exclusive perks for long-term subscribers.

🧠 In Action: LinkedIn Premium shows you all the recruiters who viewed your profile, then tells you that canceling means you’ll lose that insight.

3 - Use Price Anchoring to Make Renewals Feel Like a Bargain:

• Show the "full price" vs. the subscriber discount.

• Offer a loyalty discount for renewals.

• Use tiered pricing to make staying feel like the better deal.

🧠 In Action: YouTube Premium offers an annual discount vs. monthly pricing to encourage long-term commitment.

4 - Optimize the Free Trial Experience

• Make trial users actually engage so they feel attached.

• Send a reminder before auto-renewal (this builds trust).

• Offer a post-trial discount to convert hesitant users.

🧠 In Action: Canva reminds free trial users how much value they’re getting, so they feel like canceling means losing something substantial.

✌️ 

 .. tl;dr & captivated wrap-up ..

You didn’t choose to have 12+ subscriptions. They just… accumulated.

You meant to cancel that free trial, buut it auto-renewed. You kept that membership because canceling felt like a hassle. You'll go to the gym ... one day (just not to-day?). And somehow, every month, the charges keep rolling in.

That’s not a coincidence. Subscription services are selling you a product and a commitment.

Companies use:

• commitment bias (you’ve already paid, might as well keep it),

• friction (canceling is a chore),

• loss aversion (you don’t want to “lose” your perks), and

• default settings (if you do nothing, you stay subscribed) 

to make sure you keep paying, whether you’re using it or not.

And these same psychology principles can also help you keep customers longer, with strategies such as:

• making your product an easy habit,

• removing decision fatigue, and

• making people feel like they’d be missing out if they left.

Because at the end of the day, the best retention strategy isn’t making it harder to leave, it’s making customers want to stay.

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