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Holiday marketing tip #12: A subscription model is the best gift sometimes

A subscription model might just be the best Christmas gift for yourself and your customers, too.

Petra Gönczi

14 Dec 2025 — 5 min read

Hi! 👋

Want to boost your holiday sales and secure income for next year? Try launching a subscription model for the most loyal fans of your creative business over the holidays.

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Holiday marketing tip of the week 🎄

A subscription model may sound foreign to creators with small businesses. I know. And sure, it might be the most suitable for those with a longer sales record, since that also makes planning ahead things like a subscription model easier—but hear me out.

I also have a tip below on how to make a subscription model work even if you don't have a large production right now, also sharing why it's a good idea to invest in one at all. I don't leave anyone behind.

How would a subscription model work?

In a subscription model, customers pay a one-time amount during the holidays, at the end of the year, or the start of the new, and in return, they’ll receive one product from each new collection you release next year—prepaid, at a discounted rate.

It’s like giving them a year-long VIP pass to your art, while giving you guaranteed sales and steady income upfront.

How to manage your subscription model?

A subscription model works best for experienced creators who know how many collections they release each year, because that helps with pricing the subscription ahead of time.

But there's a nice trick to work around that, too, if you run a smaller enterprise. Let me outline two scenarios:

Subscription model for creators with a larger production scale 👇

If you know how many collections you launch a year and you have a bigger production scale, then a subscription model is fairly easy to run.

You can offer a subscription that includes one piece from each collection for the discounted price. It's up to you whether you want to show them the pieces one day early, for instance, so they can get ready to buy a certain piece when the collection lands (as in guaranteeing that they will get the exact piece they want versus guaranteeing that they will get a piece, any one piece, from the collection).

Subscription model for creators with a smaller production scale 👇

If you know how many collections you launch a year (or at least, there's little room for changes in that department), but don't produce on a large scale, it can mean that you create just a few of everything in a collection, right?

In that case, start with an exclusive pre-order round for your subscribers. Before each collection premieres, show them the new pieces early and let them choose their favourites and place their (pre-paid) orders.

That way, you can prepare the right quantity and make sure everyone gets exactly what they love, but especially your subscribers, who paid you in advance to receive your art from every collection. This turns your subscription into a fan club.

What do subscribers win with a subscription model?

In short, subscribers to your creative business get three big perks:

Exclusive access: Your biggest supporters can see and/or buy your newest products before others.
Discounted access: They pay less overall than buying separately.
Guaranteed availability: Your collection won’t sell out before they get a chance to shop.

What do creators win with a subscription model?

True fans who actually buy from you repeatedly: A subscription model turns your fans into members of your club. That's a solid group of customers ready to spend (again and again).
Customer insights that help build your business: Via the early access and pre-order system, you learn what your community and fans like the most (themes, style variations, colours, etc.), and you can consciously tap into that for the new collections.
A business that is more profitable in the long term: You get some steady income and guaranteed sales for the next year.

This might just be the best Christmas gift you can give to yourself, too! 🎁

Creator snippet of the week 📌

Ruth Aislabie runs Fubsies and grants priority entry to sales for her newsletter subscribers. There's no pre-payment involved, but it's the closest idea I could find to a subscription model that is already in place for a small creative business.

I'm aware of snail mail clubs in the artist world where there's a subscription fee paid, but there you have access to new original work each month, which doesn't solve the problem many fans have—when they miss out on purchasing from a dropping collection. It also requires the artist to create new work every month, which might be overwhelming for some. The subscription model I described above solves both.

Here's how Ruth at Fubsies describes her subscription model: