Dose #120: The Ultimate Email & Communication Strategy for Subscriptions

Matt here with your weekly Subscription Prescription 💊

I’ve been seeing a lot of the same mistakes with email across several audits recently, so wanted to lay out the right communication strategy you should be following. In this week’s dose, we discuss SMS, upcoming order emails, and how to create a unified communication strategy to boost subscriber retention.

Listen to this week’s dose on YouTube, Apple Podcast, or Spotify:

Reduce Subscriber Churn From Email

Bubs Naturals - like most subscription brands - sees an increase in churn whenever they send email notifications about upcoming orders.

While some brands stop sending notifications altogether, Bubs Naturals wants to keep communication and engagement with their customers.

They turned to Zaymo to make their upcoming notifications work better for their customers, reducing churn from those emails.

By embedding a customer portal inside of the email itself, Bubs’ customers can make changes to upcoming subscriptions with a single click. This means they can delay an order or add one-time orders without leaving the email.

The result? Cancellations from these emails dropped 24%!

If you’re looking for an easier way to fight churn by enabling a better customer experience in email, then checkout Zaymo. You can read more about their success in the Bubs Naturals case study below, and can try Zaymo for yourself on a free 30-day trial.

This week’s dose is about communication. Through our work with clients, the free audits we perform, and general discussions with other subscription brands, I’ve noticed a strong trend: a lack of strategy when it comes to communication.

If you’re wondering how to do a better job on when to - and when not to - communicate with subscribers, then this dose is for you. Let’s dive in!

Building a Unified Communication Strategy

The key to communication is to be proactive and purposeful. You want a cohesive strategy for communicating with subscribers.

It’s easy to make mistakes here; for example, it’s common for a brand not to send upcoming order notification emails because it reminds people of the subscription, and they cancel. However, they will still send other marketing emails that can have the same effect.

Here are some dos and don’ts to keep in mind as you craft your strategy:

Don’t:

• Overuse SMS for order notifications: While SMS messages have high open rates, they can also prompt cancellations if used for upcoming order reminders (because of the high open rates). Instead, reserve SMS for order confirmations, tracking information, or special offers.

• Avoid sending emails altogether: Some brands shy away from sending emails to avoid churn, but this approach is short-sighted. As your subscriber base grows, you must maintain regular communication to engage your audience.

Do:

• Onboard your subscribers effectively: The moment a new subscriber joins, you should be ready to guide them through the perks and benefits of their subscription. This is the time to introduce them to the value they’ll receive and how they can manage their subscription. Highlight their smart choice by subscribing and ensure they feel confident in navigating their account.

• Address FAQs and product adoption: Use your email series to address common questions and potential challenges your subscribers might face. For example, if you’re in the coffee business, include tips on brewing the perfect cup. This proactive communication can prevent complaints and enhance customer satisfaction.

Email Series Best Practices

Focus solely on onboarding and product adoption during the first 7-10 days. This is a critical period when you want your subscribers to feel supported and excited about their new product. Avoid bombarding them with marketing campaigns during this time. Instead, opt them out of regular promotional emails and concentrate on delivering value.

After the initial onboarding, your next major communication will be the upcoming order notification. Many brands hesitate to send these emails, fearing they’ll lead to cancellations. However, if you’ve done a good job onboarding your subscribers, this email should be seen as an opportunity rather than a risk.

Emails will still prompt churn. But when you create an email on brand, include add-on items, and utilize quick actions, you can keep subscribers around longer and spend more money with you.

• Make it on-brand: Instead of a generic notification, use this email to remind your subscribers why they love your product. Include value statements, upsell opportunities, and easy options for managing their subscription, such as skipping an order or updating their frequency.

• Include Add-on Items: This email is a great opportunity to mention other one-time and subscription items that they can include on their next order. You can make this dynamic, but I’d suggest including your top-performing products here.

• Utilize Quick Actions: Keeping a subscriber from needing to see the portal to make a change goes a long way to prevent cancellations. Depending on your email provider and subscription app - most can do a version of this - you can include quick links that don’t require someone to see the portal. This is why we highlighted Zaymo at the top because their tech doesn’t even require a login.

Bonus Tip:

Leverage order tracking emails: These emails typically have an 85% open rate and are clicked on multiple times. Use this touchpoint to embed additional content, such as product usage tips, or even upsell opportunities. Highly recommend looking at Wonderment or Rush App, allowing you to embed content and upsells on a branded shipping tracking page.

Final Thoughts

My biggest fear is that different people in your organization have pushed for emails that don’t fold into a unified strategy. Or even leaving out emails.

Think through how you want to communicate with your customers. Map out all the email and SMS notifications that go out along the user journey, and ensure that each touchpoint has a goal that rolls up into your larger strategy.

That’s it for this week’s dose! Don’t forget to keep an eye on those numbers at all times. See you next Tuesday with dose #121!

 - Matt Holman 🩺

The Subscription Doc