Dose #173: Churn, Channels, and Consumer Clarity

Matt here with your weekly Subscription Prescription 💊

This week we talk about how big brands think about and approach churn. First, you need to understand why people are buying. Next, it’s better to be helpful than clever. Finally, build loyalty around your best customers - your subscribers. Let’s dive in!

This week’s dose is also a full interview with Cherene Aubert, the SVP of Digital and Ecommerce at ILIA Beauty. Listen in on your favorite platform:

🩺 Stop Blaming Churn: Fix Your Subscription by Understanding the Buyer First

There’s a moment when a subscription brand outgrows its early-stage metrics. Churn rate alone stops being enough. LTV:CAC isn’t the full story. That’s when you need a clearer picture - not just of performance, but of the people behind the numbers.

In this week’s conversation, I took a step back to examine some of the deeper truths that emerge when you're operating at scale. Whether you're managing a brand with tight margins or building a loyal customer base in a highly competitive category, these are the lessons that keep resurfacing.

Here are three takeaways that stand out:

1. You can’t fix churn until you understand why people buy

There’s a reason “too much product” shows up as the top churn reason in almost every dashboard. But that’s not just about product volume. It’s a sign that the customer didn’t fully understand how much they’d need or how often they’d need it.

I’ve worked with brands that obsess over subscription frequency without educating the customer about what’s right for them. That’s a huge miss. The best-performing brands don’t just optimize for AOV or retention—they build tools that make it easier for customers to make the right decision in the first place.

Whether it's a formula calculator, a mascara replacement guide, or even a simple post-purchase quiz, helping your customer answer “what should I buy and how often?” does more for retention than most winback flows ever will.

2. Sometimes it’s better to be helpful than clever

It’s tempting to optimize every funnel for acquisition—lead with a big discount, drive urgency, automate the upsell. But there’s a real cost to building a business on that kind of friction.

If your subscription isn’t the right fit for a customer, no incentive will save it. And when it comes to categories like baby formula or skincare, the trust you build in the early moments is the brand.

One of the most effective strategies I’ve seen is actually de-emphasizing the subscription in the early experience. Instead of pushing the commitment up front, lead with education. Help the customer understand the product, the use case, and the timing. Let the subscription feel like a natural next step—because it solves a problem, not just because it offers a lower price.

The result? Lower churn, stronger word of mouth, and longer LTV curves. And yes, your CAC might go up slightly in the short term. But the tradeoff is worth it.

3. Your loyalty program should reflect your best customers - and most of them are subscribers

This is a pet peeve of mine. Too many brands treat loyalty and subscription as separate strategies. You’ve got subscribers getting 15% off monthly, and loyalty members racking up points they don’t understand. Meanwhile, the people most committed to your brand—the ones who subscribe—don’t feel like they’re part of anything special.

If someone signs up for a subscription, they’re not just a buyer. They’re a loyalist. Treat them that way.

You don’t need a fancy app or a huge development team to make this work. Start by asking: What are you offering to your most loyal customers, and how can you make sure subscribers automatically qualify for those benefits?

At the very least, stop making them wait to “earn” what they’ve already committed to.

When you run a subscription business, it’s easy to default to spreadsheets and automation. But underneath it all, your biggest lever is still empathy.

Help people understand the product. Remove the pressure to commit too early. And once they do commit, make them feel like they belong.

Until next Tuesday, that’s your Subscription Prescription. 💊

 - Matt Holman 🩺

The Subscription Doc