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- Dose #76: Subscription Emails
Dose #76: Subscription Emails
The flows you need for subscribers
Matt here with your weekly Subscription Prescription đ
Anyone that tells you email is dead doesnât work in e-commerce. Emails are still the lifeblood of any successful brand. In this weekâs dose we dive into the flows you should invest in for subscribers, starting with order notifications, onboarding emails, and wrap up with different events you need to trigger emails on.
This weekâs podcast: why memberships matter
How do you unlock the most revenue possible from your customers? In this weekâs dose, I talk through what makes memberships a powerful vehicle for delivering value - and capturing it in return.
Give it a listen!
What emails do you have setup for subscribers? Are you sending the right ones, at the right time?
There is a lot you could send, but like most parts of your business only a few things will matter in the long run.
Hereâs my list for what you should focus on when it comes to emailing subscribers:
Upcoming order notifications
Onboarding email sequence
Action Trigger emails
Order canceled
Order failed
Card expired
Winback emails
Some of these youâll setup in Klaviyo, and others will get sent by your subscription app, so weâll cover which is which.
Upcoming Order Notifications
The most important email youâll send to a subscriber each month. Most brands default to the subscription app and what it sends for you, which is a mistake.
This is worth some investment. Think about it - this is the point where customers are reminded about their order, and is one of the two major engagement points you have each month (the second is when they get their order).
You can keep it basic and informative, or you can make it on brand and special.
This email is an opportunity to remind someone why they subscribed in the first place. Better coffee? Healthier pets? Deeper sleep? Lean into the problem you solve and write an email that speaks to your customer.
After a nice reminder of why they subscribed in the first place, remind customers that if they need to manage their order, they can login here to make any necessary changes.
Donât mention canceling, or even pausing. Youâre triggering the idea that they need to do one of those things. Itâs much better to suggest that if someone needs to make an adjustment, itâs easy to do!
The final step involves mention some other popular or flagship products. You donât have to make this too dynamic at first; instead, include some pics and links to your top 3 products, as an example.
This email should be about winning more of those subscribers sitting on the fence. Thatâs it. Your biggest fans already engage on social and on other emails. Anyone that isnât satisfied is going to cancel. You want to catch someone before they get to that point.
Onboarding Email Sequence
Something I donât see enough brands lean into, but should onboard customers to your subscription.
This should happen after the order confirmation email, or possibly replace it altogether. You should make this happen in Klaviyo or your preferred email provider.
First objective is to reiterate the benefits of a subscription and let customers know what is coming their way.
Second objective is explaining how they can always adjust their frequency, pause, or even cancel an order by accessing their account on your website. This is a fairly safe place to instruct a customer about this, because theyâre still excited about the purchase.
I recommend a quick gif or video showing you navigate the portal to show how easy it is to make changes.
Third objective is to again mention the benefits of a subscription and explain how other customers have seen the benefits. If youâre selling something with a story, tell it here. If youâre selling something that takes time for customers to see improvements, explain that here.
You can run this sequence as 2-3 emails. The first email should include the order confirmation, benefits, and instruction on accessing the portal to make changes. The second and third emails should be about the product, story, and further instruction on how everything will work.
Action Trigger emails
Whenever a customer cancels an order you should send them an email about it. Donât make this spammy, or send more than one, because you want to win them back in the future. This email should come from your email provider for a more personal touch.
Hopefully youâre using a tool like Upzelo to grab reasons why whenever someone cancels, so you can make sure that email you send isnât about why.
You can always ask in the email, but Iâd recommend not as most people (unless theyâre very angry) will take the time to do so.
Instead, make that email all about thanking them and inviting to come back whenever theyâre ready. Make this on brand, but donât spend too much time here. This isnât the best place for winning customers back.
Whenever an order fails your subscription app should trigger an email to both you and the customer, with instructions on how to fix the error. Take a moment and double-check that this is happening and/or turned on inside your platform.
This is a critical one, because order failures mean you have a customer not getting something they want and expect. Someone that would pay you, that you donât want to fail.
If you regularly run out of stock or have other order failure reasons, let me know and I will share some ideas on how you can handle that better.
Whenever a card expires your app should also send an email. This is another one to keep on top of, because 80%+ of customers with expiring cards donât actually want to cancel.
If youâre getting more than 10 of these a month, Iâd highly recommend looking into an option like Butter Payments to keep ahead of them.
Winback emails
The last thing you want to focus on is winning back previous subscribers. If youâre collecting cancelation reasons, you can create 2 segments: a general winback flow, and one specific to the top cancelation reason.
For example, if the top reason is âtoo much productâ you can write an email inviting them to replenish and get back on a subscription.
A general email would include a special offer for coming back, like an extra discount or free gift.
I would recommend waiting at least 3 months to try on either approach, and then building in follow-ups on a monthly or every other month cadence.
What to remember on subscription emails
Someone sees an ad or has purchased from you before, and now theyâre a subscriber. This customer has the potential to be 10x more valuable than one-time purchasers.
Focus on making the overall experience one full of positive reminders and subtle instructions on how to make changes when things come up. (I hate seeing âNeed to pause/cancel? Click here.â)
Keep in mind where this email occurs in the customer experience - post-purchase (and wondering how things work), after a few cycles and appreciating a reminder, or itâs been a few months since canceling and would entertain a new offer.
If you have questions or want to run a flow by me, hit reply and ask away! Thatâs what Iâm here for. đ
Thatâs it for this weekâs dose! Stay tuned for Dose #77 next week.
- Matt Holman đ©ș
Subscription Doc