For subscription companies, email marketing is crucial to sustain subscribers and get them engaged on a consistent basis to avoid churn. Thus, marketers must make sure they’re offering relevant content for subscribers at every step of the customer lifecycle. Here are some lifecycle email strategies that any subscription-based company can implement to nurture the relationship, boost retention rates, and improve customer lifetime value.
The Importance of Lifecycle Emails
Lifecycle emails are segmented emails sent to subscribers based on their position with the business in the life cycle (awareness to subscription to veteran subscribers). Instead of blasting one email that fulfills what everyone needs or thinks they need, the use of lifecycle emails promotes better subscriber engagement and relationship building by sending timely, appropriate emails based on what people have shown interest in, or even engagement in, in the past. Automated Email Warm-Up can help ensure these segmented messages consistently reach inboxes by building and maintaining sender reputation over time. Therefore, increased subscriber engagement and relationship building decreases churn rates and is essential for subscription business sustainability.
Types of Lifecycle Emails Are Welcome Emails
One step of the lifecycle is welcome sequences, which are the emails that help build a good relationship over time. This means welcome sequences are one of the most important parts of a lifecycle email strategy. A well-received welcome series thanks them for subscribing and educates them on what they need to know about this new service, so they understand it’s the right choice and feel comfortable. For instance, welcome emails can explain troubleshooting FAQs so that subscribers know there’s an answer to any problems that might occur, making them feel more confident in their choice. Thus, good welcome sequences create first-touch engagement and clear paths to retention.
Engagement-Based Emails to Active Subscribers
To avoid churn, companies need to ensure that they’re regularly engaged with their customers. Thus, engagement-based emails are those sent to subscribers who are already using the service, which helps them learn more about what’s possible personalized recommendations, how-to articles for best use, and even success stories and inspires them to maintain engagement. The more value provided through relevant emails over time, the more accustomed and invested they become with your brand, with emotional attachments formed. Thus, engagement-based emails greatly increase customer lifetime value.
Prevent Subscriber Churn By Catching Inactivity Early
By catching inactivity early, subscription businesses can prevent subscribers from churning and give themselves a leg up on potential problems. One common type of lifecycle email sent is one that catches inactivity early and either acknowledges it or attempts to get subscribers motivated. Targeted messages to re engage subscribers informing them that they have credits they haven’t used yet, giving a discount for something they’ve done before, or simply requesting feedback to understand why they’ve gone dark can spark interest again in just a short while. This does not only prevent churn but also fosters a relationship and ensures that engagement levels across the subscriber base remain constant.
Lifecycle Emails for Renewals and Upgrades Change the Game
If you ever want to increase revenue, renewal and upgrade emails are necessary for subscription-based businesses. A renewal email is a clear indicator of just how great the service/product has been that a subscriber would want to continue access, a great reminder of why further investment makes sense. Upgrade emails can show subscribers that there is an upgrade option that better serves their needs using data collected thus far can categorize them to see what they’ve been using thus far. Increased retention rates, increased average revenue per subscriber, and better operations overall come from well-timed renewal and upgrade messaging.
Lifecycle Response Emails Decrease Churn and Increase Acknowledgment as Necessary
For those who are detected as churning, specific retention emails can work to keep them on board. Using data compiled from what they’ve done so far, sending a specific email that either acknowledges this concern, personalized assistance on the matter, or a specific opportunity can help. When people see that you care enough to reach out for their specific situation and not just use a blanket email, they’ll feel appreciated enough not only to respond but also to recommit. This decreases churn by a significant percentage and shows people that you want their business for the long haul, providing consistency of revenue for businesses that rely upon subscriptions.
Using Customer Milestones to Engage Further
Milestones are important touchpoints where celebrating anniversaries of a subscription, milestones of product usage, or loyalty will strengthen that emotional response. Sending milestone emails allows your subscribers to feel like they are valued, part of a community, and that what they’re doing with your service is worthwhile to them. Thus, achieving emotional loyalty with milestone notifications is impactful, increases subscriber churn rates in the positive direction, and has other valuable effects on customer lifetime value.
Using Lifecycle Emails to Get Ongoing Feedback
Another type of communication you can foster through lifecycle emails is ongoing feedback. Urging feedback on a continual basis helps you improve your service based on what you’ve learned from your subscribers. When the opportunity to provide feedback is given and given regularly so it’s not a burden it shows that you’re paying attention to detail to fulfill subscriber needs. When feedback is given and handled properly meaning that your changes or adjustments reflect what subscribers are giving you their trust exponentially. Feedback lifecycles ensure that your company is fluid and ever-changing based on subscriber wants and needs.
Using Education Emails to Improve the Customer Experience
Education emails ensure that subscribers know how to maximize their service so that the experience is valuable when the expected and realized service is provided. From tutorials to tips to upcoming features, sending education-based communications shows that you don’t just want your subscribers to enjoy what you’re offering but for them to be well-versed in using what you provide to them, keeping them with you in the process. When subscribers realize they can learn something new from regularly scheduled education-based communications, they become brand advocates instead of satisfied customers, allowing for reduced churn and positive contributions to your subscription company’s growth and long-term profitability.
Improved Engagement Through Strategic Email Frequency
Finding the email frequency that works best helps maintain subscribers without overbearing fatigue or annoyance. There are lifecycle strategies that have a good frequency of mixing things up, while out of concern for subscribers’ inboxes. Treading lightly and using engagement data to adjust email frequencies based on how subscribers are responding keeps things new yet consistently engaging and participatory. Increased engagement occurs through subtle adjustments, and the combination of various elements for the greater good of the subscriber experience provides more opportunities to engage and ensures that subscribers remain happy and engaged.
Restoring Ghosts with Win-Back Emails
Ghosts are those who subscribed and then unsubscribed ghosts can be restored at any time with the right techniques. Win-back emails do the trick if they know what they’re doing, let them know how you’ve enhanced your offering quality, give them a loyal subscriber offer, or show them how what they’re complaining about hasn’t been taken into consideration so that they bring the light back. With specific win-back campaigns, they’ll save on anticipated lost subscribers down the line, lowering the churn rate and smoothing the revenue of your subscription business’s bottom line. Every little bit helps.
Adjusting for Future Success Based on Performance Analytics
The best part about lifecycle email marketing is that performance analytics can be assessed for future success. Open rates, click-through rates, retention analytics, subscriber-generated feedback, etc., can all give the visibility needed for strategic adjustments going forward. By evaluating the data collected throughout, plans can be adjusted to make future lifecycles even more purposeful, personalized, and successful. Ongoing assessments ensure that email marketing for subscribers only gets better down the line for subscriber engagement, retention, and overall customer lifetime value.
Train Marketing Teams on Best Lifecycle Email Strategies
Training in lifecycle email best practices ensures that all subscribers receive similar treatment across the board. Ongoing training in segmentation and personalized offerings, along with anti-churn and retention efforts, empowers teams with the knowledge and skills necessary to keep communication for lifecycle emails a proactive act. Trained marketers understand how to create and send successful emails for lifecycle strategies on a consistent basis, increasing subscriber satisfaction, retention, and increasing the likelihood of a longer successful subscription business.
Run Lifecycle Email Strategies Based on What Subscribers Expect
Running lifecycle email strategies is a continuous process based on what subscribers expect, keeping them happy over time. Analyzing past behavior, predictive behaviors, previous feedback, and preferences enables marketers periodically to reassess how they reach out to subscribers and whether changes in action can improve certain avenues. A consistent, aligned approach with what subscribers expect improves their experience exponentially and helps ensure steady retention, annual recurring revenue, and business success.
There Are Opportunities to Cross-Sell or Upsell Everywhere
Email communication focused on the lifecycle gives opportunities to cross-sell or upsell other products, services, or features to increase customer lifetime value. The same way, if aligned with what’s expected at certain points based on what someone else has used or requires access to similar products or services, these don’t seem like selling campaigns but instead, incredibly valuable. Offering other services associated with previously availed products or services increases engagement from subscribers while improving satisfaction and ensuring revenue can be expanded upon while engagement is still top of mind.
Subscriber-Only Content in Lifecycle Emails Drives Loyalty
When brands provide exclusive subscriber-only content in lifecycle emails, it creates a sense of connection and importance that drives loyalty. Whether early access to new features, subscriber-only resources or events, or special sneak peeks to upcoming things, upholding credibility as a subscriber shows how much you appreciate their devotion. Those subscribers who see they’re appreciated and given something special because of their efforts are the most engaged, frequently renewing their subscriptions to stay loyal and become brand ambassadors more than any other contributor to long-term success in the subscription industry.
You Can Automate Lifecycle Emails But Still Keep It Personal
While automation is one of the best features about lifecycle emails to help manage time and workload, it shouldn’t come without personal touches that will ensure continued successful growth. From robust segmentation to behavior-triggered emails to dynamic content, automated communications are still possible while ensuring relevance on a personal level. Therefore, the combination of time-saving efficiencies and targeted intimate content enables any subscription business to grow at scale while honoring and valuing the subscriber experience which leads to better growth, better relationships, and continuous retention.
Conclusion
Second, the need for lifecycle email marketing techniques for longevity and retention in subscription brands and their abilities to allow marketers to send pertinent, timely correspondence grows with the subscriber’s precise position on the customer journey from onboarding to active use, renewals, attempts to re-engage or win back and beyond. Therefore, when subscription companies embrace quality email marketing initiatives and align them over specific times throughout their subscribers’ individual journey, they can better provide for what subscribers need and expect at the moment while appealing explicitly to their relative behaviors that make subscribers feel seen and understood.
Therefore, these sensibilities improve upon the subscriber’s experience and relationship through improved personalization, timeliness, and relevance. For one, personalization of messages beyond simply plugging in a first name returns the favor; relying on detailed data analytics and expansion from specific subscriber-related actions allow subscription brands to tailor their communications to highly personalized arrangements. When subscribers feel like a brand knows them more than just an account number or payment method they develop better emotional connections to the brand, ultimately fostering an idea of positivity.
In addition, utilizing timely communications at the precise moment that customers are expected to respond similarly increases positive engagement. For example, welcome campaigns should go out the minute a subscription charge processes. Renewal messages should go out seven days before the renewal date to remind subscribers whether they want to reinvest or reevaluate. Should a subscriber have dropped off from engaging for months, re-engagement campaigns can be sent as long as they are triggered by inactivity.
Finally, relevance ensures that over time, subscribers remain engaged with specific communications and do not become stale or repetitive after the fact. Relevance is assessed through continual assessment of subscriber engagement; the more feedback sent and assessed the more opportunities exist for subscriptions to modify their messaging as warranted. Being part of a subscriber’s journey cements the idea that the subscription is learning and growing with the customer, establishing the positive JWTs over Customer Life Value hours greatly.
Therefore, these meaningful interactions prove that over time, lifecycle messaging is appreciated for what is relevant and often good timing like renewal feedback turned good news empire-building. This extensive positive reinforcement keeps subscribers engaged; however, it fosters them along with possibly new subscribers to great positive electronic word-of-mouth efforts. Ultimately, in the end, where constructive implementation of lifecycle messaging only boosts subscriber loyalty over retention great marketing success for retained subscribers comes naturally.
