9 Email Segmentation Ideas for Engaging Current or Churned Subscribers

The integration between your subscription app and your ESP delivers a ton of opportunities to make your messaging more personal. 

By using metrics (events) passed from your subscription app to your ESP, you can trigger unique email experiences and personalize your messaging to effectively target that specific customer cohort.

Here are nine types of data-triggered flows that provide customer-loved email experiences.

1. Subscription onboarding email segmentation

Use an onboarding flow triggered by the Subscription Purchased metric to show customers around the portal. Teach subscribers how to skip shipments, swap items, add on products, pause subscriptions, and more.

A Pup Above sends new subscribers a beautifully branded onboarding email, nudging customers to create an account. 

This is just the first email in their onboarding flow, but it works because it informs them that creating an account is the easiest way to manage their subscription via a personalized customer portal. 

It not only allows subscribers to contact A Pup Above but also offers them a chance to make changes right away.

Another move this email makes is to reinforce why the subscription is the best option for them. They’ve noted easy management and control and, most importantly, never running out of food for their beloved pet. 

2. Order skipped email flow

Dealing with a lot of subscriber order skips? 

Create an email segment based on the Subscription Skipped metric. Each new metric event should trigger an email flow that reinforces the benefits of consistency, 

To make these emails super personalized, you can segment them even further by individual product SKU or bundle and share details on different ways to use each product, offer complimentary products, or offer to swap products in their subscription. 

OLIPOP uses this Klaviyo email trigger to send customers product education detailing the benefits of probiotics a few days after their subscription purchase.

This email works because it reminds customers of the benefits of using their product regularly.

3. Customer satisfaction and feedback email segment 

Set up a flow in Klaviyo to fire upon the Subscription Paused metric that asks subscribers for feedback on what would make their subscription more valuable to them. This is an awesome way to collect and take action on data directly from your most valuable customers.

Beekeeper’s Naturals has built an email flow for this customer segment to ask for feedback positively and encouragingly. 

The data they collect from this request can be used to personally address customer concerns or for future program optimizations.

4. Targeted customer upsell campaigns

Leverage the Subscription Purchased metric and segment subscribers by SKU. For example, if a customer purchases a trial-size product, only those customers will receive an upsell offer. Tailor each email with the benefits of going bigger/better!

Beekeeper’s Naturals uses Stay’s Klaviyo integration to deliver targeted emails and upsell flows to their subscribers.

Not only does this email feature relevant content in the form of products with higher AOVs that complement the original purchase, but it offers great discounts on those offers. 

The “update my subscription” button at the bottom of the email shows subscribers that it’s easy to add these products and reap the benefits of those deals with just a few clicks. 

Because their messaging also mentions that you save 15% on each item, it encourages receiving customers to add multiple items to their account. 

5. Targeted cross-sell email marketing campaign

Time to act on that sweet, sweet data. 

Let’s say you learned from your analytics that customers who subscribe to Product A also tend to love Product B. The best move would be to offer Product B to every Product A subscriber about to receive their second order. 

You can create targeted campaigns with an email segment tied to the seasonal product SKU and triggered by the Order Upcoming metric. 

Aura Bora segments subscribers who tend to purchase new flavor releases or seasonal flavors and sends targeted messages to those cohorts that include Klaviyo Quick Actions so that they can easily take action on the offer.

What’s not to love about this email? The design is fun and aligns perfectly with the season, as well as the design on the can of their seasonal flavor, Honey Pumpkin. 

Adding the Klaviyo Quick Action allows customers to add seasonal flavor to their cart with a single click. When they click the button, a modal pops up to show that the item has been added to their upcoming order and gives them options to make any necessary adjustments.

6. Product launch email flow

About to release a new product that complements a popular existing SKU? 

You can create early-access email campaigns to reward loyal customers. Loyal customers could count as those who regularly engage with your brand, refer you to others, and have been subscribers for a certain period. Or they could be subscribers enrolled in your loyalty program. 

But by giving them early access to product releases, you’re giving them more reason to remain loyal. 

If you don’t have a loyalty program or want to avoid running an early release, you could create segmented campaigns based on customer purchase history, existing products that might complement the new release or send them only to email subscribers (to encourage signups).

This could also be a great way to winback churned subscribers if their purchase history indicates they’ve added similar products to their cart before. 

There are a lot of ways you can splice your subscriber base for this kind of campaign. There are also varies ways to encourage purchases. For example, you could use a Quick Action to encourage one-time add-on purchases or offer a discount code if they add that product to their subscription. 

OLIPOP frequently sends email campaigns to engaged subscribers for product launches, particularly for seasonal and limited-time flavors. 

7. Customers with “Too much product”

Use the Subscription Canceled metric and set up an email segment for subscribers who cite too much product as their cancel reason. 

Then, set your flow to trigger XX number of days after the cancellation metric fires—enough time for the customer to work through their stockpile.

Harmless Harvest triggers a subscriber winback flow that highlights subscription flexibility, so subscribers with too much product know they can re-enroll to the program with a different order frequency moving forward.

This email is a winner because it doesn’t stop short of offering a discount for resubscribing. They double down by providing the benefits of staying subscribed, including earning reward points for every third order. 

They cap it off with a Klaviyo Quick Action to make it extremely simple for churned customers to resubscribe.

8. Customers who “Didn’t like the product”

Launching a new formulation of an old product? 

Send a one-off email to past subscribers to let them know you’ve implemented customer feedback like theirs and improved the product. 

Be sure to highlight what’s new about the product, fresh reviews & visual collateral, and don’t shy away from directly addressing that you know the previous product was dissatisfying!

Vita Coco emails its subscribers an email introducing alternate flavor options and highlighting its subscription program’s value propositions—free shipping, delivery flexibility, and more.

9. Customers with price objections

Trigger a flow with the Subscription Canceled metric directly targeting your “price objection” cancellation segment. 

Use this email for product education to address those objections directly (ex, “premium ingredients” messaging) or offer a discount to entice them to return. 

Subscriber-exclusive “bundle and save” deals can also be super effective with this cohort.

A Pup Above’s Klaviyo and Stay integration triggers a cancellation winback flow featuring a 15% off discount for canceled subscribers.

Email list segmentation best practices

Let’s wrap up with some email list segmentation best practices to keep in mind.

Carry your brand through every communication.

Take advantage of every email, SMS, and notification you send to build and reinforce your brand. 

The style and tone should be consistent across channels and tell an orchestrated story about your business. 

Personalize your offers and messaging.

Make your VIPs feel seen. 

Personalizing your offers and messaging based on information about your subscribers or their specific subscriptions can make even one-too-many communications feel almost one-to-one. 

Segmentation is really a one-time lift. Once you build out the email flows with appropriate triggers, you can let them fire until you’re ready to optimize further.

Keep your subscription value props front and center.

Every communication should be a gentle reminder of the value of your subscription program. 

Whether it’s your subscribe-and-save discount, the promise of exclusive offers, or whatever else sets your subscription apart, make sure your communications reinforce those value props at every touchpoint.

We love this example of showcasing subscription benefits from Momofuku.

Looking to boost your subscription retention rate or scale up your subscription program’s profit margins? Stay AI’s out-of-the-box tools are designed to boost your subscription revenue while delighting your VIP customers.