Blog/A/B Testing Tips & Tricks: 8 ExperienceEngine Promotion Ideas for Boosting LTV & Fighting Churn

A/B Testing Tips & Tricks: 8 ExperienceEngine Promotion Ideas for Boosting LTV & Fighting Churn

Stay AI Team

Oct 30, 2023

You know how crucial testing is for snagging new customers, right? It’s just as important as subscriber retention, and we’ve seen it pay off big for our merchants at Stay.

There are endless ways to A/B test promotions and offers across the subscriber lifecycle. We did some digging across our top-performing brands, and compiled this list of some of the most valuable promotion formats we’ve seen. Let’s dig in.

1. Free Gift vs No Free Gift

Identify a point of high churn and offer a free gift-with-purchase right before that point. Does that build enough loyalty to keep those subscribers longer? Pro tip: pick a free gift that will be useful and keep your brand top-of-mind.

Noonbrew tested sending a free tea storage container to their subscribers. Implementing this promotion in addition to other strategies has led to a 41% reduction in monthly churn since promotion launch.

Read Noonbrew’s Case Study

2. Upsell Product A vs Upsell Product B

If you want to increase AOV, test a couple of different upsells offers to see which gets the higher take rate. You can also do test upselling two different products.

Lifeboost A/B tested upselling subscribers on two different coffee variants – a pumpkin spice blend, and an espresso blend. The promotion was a massive success, generating thousands of dollars in additional revenue.

Read Lifeboost’s Case Study

3. Free Gift On Order X vs. Free Gift on Order Y

This promotion type is super effective for testing when a free gift has the most impact on customer retention. Check out your subscriber churn drop-off points for the best order numbers to test with.

Funk It tested sending subscribers a free gift – maca – at different subscription cadences. The team found that sending their gift on order number 4 increases retention rates, leading to an overall 22% reduction in subscriber churn.

Read Funk It’s Case Study

4. Free Gift vs. Discount Offer

This one is for the fans of unit economics. Sometimes, sending a free $1.00 sticker does the job – but for other brands, customers really only action on a discount. The best way to find out your subscribers’ preference? Test it!

Example: Test offering your subscribers a free piece of swag versus $10.00 off on an upsell product.

5. Free Gift A vs. Free Gift B

Not all GWPs are created equal. You can test things like offering free product versus branded merch or full-size versus sample/travel size. Testing results will show which drives the higher retention.

Aura Bora tests offering a free branded baseball cap versus a free seltzer variety pack on third subscription orders. Since moving from Smartrr to Stay, they’ve seen 128% growth in monthly recurring subscription revenue.

Read Aura Bora’s Case Study

6. X% Off Upsell vs. Y% Off Upsell

Discounting can be finicky – at at the end of the day, you want to drive more money to the bank account, anyway. Try testing a couple of different discount offers. You might want to see if a 15% upsell discount ends up being just as effective as a 20%. Another pro tip: try comparing odd-numbered or “weird” discount offers versus the standard 10 – 25%. We’ve seen some of the unique upsell discount offers get better responses, because subscribers perceive them to be more personalized.

Obvi ran a promotion in 2022 testing a 30% off upsell offer versus a 50% off upsell offer for their Apple Cider Vinegar gummies. The test results were pretty surprising – the take rate for both offers was nearly the same – only fractions of a percentage point difference! It’s always worth the A/B test.

Read Obvi’s Case Study

7. Free Sample vs. No Free Sample

Seeing a lot of product-specific churn? Maybe those subscribers would like a different product better. Test offering subscribers of flavor A a free sample of flavor B on upcoming order number X. Use churn cohort data to inform where your subscriber drop-off cliff is, and add this sample to the most common last order number before cancellation.

Moon Juice ran a promotion in early 2023 in which they offered subscribers a free sample of one of their best-selling supplements on their third subscription order. The cohort of recipients had a higher order value for their following order – indicating a boost in brand loyalty (and revenue for Moon Juice)!

Read Moon Juice’s Case Study

8. % Off Upsell vs. $ Off Upsell

To our above point on finicky discounts – sometimes customers just prefer more “tangible” offers. A/B testing a % off discount versus a $ off discount can provide some illuminating results. This helps highlight what format of offer the customer perceives to be a better deal.

Example: Test offering customers a 17% off discount on an upsell product versus the equivalent dollar amount. See which promotion has a higher take rate, & then use these insights to inform future offer development!

Looking to fight subscriber churn, or boost your subscription revenue? Stay Ai’s out-of-the-box tools are designed to boost your subscriber LTV, while delighting your VIP customers.

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Blog/Ashvin Melwani Q&A: The Keys to High-Scale Subscription Acquisition & Retention

Ashvin Melwani Q&A: The Keys to High-Scale Subscription Acquisition & Retention

Stay AI Team

Oct 30, 2023

We all know A/B testing promotional offers is critical for acquiring new customers in general, but what most brands don’t realize is that it’s just as critical for subscriber retention, too. We’ve seen it pay massive dividends for our brands on Stay.

Health & wellness brand Obvi is an awesome example of this strategy in action, and we were lucky enough to grab some time with their Co-Founder/CMO Ashvin Melwani to get some first-hand insight into their testing journey. Spoiler alert: they used promotion testing to increase their conversion rate by 85%!

Let’s dive into the interview.

Q: Thanks for the time today, Ash! Let’s jump right in. What are some of the most effective ways you’ve acquired new subscribers?

Ash: What we’ve done really well is showcasing the benefits of being on subscription: always 30% off, always free shipping, free cancellations, and free gifts. We’re also currently sourcing some more premium free gifts, and I think once we have that, giving a free gift at subscription will help increase the opt-ins a lot.

Q: What tactics are you using to reduce subscriber churn?

Ash: It’s been almost surprising how much offering a free gift or otherwise incentivizing someone to stay has been so effective. Offering free gifts where our biggest churn period was, from order one to two, helped us close that gap by like 85%.

“It was crucial getting customers past the second order to help us reduce churn risk and increase lifetime value. The ability to A/B test gifts and upsells throughout the subscriber journey allowed us to accomplish just that.”
— Ash Melwani, Co-Founder & CMO, Obvi

Read Obvi’s Case Study

Q: How do you determine what isn’t working for customers who do churn?

Ash: That’s with the cancellation surveys — and we discovered our top three biggest reasons for churning were 1) I can’t afford it, 2) I have too much, and 3) I don’t like it.

Q: What do you do to address customers’ price objections?

Ash: Price-wise, there’s a delicate balance between being able to offer a little bit more of a discount, because it has to financially make sense — and you don’t want to devalue the brand too much. The juice has to be worth the squeeze.

Q: Can we dig in deeper? How you decide whether or not to discount?

Ash: I think discounting is fine, but if you’re constantly seeing a 20%-25% discount, no one’s going to buy at just 15% off. You have to be careful with that. I’d rather do free gifts or some other value add. Plus, there comes a time when you also have to back up and say, ‘Is there enough value in this product to justify the price?’ and ‘Is the product attracting the right audience?’

Q: For customers who say they have too much product; what do you do to keep them?

Ash: You have to ask, ‘Is this a brand issue?’ Essentially, if you should be taking a product every day, why aren’t you? From there are you attracting the right consumer? And are we communicating the benefits well enough?

Q: And finally, for people who aren’t digging the product… what do you do there?

Ash: That’s not something you can address right away — but it is something you can deal with over time as a brand. That said, giving customers the option to swap flavors does give them the opportunity to, if they don’t like one flavor, try another one they might like better.

Q: Final question… Can you talk a bit about the importance of the subscriber experience?

Ash: When switching over from our previous provider to Stay, the biggest thing we realized was how important the customer experience really is. It affected so many other things. A better customer portal means less customer service inquiries, which means more time for quality answers for more pressing issues. So customer service in general has improved. Second, churn drastically reduces when customers can come in and find what they need on their own. And the final piece is personalization by customer segments — that’ll be our next big focus.

Ashvin Melwani is Co-Founder and CMO of Obvi, one of the world’s fastest growing health and nutrition brands. Since launching in 2019, Obvi has surpassed 250K customers globally, all while bootstrapping its way to $40 Million in sales in just 40 months.

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Blog/Winning Back Churned Subscribers: 11 Tips & Tricks

Winning Back Churned Subscribers: 11 Tips & Tricks

Stay AI Team

Oct 30, 2023

After working with hundreds of ecommerce brands, we’ve seen so many brands miss out on a massive opportunity – winning back churned subscribers.

But that experience has also helped us to illuminate with strategies truly do work. The key? Personalization.

Personalization is ultimately about putting the right offer in front of the right person, at the right time.

Applying personalization in your subscriber winback experiences can provide massive value. We won’t lie to you – this can be really complex, but it doesn’t have to be. And if you’re using Stay Ai’s deep Klaviyo integration, it can actually be a breeze.

Let’s dig in to how you can effectively win back your churned subscribers, an unlock that untapped revenue.

11 Tips to Re-Engage Churned Subscribers: Right Offer, Right Person, Right Time

The two big keys to unlocking the winback puzzle are segmentation and personalization. From a tech perspective, this ideally involves using RetentionEngine to survey cancellation-intent customers, then passing that data from Stay Ai back to Klaviyo for use in future segmentation.

Stay Ai’s integration with Klaviyo not only provides a cancellation event trigger, but also passes critical subscriber data for further detailed segmentation. Here’s a peek of what that looks like when building email flows in Klaviyo.

But on the strategy side, you need to do some careful thinking about how to segment your churned customers and the best tactics for getting them back. We’re going to break this down into 3 buckets: optimizing offer timing, delivering the right offer, and building messaging that resonates.

Winning Back Churned Subscribers: Finding the Right Time & Place to Re-Engage

Tip #1: Consider the churned subscriber’s cancellation reasons.

When you’re determining when to hit a churned subscriber with a winback offer, you need to make sure you’re meaningfully segmenting by cancellation reason. Why? Because if a subscriber cancelled due to “too much product”, and you shoot them a winback email in just 5 days, you’re only going to cause frustration. Featured: Stay Ai’s RetentionEngine

Tip #2: Work off of seasonal customer behaviors.

Consider the periods of time each year in which people crave your product offerings most. For Health & Wellness brands, a winback nudge right around New Years is perfect for helping customers to get back on track with their goals. For food & beverage brands, the right time to launch a winback campaign might be to align with fall-favorite flavors, like a Pumpkin Spice SKU. Featured: Aura Bora

Tip #3: Leverage big announcements.

If you have a new product drop coming, or a big brand announcement, that’s a great time to launch a winback flow. Send a campaign to former subscribers so they know what’s new, or highlight a big brand event or milestone to renew their interest. Featured: Covey

Tip #4: Trigger a winback flow if a former subscriber makes a one-time purchase.

You have an enormous amount of data at your disposal – and the perfect trigger for a subscription winback flow is when a cancelled subscriber places a one-time purchase. This is a clear indication that they’re still interested in your brand’s offerings. Featured: Outstanding Foods

Winning Back Churned Subscribers: Delivering the Right Offer

Tip #5: A/B Test Promotional Offers

If you plan to incorporate a discount or free gift offer, it’s smart to A/B test promotional offers before mass-deployment to identify what has the highest take rate. We recommend testing a few things: % off discount versus free gift, $ off discount versus free gift, and % off discount versus $ off discount. Featured: Obvi’s Stay Ai ExperienceEngine Promotion

Tip #6: Tailor offers based on subscriber product preferences.

Use subscription SKU data passed into Klaviyo to deliver offers on products that a customer will likely be excited to purchase. For example, if the churned customer previously purchased shampoo from your brand, send an offer for a new conditioner formulation, rather than for a SKU in a different category. Featured: Lifeboost’s Stay Ai ExperienceEngine Promotion

Tip #7: Tailor offers to account for subscribers’ cancellation reasons.

Like we mentioned when discussing winback flow timing, it’s important to consider why your customer cancelled before slinging them an offer. Example: a customer that churned due to price and wasn’t saved by a 10% off cancellation rebuttal likely won’t take you up on a 10% off winback flow discount. Featured: Harmless Harvest

Winning Back Churned Subscribers: Crafting Messaging that Resonates

Tip #8: Test messaging and iterate before mass-deployment.

We absolutely do not recommend mass emailing your churned subscribers without testing your copy first. Instead, do some testing to find out what messaging resonates, then iterate. Some ideas: test FOMO messaging, exclusivity, highlighting subscription value props, and more. Featured: Beekeeper’s Naturals

Tip #10: Personalize winback emails or SMS messages as much as you can.

Simply stated, customers love to feel seen. Simply referencing the products a customer was formerly subscribed to, how long they were subscribed for, and/or empathizing with their reason for cancelling their subscription can have massive impact. Featured: Beekeeper’s Naturals

Tip #10: Incorporate social proof into your winback messaging.

There are few times when including social proof will do you a disservice, truly. Make sure to include UGC or customer testimonials in your winback flows to add that extra “oomph” and nudge a purchase. Featured: Tenzo

Tip #11: Include opportunities to provide feedback in the winback flow.

Unfortunately, sometimes you won’t score that winback. But that doesn’t mean your efforts are a total loss. We highly recommend taking advantage of this final customer touchpoint to understand what your brand could have done better to retain this subscriber. Featured: A Pup Above

Real-World Examples: Subscription Winback Emails That Sell

A Pup Above
This subscription reactivation email combines humor and an emotional appeal with a reactivation discount to incentive churned customers to resubscribe. A Pup Above keeps it light, while reinforcing the subscription value props they offer: savings, convenience, and flexibility. They also offer an opportunity to provide feedback, and link out to social proof. Absolute 10/10!

Beekeeper’s Naturals
This first email in this series to churned subscribers reinforces the value of both the product and the subscription at a glance, plus offers an opportunity for recipients to offer feedback. Check out the 3 varying CTAs – “we need your help”, “contact us”, and “manage your subscription” – all strategically designed for engagement.

The second email in the series ups the ante, with a reactivation discount offer, more direct messaging around what churned subscribers are missing, and a call to action that emphasizes urgency.

We love the differentiation in the CTA’s here. They all link to the same option – to resubscribe – but they’re strategically paired with an offer or routine-inspiring copy to earn that customer’s click!

Looking to boost your subscription retention rate, or provide a top-tier subscriber experience? Stay Ai’s out-of-the-box tools are designed to boost your subscription revenue, while delighting your VIP customers.

Supercharge Your Subscription & Retention Strategy with Stay AI

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Blog/Jess Cervellon Q&A: Building Great Subscription Experiences

Jess Cervellon Q&A: Building Great Subscription Experiences

Stay AI Team

Oct 28, 2023

So much of retention is about the customer experience — and when it comes to all things customer experience, Jess Cervellon is the queen. VP of CX at Feastables and a consultant on all things CX and retention, she’s got a LOT of thoughts on what differentiates the good from the great. Let’s dive in to our interview.

Q: Thanks for taking the time to drop some insight for us! Let’s just dive in with subscription acquisition. What tactics work best for turning one-off purchasers into subscribers?

Jess: What I’ve noticed working best is really emphasizing your subscription’s value props and utilizing user generated content to build that story.

Q: Can you give an example of what that looks like in practice?

Jess: You have to communicate why consumers need your product on subscription and what they can do if it’s consistently in their home. A protein powder brand I work with leverages every piece of content in front of non-subscribers to tell the story of why they need the product in their pantry and how to use it regularly — whether it’s on Instagram, via email, whatever… not just on the PDP.

Q: Once a customer has subscribed, what’s the most important element of the experience from there?

Jess: You have to push consumers to go use the customer portal and service their subscriptions on their own. The two most important elements there: 1) Teach the consumer how to use the portal, and 2) remind them at regular touchpoints to manage every aspect of their subscriptions. You can have a dope experience, but if you’re not training your consumer to actually utilize that experience, it’s gonna go in the trash.

Q: Amazing. Final question: What’s the best customer experience you’ve had recently?

Jess: It was with Jolie Skin Co., the showerhead brand. I went into it wanting to have this on subscription because I wanted to just constantly change my filters and not have to think about it. But it just didn’t work for me. So I emailed them and asked to cancel the subscription. They were like, ‘Oh yeah, don’t worry about it, we refunded you and canceled — but don’t send it back to us, give it to a friend.’ Because of that experience, even though I churned out, I ended up referring them to several of my friends, who then referred to other people.

Q: Love that. It’s a great example of how powerful a good experience can be, even if it’s relatively simple.

Jess: Yeah, if you’re thinking about the experience with your customer, and what your customer would say to their friend to refer them to you, then you’re going to get customers who want to be with you. From an acquisition point of view, not even just with subscriptions but acquisition more broadly, if you have a dope experience, a customer — even if they don’t want to be your customer anymore — can still be a brand advocate.

Jess Cervellon, consultant and VP of CX at Feastables, helps businesses across a broad range of industries understand and improve the way they interact with their customers. She also co-hosts the Oopsie Podcast. Check out S2EP10, featuring our very own CEO and Co-Founder Gina Perrelli.

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Blog/12 Unique Ideas to Surprise & Delight Your Subscribers

12 Unique Ideas to Surprise & Delight Your Subscribers

Stay AI Team

Oct 28, 2023

To stand out, your subscription program has to do more than just ship exceptional products every month. That’s table stakes. Today, you have to build a narrative — an experience — filled with benefits and surprises.

That’s why weaving surprise and delight moments into the subs experience is so effective at fostering a community of loyal, enthusiastic subscribers.

Whether you’re crafting memorable birthday surprises or offering exclusive previews of upcoming launches, each tactic takes a step toward a richer and more rewarding subscriber experience.

Ready to elevate your surprise and delight tactics? Let’s dive in.

12 Unique Strategies for Surprise & Delight

1. Anniversary Rewards

Celebrate the anniversary of when a customer first subscribed, or a certain amount of time on subscription, with a bonus item or exclusive discount. It’s not just a celebration of their journey with your brand, but a token of appreciation that emphasizes their value to your community.
Brand Featured: Harmless Harvest

2. Product Samples

Launching a new product? Send samples to select subscribers for free to build anticipation among some of your most loyal customers. Then get their feedback before the big reveal — their insights could prove invaluable.
Brand Featured: Moon Juice

3. Birthday Surprises

If you have information on your subscribers’ birthdays, send them a special treat or discount during their birthday month. Birthdays are so personal, and recognizing them is a sign of genuine care. This personalized gesture helps make them feel seen, and adds a spark of delight to their festivities — with your brand name on it. Brand Featured: Beekeeper’s Naturals

4. Exclusive Event Invitations

Organize VIP events for your subscribers where they can fully immerse themselves in your brand’s world. It could be an online masterclass, a behind-the-scenes tour, or any other exclusive invite-only event. These exclusive experiences enrich their connection with your brand and give them stories to share, turning them into passionate brand advocates.
Brand Featured: Surely Wine

5. Surprise Add-On Discounts

Send a surprise discount on a product complementary to something already in their upcoming shipment. It could be an accessory, a product enhancement, or a newly launched item they’ve been eyeing.
Brand Featured: Lifeboost

6. Limited-Edition Merch

Sometimes, the joy is in the unexpected. Produce a small batch of limited-edition products or merchandise (like branded tote bags or mugs) and surprise loyal subscribers with them. These tangible tokens of your appreciation foster a sense of exclusivity and privilege and launch more opportunities for subscribers to share positive word-of-mouth.
Brand Featured: Aura Bora

7. Referral Rewards

If a subscriber recommends your service to a friend and that friend subscribes, that calls for a celebration! Surprise both of them with a unique reward or bonus item, and encourage that culture of sharing and recommendations.
Brand Featured: Clevr

8. Access to VIP Content

Give subscribers first access or sneak peeks to brand content. Especially effective for celebrity-backed brands, this inside look could include interviews, workshops, or first looks at new campaigns.
Brand Featured: Wine Folly

9. Subscriber-Only Products

Develop products or merchandise that’s not for sale, but offered exclusively to your VIPs. This elevates the exclusivity factor and makes subscribers feel like a special part of a group. Every time they use these exclusive items, it reaffirms their value to your brand, potentially making them even more enthusiastic advocates.
Brand Featured: Aura Bora

10. Early Product Access

If a new product is launching or an old favorite comes back in stock, let subscribers be the first to know (and even buy). This gives you a way to start building excitement among your loyal customers, and gives them a feeling of being valued and trusted as part of the brand’s journey.
Brand Featured: SNOW Oral Care

11. Holiday Specials

Leverage those silly or lesser-known “holidays” to add a touch of excitement. Whether it’s National Chocolate Day for a food subscription, or World Sleep Day for a health & wellness brand, tailor these days with unique bonuses or features. This not only adds a touch of fun, but also provides an unexpected moment of delight.
Brand Featured: Clean Skin Club

12. Occasional Free Product

Keep subscribers engaged and loyal with the occasional freebie in their subscription shipment. These little surprises break the monotony and foster a continued sense of anticipation and delight.
Brand Featured: Funk It

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Blog/9 Tactics to Turn One-Time Buyers into Brand Subscribers

9 Tactics to Turn One-Time Buyers into Brand Subscribers

Stay AI Team

Oct 28, 2023

Acquiring customers isn’t easy, especially with the rising expenses around capturing consumers’ attention where they are. But once you’ve gotten a buyer’s interest, how can you move them from their first purchase into a regular subscription?

Great products hook customers, but exceptional experiences make them stay. If you want to convert one-time buyers into subscribers, here are some tactics the top-revenue generating brands on Stay Ai swear by.

1. Trial or Starter Kits that Rollover to Subscription

Hook customers by offering trial kits that seamlessly roll over into a full subscription, sprinkled with personalized tips and exclusive sneak peeks. Bundle everything your customers need to get started, then leverage a workflow automation to switch buyers to a regular subscription shipment after the trial period ends.

Clevr offers customers the option to order starter kits as a one-time purchase or subscription – but once those one-time buyers have tried a few products, they’re hankering for more each month. Product education via email and SMS goes a long way when upselling customers from a trial starter pack to a recurring subscription.

Roll out the red carpet with a warm welcome gift! It’s an instant joy-spreader and a fabulous way to kickstart the subscriber journey. For brands with high same-day or 1-month cancellation rates, offering a bonus on the second order helps ensure subscribers don’t cancel right away, just to take advantage of the initial gift or discount.

Run Gum has a very generous offer for their new subscribers – free gifts with both their first and second recurring order. This not only helps them acquire subscribers, but also introduces new flavors to their customers – flavors they’ll be tempted to add on to their upcoming subscription order, boosting that juicy AOV!

3. Introductory Discount

Entice shoppers with an irresistible introductory discount. One caveat is that this can increase your number of same-day cancellations, so only use it if “you know that people who try your product have a very good experience and your churn rate is low,” recommends Zach Stuck, Founder of top ecommerce agency Homestead.

Buoy’s introductory discount includes an “eco-friendly” welcome gift on month one, then moves subscribers to a standard shipment of just 3 bottles of product starting on month 2. This is an especially effective tactic, as it helps subscribers to begin building a daily routine with their hydration drops.

4. Bundle & Save Options

Who doesn’t love a bargain? Curated bundle offers can be a total hit, enticing customers to explore more while saving big. Customers are also far more likely to subscribe to a brand when they have the opportunity to build a bundle of just the products they love. See the example from Mad Rabbit below.

Beekeeper’s Naturals offers a variety of curated bundles for both one-time purchase and subscription, enabling customers to test out products and build the usage routine of their choice.

The Beekeeper’s Naturals team has leveraged a variety of Stay Ai’s out-of-the-box revenue-boosting features, resulting in 62% growth in monthly recurring subscription revenue. Click below to read the full case study.

Read Beekeeper’s Naturals Case Study

Another bundle technique: let customers build their own bundle and realize extra savings on exactly the products they want. Mad Rabbit allows customers to shop from a variety of curated bundles, or create a custom order using the Build Your Own Bundle tool. In building a custom bundle, they can watch in real-time as their subscribe & save discount is dynamically calculated.

5. Leverage SMS for Subscription Upsells

If we’re being totally honest, we know our customers’ email inboxes are flooded. SMS alerts stand out in a world swamped with email. A direct nudge can sometimes be all it takes to steer a one-time-purchaser towards subscription.

Kaged strategically texts their one-time-purchase customers after they’ve had some time to use the product, reminding them of the brand’s subscription discounting and promotional offers. A simple nudge like this is quick to set up, extremely effective, and an easy way to get some subscription acquisition wins with little manual effort.

6. Exclusive Subscriber Promotions

Give subscribers a VIP pass to exclusive promotions. Subscriber-only perks leverage FOMO to entice one-time buyers to take the next step. For a deeper dive into subscription program perks, check out this blog article with 15 unique ideas.

On Graza’s subscription webpage, they highlight a unique subscriber benefit – “goodies from Graza”. Goodies include subscriber-exclusive discounts, and free gifts, such as cookbooks and treats.

7. Implement a Loyalty Program

Turn your customers into fans with a loyalty program that rewards and incentivizes them at every step. Keep it personalized and aligned with their preferences for that extra special touch.

In addition to their subscribe & save program, Harmless Harvest has a robust loyalty program for their dedicated customers. The program is free to join, and enables customers to earn “Harvest Coins” with each purchase, which can be cashed in for discounts on future orders.

8. Create Subscriber-Exclusive Perks & Events

Create a buzz with exclusive events and perks. Your relationship with your subscribers doesn’t have to be about just the products; it’s about fostering a community that thrives on exclusivity and connection.

Surely’s subscription program – aptly named the Wine Club – comes with a variety of unique benefits for customers. Subscribers gain access to virtual wine tastings, an online members-only community, happy hours, drink recipes, and more. Wine Club members also get to vote on the future of a lot of these perks, like new flavors, Surely merch, and upcoming events.

9. Feature Subscriber UGC

Spark conversations and built trust with user-generated content. The purpose? “[Show] the value of your subscription: ‘Here’s why you need this product in your pantry consistently.’” — Jess Cervellon, VP of CX, Feastables

Tenzo places subscriber reviews front-and-center on their homepage, some with more “subliminal” messaging than others. A strategy like this is especially effective for products that work best when used on a regular routine – like supplements, skincare, and so forth. This messaging not only assures the customer that they’ll like what they’re about to purchase, but inspires that “Sounds really good, so I might as well get the discount!” feeling, too.

A few final thoughts from our experts in the field…

Consider the Subscriber Experience

“One of the most tried and true ways [to turn a one-time buyer into a subscriber] is to make sure they have a really excellent experience with your product that convinces them they need to use it on a continual basis. Most subscriptions offer a thinly veiled promise and don’t give the customer a true reason to ‘keep it coming.’” — Daniel Okon, Founder & CEO, Activ

💡 Pro Tip: Overpromising and underdelivering is a surefire way to boost your churn. Be mindful about your pre-purchase messaging regarding product and customer experience.

Pinpoint the Right Timing

“The best times in the customer lifecycle to send these messages is related to consumption frequency. We have to ask them to buy again at the right time, versus just being greedy and missing the mark.” — Shray Joshi, Founder & CEO, Good Peeps

💡Pro Tip: Don’t go all willy nilly with your customer communications; leverage the product usage data at your disposal.

Emphasize Subscription Program Benefits

“[Showcase] the benefits of being on subscription: always 30% off, always free shipping, free cancellations, free gifts… I think that’s helped us turn more people into subscribers.” — Ashvin Melwani, Co-Founder and CMO, Obvi

💡Pro Tip: Just because you know your subscription benefits by heart doesn’t mean your customers do. Don’t be afraid to remind them and boldly highlight benefits on any relevant brand assets.

Looking to acquire more subscribers, 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.

Supercharge Your Subscription & Retention Strategy with Stay AI

Book a Demo

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Blog/9 Email Segmentation Ideas for Engaging Current or Churned Subscribers

9 Email Segmentation Ideas for Engaging Current or Churned Subscribers

Stay AI Team

Oct 27, 2023

Simply stated, every brand’s subscribers are their VIP customers, and should be treated that way! That’s where personalization comes in handy — to really make customers feel like they’re building a real relationship with a brand.

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.

Without further ado, let’s dive into 9 types of data-triggered flows that you can build using Stay Ai’s deep Klaviyo integration, to provide customer-loved email experiences.

Let’s wrap up with some overall subscription email 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. Our customers have busy inboxes – make sure you’re maximizing on your brand affinity real estate.

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

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 below from Momofuku.

Best Practices: Subscription Notifications & Email Marketing

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.

1. Subscription Onboarding Flow

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. With this account, they can manage their own subscriptions via the customer portal.

2. Product Education Flow

Dealing with lots of subscriber order skips? Trigger a flow based on the Subscription Skipped metric that gives more information on how to use a product or reinforces the benefits of consistency. To make this super personalized, you can segment these flows by individual product SKU or bundle.

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

3. Customer Feedback Flow

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 action on data directly from your most valuable customers, so you can further enhance sub program loyalty.

Beekeeper’s Naturals has built an automated email flow triggered by the Subscription Paused metric, that encourages subscribers to provide feedback on why they’ve paused their subscription. From there, they can personally address customer concerns – or simply collect that data for future program optimization opportunities.

4. Targeted Upsell Flow

Leverage the Subscription Purchased metric and segment by SKU. For example, if a customers subscribes to a trial size product or more basic formulation, only those customers will receive an upsell offer. Then you can tailor each email with the benefits of going bigger/better!

BKN – Upsell Email
Beekeeper’s Naturals also uses Stay’s Klaviyo integration to deliver targeted upsell flows to their subscribers.

In addition to implementing flows such as these, the BKN team has leveraged a variety of other out-of-the-box revenue-boosting features from Stay Ai, resulting in 62% growth in monthly recurring subscription revenue. Click below to read the full case study.

Read Beekeeper’s Naturals Case Study

5. Targeted Cross-Sell Flow

Time to action on that sweet, sweet data. Let’s say you learned from your analytics that customers subscribed to Product A tend to also love Product B. Offer Product B to every Product A subscriber that’s about to receive their second subscription order. You can trigger the flow with the Order Upcoming metric and segment by order number to reach the right customers at the right time.

Using Stay Ai’s Klaviyo integration, Aura Bora segments subscribers who tend to purchase new flavor releases or seasonal flavors, and directly market to those cohorts by sending emails with Klaviyo Quick Actions to add-on new products.

By implementing these cross-sell flows – in addition to using a variety of other out-of-the-box revenue-driving features from Stay Ai, the Aura Bora team has seen an incredible 128% growth in monthly subscription revenue since migrating to Stay Ai from Smartrr. Click the button below to read their case study.

Read Aura Bora’s Case Study

6. Product Launch Campaign

About to release a new product that complements a popular existing SKU? Send a campaign to the customers subscribed to that existing product, and offer the new product as a one-time add-on with a discount. OLIPOP’s marketing and retention team frequently uses Stay’s Klaviyo integration to launch cross sell campaigns, when new flavors are launched.

In 2022, OLIPOP launched a seasonal fall flavor – crisp apple. During launch month, OLIPOP saw 30% of the soda’s sales come from add-on purchases through Stay Ai. Learn more by reading their case study here:

Read OLIPOP’s Case Study

7. Win-Back Flow: Customers With “Too Much Product”

Use the Subscription Canceled metric and set up a 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 have worked through their stockpile.
Harmless Harvest uses the Klaviyo and Stay integration to trigger 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.

8. Win-Back Flow: Customers Who “Didn’t Like the Product”

Launching a new formulation of an old product? Send a one-off to past subscribers of the old version, who churned due to product quality/effectiveness. 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 what had room for improvement in the past!

Vita Coco sends their subscribers an email introducing alternate flavor options, while highlighting their subscription program’s value propositions – free shipping, delivery flexibility, and so on.

9. Win-Back Flow: Customers with Price Objections

Similarly to the aforementioned win-back flows, trigger a flow with the Subscription Canceled metric that directly targets 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 new purchases. 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 cancelled subscribers.

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Blog/6 Red Flags in Your Subscription Performance Metrics (+ How to Fix Them)

6 Red Flags in Your Subscription Performance Metrics (+ How to Fix Them)

Stay AI Team

Oct 27, 2023

It’s so important not just monitor your subscription program performance, but to optimize it based on the insights in your data.

Unfortunately, we know a lot of subscription apps don’t make this particularly easy.

In this article, we’re focusing on a few key performance metrics warning signs, and some actionable steps to consider if you find a certain metric trending in the wrong direction. Let’s dig in.

Let’s dive into your metrics, identify some warning signs, then drill down into some potential actions you can take to start optimizing some of your problem areas.

1. Your first-time subscription revenue is down.

If you’re seeing a drop in your first-time subscription revenue, that could be a sign of a problem. Here are few ideas for optimizing towards boosting new subscriber acquisition revenue:

– Optimize your product display pages. Check out an article on 4 PDP best practices here.
– Email current customers a compelling intro offer highlighting your subscription program’s value props.
– Implement a referral program for existing subscribers to earn discounts or free gifts.
– Tweak your first-order offer, whether it’s a discount or free gift.

This pop-up example from V-Dog prompts email capture with an added subscription benefit — and also gets their shoppers thinking about subscription from the jump.

2. Your add-on revenue is down.

Add-ons are a great way to increase AOV and expose subscribers to more of your product catalog. Top optimize towards boosting your add on revenue, try:

– Emailing add-on product offers at an exclusive subscription discount. (Stay’s ExperienceEngine makes this really easy & enables robust A/B testing.)
– Change up the products featured in your customer portal upsell carousel to find what resonates the best.
– Use customer portal banner ads to nudge add-ons through announcing sales, new product drops, and more.

We love this eye-catching banner ad from Magic Spoon, which nudges subscribers to try two newly released SKUs – the Marshmallow & Chocolatey Peanut Butter Treat bars.

💡 For more ideas on how to use in-portal banner ads, check out this blog article.

3. You’re seeing high skip or pause actions in the customer portal.

Worth noting – skips and pauses are better than cancels, so whether this is really a red flag is going to depend on trends over time and your goals. That said, if you see something trending in the “wrong” direction, it’s worth digging in.

If you’re hoping to decrease the volume of those skips and pauses, test:

– Setting up an email flow triggered by the Skip or Pause action, and include a survey asking subscribers why they’re delaying their order. This could bring some great feedback in-house, plus once you’ve hit on some significant insights, you can change that email flow to one that speaks to those most common reasons.
– Nudging customers to gift their upcoming order to a friend, rather than skipping it.
– Offering more subscription order frequency options beyond just the standard 1 order per month.

Stay Ai’s no-code customer portal allows you to both provide gifting nudges and create flexible subscription order frequency options with just a few clicks! Check out this example from OLIPOP’s customer portal.

4. Your same-day cancellation rate is up.

Same-day cancellations are a good indication that those customers were just deal-hunting. Some ways to approach this one:

– Check out your ad creative and the messaging you’re putting forth. Are you attracting the right customers to your subscription program? Is there a way you could tweak that to bring in more of the right customers?
– Make sure you have a cancellation survey in place. Segment the data from your same-day cancellers, and confirm that they’re cancelling because they’re price shopping. Then implement rebuttal flows to encourage them to stay on subscription. Examples: let them swap their products for the following month, offer a discount for staying on, or offer them a free gift for sticking around.
– Consider your subscription program benefits. Are there extensions of your intro offer to keep customers coming back?

Beekeeper’s Naturals has strategically built their subscription upsell email flow to highlight a special subscriber benefit – a free gift on order 2.

In addition to implementing this upsell flow, Beekeeper’s Naturals has leveraged a variety of other out-of-the-box revenue-boosting features from Stay Ai, resulting in 62% growth in monthly recurring subscription revenue. Click below to read the full case study.

Read Beekeeper’s Naturals Case Study

5. Your cohort-based retention rate is down.

If you see a trend downwards in the subscribers you’re retaining by cohort, that could be a sign of a few different issues. We recommend:

– Looking for patterns in acquisition sources, subscription plans, products and demographics
– Revewing your cancellation survey data and look at what kinds of treatments tend to save the most customers
– Tweaking your cancellation flow follow-up treatments to be more persuasive. Consider adding video to make the message feel more personal.
– Offering a free gift right before the point of highest churn in the subscriber order cycle. Mind your profit margins by only offering the item for free to those at highest risk of churn.

Noonbrew, for example, offers their subscribers a free storage container for their superfood organic tea with their second subscription order.

By leveraging Stay Ai’s ExperienceEngine promotions and out-of-the-box customer portal upsell features, Noonbrew has seen an incredible 72% increase in recurring revenue. Click the button below to read the full case study!

Read Noonbrew’s Case Study

6. Your subscription save rate is trending down.

If your cancellation survey rebuttals seem to be losing their efficacy, you might just need to make a few tweaks. Try:

– Re-tooling the messaging on your rebuttal messages to more directly address the subscriber’s reason for cancelling.
– Leverage RetentionEngine’s AI powered rebuttals to serve the most effective, personalized treatments to each subscriber (We see this give way better results than with just human intervention)
– Try incorporating a video message for a more personal feel, or a GIF for something a little bit more lighthearted but still eye-catching.

Psychedelic Water has incorporated video into their cancellation flow rebuttal treatments, offering a personal message and subscriber discount from the brand’s CTO.

Since implementing Stay’s RetentionEngine, Psychedelic Water has boosted their subscription save rate to 14%. Read the full case study here:

Read Psychedelic Water’s Case Study

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Blog/9 Ways to Use Customer Portal Banner Ads to Boost AOV (+ 32 Examples)

9 Ways to Use Customer Portal Banner Ads to Boost AOV (+ 32 Examples)

Stay AI Team

Oct 27, 2023

Implementing a customer portal banner ad is one of the easiest ways to nudge subscriber behavior – from featuring new products as add-on items to boost AOV, or highlighting a subscriber-exclusive sale.

If you’re looking for some inspiration on how to use your banner ads, or want to see some creative in action, we’ve got you! Let’s dig in to how some of the top revenue-generating subscription brands on Stay Ai maximize their customer portal real estate with banner ads.

9 Strategies for Boosting AOV with Customer Portal Banner Ads

1. Offer Subscriber-Exclusive Discounts

Check out these examples to see how you can leverage a banner asset to highlight subscriber-only discounts for specific add on products, and run this as a VIP promotion.

Moon Juice

Moon Juice’s Q4 banner ad features a limited time offer for subscribers – 20% off their Mini Dew subscription. By leveraging Stay Ai’s out-of-the-box customer portal add-on carousel, banner ads, and promotions run through ExperienceEngine, Moon Juice has scaled their monthly add-on revenue a whopping 131%.

Read Moon Juice’s Case Study

Copper Cow Coffee

This Q4, Copper Cow Coffee is offering a 10% discount to “VIPs only” with their in-portal banner ads. Subscribers can add any product to their upcoming order and save 10%.

Clevr

Clevr recently launched a customer portal banner that not only highlights a new product release – their London Fog Superlatte – but also nudges subscribers to purchase by calling out a 15% discount.

Marianella

Marianella is running an incredible Q4 “subscriber special” using the portal banner. For their VIPs, all of the brand’s body oil SKUs are 50% off

2. Nudge Add-On Purchases, Without A Discount

While subscribers always do love discounts, we see across brands that banner ads with no promotional offers can perform just as well as those with discounts. Check out some examples below.

Manukora

Manukora’s in-portal banner encourages subscribers to add on a single-serving SKU – either 30 pack or 10 pack of their most popular super honey.

Obvi

Obvi frequently runs deals for their subscribers, as well as offering regular add-on discounts and various discounted upsells using ExperienceEngine promotions. For their portal banner, they’ve chosen to feature their Collagenic Burn product as a recommended add-on.

Read Obvi’s Case Study

KAGED

KAGED offers dozens of supplements, many of which show the best results when paired strategically in a “stack”. Their in-portal banner is designed to drive subscribers to check out their KAGED Elite Series.

Nola Skin Essentials

Nola Skin Essentials offers pre-built bundles for their subscribers, which they call kits. Their customer portal banner ad encourages customers to “reup your bikini kit” as an order add-on, and highlights the products featured within the kit.

Lifeboost

Since switching over to Stay Ai from Recharge, Lifeboost has seen an incredible 120% growth in add-on revenue. Their Q4 in-portal banner ad nudges subscribers to try their Everlo Coffee Drops – a “healthier coffee in 10 seconds”.

Read Lifeboost’s Case Study

3. Highlight New Products or New Subscription Offerings

Aura Bora

One of Aura Bora’s biggest revenue drivers in 2023 has been the launch of their “flavor of the month” subscription, which automatically delivers subscribers their newly released sparkling water flavor as soon as it drops. The Aura Bora team has seen an incredible 128% growth in monthly subscription revenue since migrating to Stay Ai from Smartrr.

Read Aura Bora‘s Case Study

Sprout Living

Sprout Living recently launched three new products – Maca, Inulin, and Lucuma single ingredient superfood powders. Their banner ad not only features the new products, but their ease of use and supplement benefits.

Kettle & Fire

Kettle & Fire is keeping it simple with this banner ad, highlighting their newly launched Lentil & Vegetable soup. By clicking the banner, subscribers can add the new soup to their upcoming order as a one-time add on, or as a recurring purchase with each upcoming order

Yumwoof

Yumwoof’s Q4 banner ad calls attention to their newly launched pet food toppers, Perfect Digestion and Perfect Immunity. In addition to calling out the new products, the brand’s banner ad includes some compelling copy to further nudge an add-on purchase.

My Serenity Kids

We love this simple & beautiful banner ad from My Serenity Kids, highlighting the brand’s newly launched White Cheddar Cauliflower and Spinach Puffs. The overlaid photo of a super-cute baby might be our favorite part.

A Pup Above

A Pup Above’s banner ad currently features Cubies, a newly launched dry food for dogs. The brand never fails to stick to their core imagery – a photo of their adorable founding family and pup. A Pup Above scaled their subscription revenue by 53% just 30 days after switching to Stay Ai. Click the button below to read the full case study!

Read A Pup Above’s Case Study

4. Call Out Seasonal or Limited-Time Products

Magic Spoon

Just in time for the halloween season, Magic Spoon recently released two new SKUs – their Marshmallow and Chocolatey Peanut Butter treat bars. Their banner ad nudges subscribers to purchase the new bites as a one-time add on with their upcoming orders.

Tenzo

Pumpkin spice lovers, this one is for you. Tenzo recently released a seasonal flavor – the pumpkin spice matcha latte. Subscribers can add this flavor to their upcoming order as a one-time or recurring subscription purchase by clicking the banner ad.

Perfect Snacks

Another awesome seasonal flavor launch example – this delightful Pumpkin Pie perfect bar banner ad! In addition to highlighting the seasonal release, Perfect Snacks leverages the banner ad space to call out some key product features.

Grinds

With the winter months creeping up, Grinds is using their banner ad to encourage subscribers to “keep summer rolling” with their Orange Citrus coffee pouches. By leveraging Stay’s customer portal banner ads, in-portal add on carousel, and ExperienceEngine promotions, Grinds has seen 120% growth in their monthly subscription revenue. Check out the full case study here:

Read Grinds’ Case Study

5. Announce that Products Are Back in Stock

Curie

Curie’s “freshly stocked” portal banner ad is designed to inform their subscribers that their fan-favorite SKU, the Hair Freshener, is back in stock. Their portal customizations have drastically enhanced their subscriber experience, contributing to a whopping 200%+ growth in quarterly recurring subscription revenue

Read Curie’s Case Study

OLIPOP

OLIPOP made an absolute splash with the launch of their Crisp Apple soda last year – so it’s no surprise that their 2023 banner ad of choice features the product’s return. During launch month of the apple flavor in fall of 2022, OLIPOP saw 30% of the soda’s sales come from add-ons purchases through Stay Ai. Learn more by reading their case study, linked below:

Read OLIPOP’s Case Study

6. Announce Sales, or Offer Early Sale Access to Subscribers

Clean Skin Club

This is one of our favorite banner ads we’ve seen this year! Clean Skin Club has pre-launched their BFCM sale exclusively to subscribers by using their portal banner ad.

7. Feature a Product of the Month

MYSA Wine

MYSA’s running an awesome promotion for their subscribers using the customer portal banner ad. Their customers can add a featured product – the Rosado Murcia Rose – to their upcoming order for just $15.

Bright Cellars

Each month, Bright Cellars swaps up their portal banner to feature a “sip of the month”. Subscribers can add the wine to their upcoming order with a simple click of the banner ad.

8. Spotlight Loyalty or Membership Programs

Harmless Harvest

Harmless Harvest’s banner ad nudges subscribers to join their loyalty progam, in which they can earn coins for their purchases.

Beauty by Earth

Beauty By Earth offers a membership program entitled “The Essentials Club”. Their banner ad encourages subscribers to become a member for additional savings.

9. Provide Product or Subscription Education

Begin Health

Begin Health specializes in prebiotics for kids, which most subscribers receive on a monthly basis. Their banner ad educates customers on an additional offering – a gut health test – that can help parents get a deeper understanding of their child’s wellness.

Read Begin Health’s Case Study

JOI Plant Milk

Trendy plant milk brand JOI leverages their customer portal banner to remind customers of their products quality, easy of use, and great taste.

Frey

Frey’s banner ad serves as a bit of mini customer-portal education, reminding their subscribers of the ability to skip, add new items, or delay upcoming orders using the buttons provided.

Read Frey’s Case Study

A Few More Ideas: Other Ways to Use Banner Ads

If you’re looking to switch it up and try something different, here are a few more unique ideas for leveraging your banner ad real estate.

Reinforce Subscription Benefits

V-Dog

V-Dog’s adorable customer portal banner ad reminds subscribers of their core program value proposition: free shipping for all subscriptions orders over $29.99.

Share Brand Announcements

KAYODE

Formerly WOOOF, pet brand KAYODE implemented a new customer portal banner informing their customers of the rebrand, but assuring the same high quality products they’re used to.

Further Customize Your Customer Portal with Brand Imagery

Good Protein

Customer-loved supplement brand Good Protein uses their portal banner to show off some gorgeous product imagery, and add a little pizazz to the portal viewing experience.

Wrapping It Up: Customer Portal Banner Ads

As you can see, there are truly endless ways to leverage portal banner ads to maximize subscription revenue, or even just provide your subscribers with a beautiful portal viewing experience. We love checking out your banner creative. When you whip up something awesome, be sure to send it our way! You can always tag us on social @GetStayAi.

Want to customize your subscriber portal, but don’t feel like spending thousands on development resources? We’ve got your back. Stay Ai’s no-code customer portal allows you to fully customize the subscriber experience, as well as take advantage of AOV-boosting features right out of the box.

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Blog/15 Ideas for Boosting Subscriber Loyalty: Building Exciting Subscription Program Benefits

15 Ideas for Boosting Subscriber Loyalty: Building Exciting Subscription Program Benefits

Stay AI Team

Oct 26, 2023

If you’re a regular reader of Stay Ai content, you’ve probably noticed us mentioning “subscription value props” or “subscription benefits”.

Let’s unpack that, and talk about how to pick the right subscription program benefits for your brand. We’ll also share 15 unique subscriber benefit ideas for inspiration!

Subscription Benefits/Subscription Value Props

The subscription industry is evolving – and the brands seeing the most success with their programs are going above and beyond to build subscriber loyalty. While subscribe and save might already feel like a juicy benefit, it’s pretty standardized. Customers are beginning to see additional program benefits popping up, including deals on shipping, unique rewards, and special-access to things like content or IRL events.

For example, take a peek at Surely’s Wine Club subscription page:

In addition to offering their subscribers an ongoing discount, they tease additional program benefits: virtual wine tastings, merch, and early access to new products.

How to Determine the Right Subscription Program Benefits

As much as we’d love to give you the magical answer, the real answer lies in knowing your customers preferences, down to a t. To dig in to this, we recommend:

– Conducting customer interviews with your VIPs, and asking about what would new benefits would be exciting for them
– Sending out a survey asking subscribers to vote on your benefit ideas
– Crowd-sourcing new benefit ideas through a customer community or via email
– Scoping out what your competitors are offering

If you need some inspiration on sweet subscription benefits, we pulled together a roundup of 15 of our favorites here.

15 Top-Performing Subscription Program Benefits

We pulled together a list of the best subscription program benefits we could find, straight from the top revenue-generating subscription brands on Stay Ai.

And a few more honorable mentions…

– Subscriber-only bundles
– Monthly or quarterly subscriber raffles/giveaways
– Exclusive swag or merch unavailable elsewhere

TLDR: Better benefits = better customer loyalty.

1. Free Shipping, Always

In the era of Amazon prime, customers are always sniffing for free shipping. Offer subscribers life-long free shipping with each order as an added perk.
Brand featured: HOP WTR

2. Free Gift on X Order

Who doesn’t love free stuff? Send your subscribers a free gift on their 2nd order, or on a cadence – like every 5th or 10th order. Freebies don’t have to be spendy – things like shaker cups, tote bags, and hats are often hits. Great for loyalty, and crushing churn!
Brand featured: L’Evate You

3. Special Occasion Gifts

Send your most valuable customers a freebie on their birthday, order anniversary, your brand’s birthday, or at the holidays as a thank-you surprise. Gifts can include merch, tester product, or digital certificates.
Brand featured: Beekeeper’s Naturals

4. Samples & Testers

Give your subscribers a first-glance at upcoming products with free samples or testers. This is a great strategy for health & wellness or beauty & personal care brands – and it makes the upsell easier, too!
Brand featured: Moon Juice

5. Personalized Consultation

We love this benefit from Feals! Upon subscribing, customers are gifted a free 1:1 consultation with a CBD specialist to help personalize their regimen. They also provide future product recommendations, leading to an AOV boost.
Brand featured: Feals

6. Early Access Privileges

Give your subscribers the first chance to purchase limited-edition SKUs or access product drops. SNOW Oral Care sends their subscribers early access emails, encouraging them to try new releases before anyone else.
Brand featured: SNOW

7. Happiness Guarantee

Allow subscribers to return or replace ordered items for free by offering a happiness guarantee. Offer to swap for a different product or send a hassle-free store credit as reimbursement.
Brand featured: Dose

8. Earn Rewards

Reward your customers for each order placed – even if it’s an auto-ship subscription. Rewards can come in the form of product credit, points to cash in for a free gift, or $ off an upcoming order.
Brand featured: Bright Cellars

9. Exclusive Event Invites

Invite your subscribers to exclusive IRL or virtual events to make their experience even more special. Kaskadia Wine, for example, hosts virtual wine tastings just for their wine club subscribers.
Brand featured: Kaskadia Wine

10. Members-Only Community

Allow your subscribers to join a members-only community hosted on the platform they love the most. We’ve seen brands use tools like Discord and Facebook Groups to keep customers engaged and excited.
Brand featured: The Lift Box

11. Exclusive Add-On Discounts

Offer exclusive discounts for add-on or one-time-purchase items to just your subscribers. These discounts can be shared with old-school discount codes, or be implemented through your product carousel/portal banner.
Brand featured: Dr. KellyAnn

12. Subscriber-Only Sale Events

You know what’s better than a sale? A super secret, exclusive, special sale. Let subscribers know you’ll be running special sales for just your VIP customers, and host unique promotional deals for just this cohort.
Brand featured: Obvi

13. Priority CS Support

There’s nothing better than getting a problem solved within minutes. Offer subscribers skip-the-line CX queue access, so they can get the help they need within record timing. Subscriber tagging in your CX platform makes this easy.
Brand featured: Rise Well

14. Product Pipeline Influence

Give subscribers the opportunity to vote on upcoming flavors, product formats, or even new additions to the product line in general. You can conduct polls through your virtual community, email, or SMS.
Brand featured: Surely Wine

15. VIP Content

This is a fun (and free!) one for brands. Share for-your-eyes-only content with your VIPs. Examples: makeup tutorials for beauty brands, recipes for food & bev brands, or workouts for health & wellness brands.
Brand featured: Wine Folly

Supercharge Your Subscription & Retention Strategy with Stay AI

Book a Demo

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A/B Testing Tips & Tricks: 8 ExperienceEngine Promotion Ideas for Boosting LTV & Fighting Churn

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3. Free Gift On Order X vs. Free Gift on Order Y

4. Free Gift vs. Discount Offer

5. Free Gift A vs. Free Gift B

6. X% Off Upsell vs. Y% Off Upsell

7. Free Sample vs. No Free Sample

8. % Off Upsell vs. $ Off Upsell

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Ashvin Melwani Q&A: The Keys to High-Scale Subscription Acquisition & Retention

Q: Thanks for the time today, Ash! Let’s jump right in. What are some of the most effective ways you’ve acquired new subscribers?

Q: What tactics are you using to reduce subscriber churn?

Q: How do you determine what isn’t working for customers who do churn?

Q: What do you do to address customers’ price objections?

Q: Can we dig in deeper? How you decide whether or not to discount?

Q: For customers who say they have too much product; what do you do to keep them?

Q: And finally, for people who aren’t digging the product… what do you do there?

Q: Final question… Can you talk a bit about the importance of the subscriber experience?

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Winning Back Churned Subscribers: 11 Tips & Tricks

11 Tips to Re-Engage Churned Subscribers: Right Offer, Right Person, Right Time

Winning Back Churned Subscribers: Finding the Right Time & Place to Re-Engage

Winning Back Churned Subscribers: Delivering the Right Offer

Winning Back Churned Subscribers: Crafting Messaging that Resonates

Real-World Examples: Subscription Winback Emails That Sell

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Jess Cervellon Q&A: Building Great Subscription Experiences

Q: Thanks for taking the time to drop some insight for us! Let’s just dive in with subscription acquisition. What tactics work best for turning one-off purchasers into subscribers?

Q: Can you give an example of what that looks like in practice?

Q: Once a customer has subscribed, what’s the most important element of the experience from there?

Q: Amazing. Final question: What’s the best customer experience you’ve had recently?

Q: Love that. It’s a great example of how powerful a good experience can be, even if it’s relatively simple.

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12 Unique Ideas to Surprise & Delight Your Subscribers

12 Unique Strategies for Surprise & Delight

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9 Tactics to Turn One-Time Buyers into Brand Subscribers

1. Trial or Starter Kits that Rollover to Subscription

2. Free Gift on Subscription Signup

3. Introductory Discount

4. Bundle & Save Options

5. Leverage SMS for Subscription Upsells

6. Exclusive Subscriber Promotions

7. Implement a Loyalty Program

8. Create Subscriber-Exclusive Perks & Events

9. Feature Subscriber UGC

A few final thoughts from our experts in the field…

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Table of Contents

9 Email Segmentation Ideas for Engaging Current or Churned Subscribers

Best Practices: Subscription Notifications & Email Marketing

1. Subscription Onboarding Flow

2. Product Education Flow

3. Customer Feedback Flow

4. Targeted Upsell Flow

5. Targeted Cross-Sell Flow

6. Product Launch Campaign