The Subscription Renewal Flow: Stop Losing Recurring Customers (And Boost Subscription AOV)
Learn how installing a Subscription Renewal Reminder Flow reduces churn (adding stability to your business) and adds easy revenue via one-off upsells.
A Subscribe & Save program (done right) is step 1 to creating a loyal base of long-term, reliable subscription customers.
The Push to Continuity Flow is step 2, moving repeat customers onto recurring orders.
But people fall off once they’re on. Plus, you always want to increase the value of recurring orders.
The Subscription Renewal Reminder Flow (aka the Subscription Renewal or Subscription Reminder Flow), “step 3,” handles that.
This automation reminds customers of their upcoming order (and its benefits) and encourages them to add other one-off items before the order renews.
Cutting churn rate (aka keeping more customers) while bumping up the value of your recurring customer base.
In this article, you’ll discover the benefits of installing a renewal reminder automation, then learn the basics of building one for your brand or clients.
Benefits of the Subscription Renewal Flow
The primary benefit of this flow is that it boosts revenue via existing subscriptions — customers with a higher likelihood to convert.
There’s a bit of “sunk cost” psychology here, between “your box is about to ship” and “your card will be charged.”
Adding “just one more thing” feels low-friction and convenient, especially if you can make it as easy as one click.
That offers several benefits:
More Profit Per Order
Renewal flows have certain sunk costs, like picking/packing, labor, and shipping materials.
Adding a one-off product boosts AOV relative to those other costs, offering a better order-level profit margin.
In short, you earn more per box without paying more per box.
Reduces Churn
This flow reduces churn in a few ways:
Improved customer satisfaction: Customers appreciate a couple of gentle upcoming order reminders. Some also appreciate add-on suggestions. Showing them regularly that they can control their order gives them a stronger sense of control, too. Oh, and they have a chance to ask questions instead of just cancelling.
Addresses failed-payment churn: Proactively reminding users of their upcoming order may spur some to update expiring payment methods. This reduces lost revenue due not to dissatisfaction, but purely logistics… that’s EASY money.
Education: This flow gives you a few chances to reinforce why the customer subscribed, the product/subscription benefits, how best to use it, etc.
Perceived value boost: A renewal flow lets you show them what’s coming, show what they could get, and create a sense of an “upgrade path.” Such value perception and “potential choices” make them less likely to drop off.
Altogether, you keep more subscribers for a longer period. That compounds when paired with a strategic approach to creating more subscription customers.
Raises Your “Recurring Revenue Floor”
Subscription customers already provide you a “floor” of revenue, in some sense. This can help in slower times of the year.
However, the one-off orders renewal reminder flows generate can bump that “floor.”. This makes weathering those slow times ever easier.
This is especially true since subscription customers may be more likely to add new things. They already trust you enough to do recurring delivery and might want to try something new.
Encourages Discovery of Lesser-Known SKUs
Most customers will see your front-end product and a few popular back-end items. But many brands have several SKUs that don’t get much love.
Sometimes, they’re solid offers but just more niche.
Instead of trashing that inventory, sell it as one-off add-ons. After all, subscription customers are more likely to add one-offs.
Look at Heart & Soil as an example.
It sells desiccated animal organ supplements, with its flagship being the well-rounded Beef Organs supplement.
A few of its other top sellers are Whole Package (men’s sexual health), Firestarter (weight loss), and Skin, Hair, & Nails.
Yet Heart & Soil has over a dozen other formulas and a few protein powders. These make for great one-off add-ons for subscription customers.
In fact, Heart & Soil recommended me the Grass-Fed Thyroid formula, a protein powder, and a 3-jar stack.
All these are lower-attention SKUs, yet the renewal reminder flow offers you a chance to add them to your order in a few clicks.
Offers “Recurring Mini-Launch” Opportunities
Subscribers grow to expect order reminders.
This lets you feature things like seasonal items, limited runs, overstock, and new products to your higher-intent customers.
Makes it easier to “launch” new products without full launch campaigns if they’re not needed.
Decreases Customer Service Tickets
Renewal reminder flows give ample time for customers to figure things out and ensure they aren’t blindsided by the charge.
Aside from the churn aspect, this reduces the burden on your customer service team by potentially reducing tickets and smoothing out the ticket burden.
Instead of spiking at certain times with many renewals, they flow in more evenly.
Even if customers do churn, more of them churn via pausing/cancellation than via customer support. Again, less burden on customer support.
How to Make a Subscription Renewal Flow
Here are the basics for building a Subscription Renewal Flow:
Triggers/Filters
This flow should trigger 5 days before their renewal order is placed, assuming orders are at least monthly.
Gives the customer plenty of heads up and lets you space out subsequent emails.
You’d shrink that (or eliminate the flow) for bi-monthly or weekly subscriptions (rarer, but I’ve worked with a brand that does that).
No filters needed here in most cases, since your storefront software may have a “Subscription Renewal” metric.
Anyone who triggers that metric is inherently a subscription customer, so you don’t have to filter out non-subscription-customers.
Email Content
You have a limited window (5 days) to do this, so I’d stick to 2-3 emails.
The first email reminds them of and hypes up their upcoming order.
Reinforce their decision to stay subscribed (benefits of the product itself and of recurring delivery) and show their items.
Then, recommend a few add-ons to throw in their box before their card’s charged. Give them a “Send Now” option — some might want their order sooner, and sooner orders = better cash flows.
You can remind them about their ability to edit, pause, etc…
But that’s not necessary.
It’s an “objection” not worth putting in their mind. They’ll figure it out or ask if they want to.
The second email is mostly the same and should send 3-4 days later, but with a “quick reminder” angle.
No need to overload the customer here. This isn’t a big-time sales-heavy flow. The aim’s to be helpful, with those add-ons being part of the helpfulness.
Segmentation
Start with a generalized version. Since this is NOT the highest-volume flow, that serves you well for a while.
This is especially true if you’re still striving for $1 million annual revenue.
Once you’re past $1 million and aiming higher, however, personalization in this flow becomes a bigger lever.
This is when it’s time to filter by category.
For example, a supplement brand might sell weight loss and muscle gain supplements.
Its “Weight Loss Renewal Reminder Flow” would filter anyone whose order contains muscle gain.
If the order contains both, they might get a combo renewal reminder.
I recommend making a general flow first that sends to everyone.
Then, create category-specific flows.
After that, edit the general one so it becomes a combo renewal reminder (only sends to people with multiple categories).
Leverage (And Serve) Your Recurring Customer Base
Getting subscription customers is a great start. But they’re only valuable so long as you keep them — and the Subscription Renewal Flow handles that.
Not only does it reinforce the customer’s subscription as a great choice…
It lets you upsell add-ons when they’re in a prime psychological state to spend.
The best part is it’s short and sweet. 2-3 relatively short emails, perhaps with a recommended product block, and set that thing live.
Go build yours now (or ask me for help). The sooner you do so, the more customers you’ll maintain and the higher your revenue could climb.