Latest / The Retention Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Email, SMS, and Loyalty for Repeat Customers / How Ritual Uses Email to Win Back Lapsed Subscribers
Transcript
- Lucas: Ritual, the vitamin subscription brand, has a win-back email series that recovers about 15 percent of lapsed subscribers within 60 days. That's a solid number for a subscription business where churn is the enemy. Luna: Fifteen percent feels high. Most win-back campaigns I've seen struggle to crack ten. What's Ritual doing differently? Lucas: They lean hard into personalization. Instead of a generic 'we miss you' blast, they use the customer's past purchase data to recommend products they've actually bought before or similar ones. And they avoid discounts entirely — no 'come back for 20 percent off' — which protects the brand's premium positioning. Luna: So it's about reminding them of the value they already saw, not bribing them back. That's smart for a brand like Ritual where the product is a daily habit. Lucas: Exactly. The sequence starts the moment a subscription auto-cancels after a failed payment or a manual cancellation. Day one: an email that simply acknowledges the gap and asks if they want to pause or switch products. No hard sell. Luna: A pause option — that's interesting. They're giving the customer control rather than pushing a restart. Lucas: Right. If the customer doesn't re-engage, Day three sends a personalized recommendation based on their last order. For example, if they were on the Women's Multivitamin, the email highlights why it's still relevant — maybe citing a new ingredient or a customer review. And it includes a single click to reorder button. Luna: That reduces friction. One click and they're back in. Do they use any social proof in that email? Lucas: They do. The email includes a testimonial from a similar customer and the average rating of that product. Ritual is all about transparency, so they show real numbers — four point six stars from twelve thousand reviews, that kind of thing. Luna: And if the second email doesn't convert? Lucas: Day seven is the final email. It shifts from product to lifestyle. They frame the subscription as a small, consistent investment in health. The subject line might be something like 'Your future self will thank you' — still no discount. But they do include a link to their referral program, which is their way of saying 'if you still need a reason, bring a friend along.' Luna: That's clever — turning a win-back into a potential acquisition channel. And they're keeping the focus on long-term value, not short-term incentives. Lucas: Yeah, and the results speak for themselves. Ritual found that the personalized recommendation email drives the highest conversion — about 60 percent of the total recoveries come from that second email. The first email accounts for around 20 percent, and the final one mops up the remaining 20. Luna: So the second email is the sweet spot. That tells me the personalization is actually working. Lucas: And it's not just the content — timing matters. Three days after the pause offer gives the customer enough space to reconsider without feeling pressured. And the seven-day cadence catches people before they fully move on. Luna: Makes sense. Do they segment further based on how long the customer was active before churning? Like, a customer who had twelve months of orders versus someone who only had three? Lucas: They do. Customers with a longer tenure get a slightly different email two — it might include a 'since you've been gone' update on the product, like a new flavor or a reformulation. For shorter-tenure churners, they focus more on educating them about the product's benefits. It's a smart way to tailor the message to the level of experience. Luna: That attention to detail is what makes these campaigns feel human. And speaking of things that feel human — if you've ever taken a tactic from this show and applied it to your own work, we hope it's made a difference. A couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these episodes ad-free and coming to you every single day. Lucas: Yeah, it's true. We hear from listeners who've used our retention marketing deep dives to tweak their own campaigns. If you've gotten something out of these conversations, buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo is where you can support the network. It's a small way to keep this going. Luna: Right. And back to Ritual — beyond the email sequence, they also track reactivation rates by channel. The email series is the core, but they supplement with push notifications for app users. Lucas: Good point. The email series alone gets them that 15 percent recovery. But when they layer on a push notification on Day five — a simple 'Your vitamins miss you' — the recovery rate jumps to 19 percent. That's a meaningful lift without adding huge cost. Luna: So the push notification acts as a gentle nudge in between the emails? That creates a multi-touch rhythm. Lucas: Exactly. And they're careful not to overwhelm — just one push in the whole sequence. They tested two pushes and saw opt-out rates spike, so they pulled back. That kind of disciplined testing is what separates good retention marketing from spam. Luna: I love that they're measuring not just conversion, but also the cost of over-communication. Have they shared any data on how the win-back sequence affects long-term retention? Like, are re-subscribers stickier? Lucas: Ritual hasn't published that data publicly, but anecdotally, brands that use value-driven win-back sequences tend to see lower re-churn rates because the customer is coming back for the product, not a discount. So it's reasonable to assume their re-subscribers are more loyal. Luna: That makes sense. If you're used to paying full price, you're less likely to leave again when the next promotion doesn't come. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the takeaway for any brand listening — your win-back strategy shouldn't undermine your pricing power. Ritual proves you can recover lapsed customers with personalization and patience, without ever offering a coupon. Luna: And the tools to do it are accessible. Most email platforms allow dynamic content blocks that swap based on purchase history. You don't need a huge engineering team. Lucas: Right. Ritual's stack includes Klaviyo for email and Braze for push, but the principles translate to any platform. Segment based on tenure, personalize the product recommendation, and time your touches with respect for the customer's inbox. Luna: It's a clean, repeatable model. I'd love to hear from listeners who've tried something similar. Maybe we'll do a follow-up with a success story. Lucas: Would be great. For now, the lesson is: win-back doesn't have to mean win-back at any cost. Ritual's approach shows that a well-timed, personalized, discount-free sequence can bring back a meaningful slice of lost revenue. Luna: And it keeps your brand intact. That's the kind of retention marketing that builds long-term equity.