Reducing Customer Churn Rates

6 EMAIL MARKETING PROBLEMS (and how to fix them) LOW OPEN RATES This can stem from uninteresting subject lines, poor deliverability, or not using preview text. Craft subject lines that spark curiosity and use personalization. Ensure strong sender reputation, avoid spam words, and test sending times. Use preview text to complement and summarize. Make subscribers eager to open your email, not just feel obligated. HIGH UNSUBSCRIBE RATES High unsubscribe rates may signal irrelevant content or frequency issues. Get feedback via surveys or emails. Segment list for tailored content and frequency. Improve content with value and variety. Deliver what subscribers want to keep them engaged. LOW CTR Low click-through rates often result from dull call-to-actions (CTAs) and irrelevant content. Use action-oriented, appealing, and well-placed CTAs. Align content with audience interests; use visuals. A/B test CTA styles, placements, and wording. When you have CTAs that stand out and relevant content, it'll help improve your email engagement. EMAIL GOING TO SPAM Emails landing in spam folders are often due to not following email deliverability best practices. Use double opt-in if necessary. Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Regularly clean your email list. Monitor reputation with Google Postmaster. Follow these easy best practices to improve email deliverability. SLOW EMAIL LIST GROWTH This can stem from poor sign-up strategies, low-value offers, and low traffic. Offer compelling lead magnets like eBooks or discounts. Write persuasive copy and simplify the sign-up. Promote sign-ups via social media and website. A/B test form designs, placements, and copy. A streamlined and seamless sign-up process will help boost your list growth. HIGH BOUNCE RATES High bounce rates typically indicate issues with email addresses or list hygiene. Clean list regularly; verify addresses before sending. Monitor bounce reports; address hard and soft bounces. Use double opt-in; keep subscription info updated. A healthy, well-maintained list minimizes bounce rates.

Coaches, let’s talk newsletters. Growing up isn’t the hard part, keeping people reading is. I was talking to a coach last week who said: "My newsletter had 800 subscribers… but every week, people kept unsubscribing. I’m adding new people, but losing old ones. Feels like a never-ending loop." Sound familiar? The truth is that subscriber growth is exciting, but it means very little if people don’t stick around. Because real value comes from retention. From turning passive readers into engaged fans who actually open, read, and even buy from you. So let’s break down what keeps your audience hooked 👇 🧠 What Makes People Stay? Subscriber retention isn’t just about sending a “great” email. It’s about psychology. Here’s what your readers want (and what most coaches miss): ✅ Consistency — Show up like clockwork. Make opening your email a habit for them. ✅ Connection — Make your content feel like a conversation, not a broadcast. ✅ Value — Teach them, inspire them, or shift their mindset every time. No fluff. Personalization Wins A McKinsey study showed: → 71% of people expect personalized content. → 76% get frustrated when it’s all “me, me, me” instead of “you.” So stop using your newsletter to only talk about yourself. Instead: 🔹 Segment your audience – Are they beginners or advanced? Coaches or clients? 🔹 Share relevant stories – What real problems do they have? Speak directly to those. 🔹 Use simple tech – Tools like ConvertKit or Customer.io help automate smart content journeys based on your reader’s behavior. 💡 Case in Point: A Coach Who Fixed Her Churn One of our clients was losing 5-6 subscribers every week. We paused the regular “salesy” emails and shifted focus to high-value insights, short stories, and light mindset tips. Result? → Unsubscribes dropped by 25% → Replies went up → 3 booked calls in 2 weeks from her email list alone Moral of the story? Don’t just send emails. Send value. 🔧 Tool of the Week: Customer.io If you’re running a newsletter and want to automate smart, behavior-based follow-ups, this tool is gold. ✅ Personalized content journeys ✅ Re-engagement automations ✅ Works like magic with small teams Before you go, tell me 👇 What’s one thing YOU do to keep your audience engaged? Drop your answer in the comments or reply “ENGAGE” and I’ll send you a few newsletter prompts that always get high open rates. #EmailMarketingForCoaches #NewsletterGrowth #PersonalBranding #ContentRetention #CoachingBusiness

Over 70% of ECC Customers haven’t started migrating to S/4HANA. SAP has been expanding its partnerships, Databricks, Salesforce, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Google Cloud, NVIDIA, and even acquiring WalkMe to accelerate S/4HANA migrations. Yet, since 2022, S/4HANA adoption has only increased by 2% per year. So, what’s holding customers back? According to #DSAG, SAP’s largest and most influential user group, the biggest challenge is: 👉 SAP is moving too fast to the cloud, while customers are struggling to keep up. Even SAP’s most loyal customers say: → Migration is too complex → Costs are unpredictable → There’s not enough support So, what is THE BEST SOLUTION for Customers? S/4HANA as a catalyst for Business Transformation. → Future-Ready: A foundation for #AI, automation, and next-gen capabilities. → Optimized Processes: Real-time insights, automation, and efficiency. → Scalability: Flexible deployment for evolving business needs. → Competitive Edge: Agility and innovation that set businesses apart. #DigitalTransformation #sapconsultants #S4HANA #sap #abap #AI #data #genai

✉️ Emails usually make companies money. 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝘁 $𝟭𝟯𝟴𝗞 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗥𝗥 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁.   This late-night text thread says it all… “𝘞𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴. 𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘭. 𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘥,” 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘱 𝘵𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯𝘣𝘰𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘓𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘯 𝘔𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘩𝘺 𝘢𝘵 11:59 𝘗𝘔 𝘪𝘯 𝘑𝘶𝘭𝘺. “𝘞𝘛𝘍? 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘭?” 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘔𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘩𝘺. “𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘯𝘦 — ‘𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘦.’ 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘸𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦. 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘶𝘴. 𝘖𝘮𝘨.” *** 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆’𝘀 𝗯𝗹𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀? #1. No segmentation A system-generated transactional email went to EVERYONE, even inactive, paying customers, says Murphy. #2. Automated cancellation email Inactive users started canceling in the middle of the night because the company automated its email with the cancellation link, which cost them $𝟭𝟯𝟵𝗞. 𝗠𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗵𝘆’𝘀 𝗳𝗶𝘅: Months earlier, Murphy had instructed the company to set up a high-friction cancellation flow, but the automated cancellation email rendered it ineffective. Turning off the email reintroduced the necessary friction to slow the churnpocalypse the unsegmented transactional email triggered. *** 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀? • “Zombie customers aren’t safe revenue,” says Murphy. • Poor segmentation can cost you big time. • Cancellation friction slows churn. 𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀? 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝗼 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗹𝗼𝘄?

Worried you're sending too many emails? Relax. It's not how often you email that bothers customers. It's whether your emails matter to them. Here's what's actually annoying: • Sending newsletters that nobody asked for • Sending the same generic email to everyone • Ignoring what customers have bought or shown interest in Here's how to fix it: • Send emails based on what customers actually care about • Divide customers into clear groups (buyers, non buyers, active, inactive) • Make sure every email you send has a purpose: solving a problem, answering a question, or sharing something useful People don’t mind frequent emails if they’re relevant. They just hate emails that waste their time.

I’ve supported SAP RISE customers across the U.S., Canada, Europe, and APAC. Different regions, same story: expectations up here 📈, delivery down here 📉. You’d think the challenges would vary — different cultures, business practices, IT maturity. But the issues we’re seeing with RISE? They’re surprisingly universal. Here’s the common thread: • Customers thought RISE meant “hands off.” Instead, they got unclear responsibilities and slow ticket response. • Requests that used to take hours now take weeks. Because RISE doesn’t come with built-in automation or streamlined orchestration. • Critical gaps appear only after go-live. Like integration points no one scoped or services that fell outside the base offering. It’s not that SAP RISE is broken. It’s that the operational assumptions don’t match reality — no matter where you are. From Frankfurt to Toronto to Manila… I’ve heard the same frustrations echoed back in nearly every meeting. RISE isn’t a global solution — it’s a global pattern. And if you know what to look for, you can plan around the pitfalls before they cost you time and trust.

Did you know a 5% monthly churn rate can bleed $2.3M a year for a DTC Subscription brand generating about $5M in annual subscription revenue? It's tempting to keep pumping millions into new customer acquisition, but if you're not optimizing churn, you're literally sabotaging your growth. Let’s break it down. For every percentage point of monthly churn, you’re effectively looking at close to 12 times that in lost revenue over the year. Here are a few examples to illustrate this: • At $1,000,000 MRR with a 5% churn rate: That’s a $540,000 annual loss. Essentially, you’re compelled to drive about a 46% increase in new revenue every year to avoid falling behind. • At $2,000,000 MRR with an 8% churn rate: Here, you’re shedding around $160,000 every month. Annually, that loss adds up to about $1.3M—forcing you to secure nearly 63% more new revenue each year just to keep your numbers steady. The takeaway? As your business scales, even a small percentage of churn can require a massive infusion of new revenue to maintain—or grow—your bottom line. For DTC subscription brands, focusing on retention isn’t just good practice—it’s a necessity if you want to break through that growth ceiling. When you drive up loyalty, you’re not only keeping churn at bay but also turning your customers into lifelong advocates who help stabilize and grow your revenue. Loyal subscribers stick around, recommend your service, and are more forgiving during rough patches, which means you're building a solid foundation that propels your business beyond mere survival.

The Unspoken Truth: "No one warned us how much SAP would change us." That's not a complaint from a customer; it's a quiet, profound truth I've heard more times than I'd like to admit. They expected a new system. What they often got was a complete operating model shift. Think about it: - Teams had to unlearn ingrained ways of making decisions. - Entire roles were redefined, sometimes overnight. - Once fast, flexible processes suddenly became rigid flows. SAP didn't just touch IT. It fundamentally changed how people plan, purchase, sell, and serve—truly, almost everything about how the business operates. The problem isn't the change itself. It's that, often, no one truly prepared them for the sheer depth and breadth of that transformation. We might have said, "You'll need some training." What we perhaps should have said was, "This will reshape how your business works from the ground up." That's not scope creep; that's just the reality of deep digital transformation. If we don't lead with honesty about the true scale of the shift, do we really earn the right to deliver it? What are your thoughts? How do we, as consultants and leaders, better prepare organizations for the full impact of an SAP transformation? #SAP #ERP #DigitalTransformation #ChangeManagement #ConsultingTruths #CustomerVoice

Let’s break down the cost of your email bouncing. Assume you're a mid market shop with 3/4 BDRs sending 1000s to 2000s automated emails a day. That's 3-8k emails a day. We’ll say an average of 5k. Assuming 1 in 1000 emails book a meeting, 5 meetings per day. With an ACV of $12k, your team creates $60k in deal value, or $1.78 million a month. If your bounce rate goes from 1% (Wiza standard) to 14% (non-SMTP verified email - Apollo, Zoominfo, Seamless), that drops you to around 4 meetings a day. That's a loss of ~ $10k per day, or $234k a month. And that's not accounting for the destruction of your domain deliverability health from a large bounce rate.

At $15M ARR, 8% churn = $100k/month gone. If I were running growth at a consumer SaaS, this is the recovery system I’d use to claw it back: Step 1: Let retries lead, emails follow Don’t treat emails and retries as separate tracks. - Retry multiple times first (smart logic based on decline reason) - Only send emails after a retry fails - Recovery attempts should dictate email timing (not a dumb fixed schedule) This preserves trust and maximizes silent recovery. __ Step 2: Email sequence (triggered by failed retries) Email 1 (sent after first retry fails) - Subject: “We can’t process your payment” - Clear, concise, personalized (name, amount, last 4 of card) - Direct link to branded, mobile card update page (remove friction) Follow-ups: - Sent after subsequent retries fail - Spaced based on retry logic - Escalate urgency slightly each time - 3–4 total attempts, then stop. Respect the inbox. __ Step 3: Maximize impact - Use different sender addresses (same domain) - Keep subject lines clear and direct - Localize send times to user’s timezone - Short, mobile-first formatting - Monitor replies, they’re gold for fixing churn friction Pro tip: The sender name matters more than you think. “Acme Billing Team” builds trust. “NoReply@” kills it. __ TAKEAWAY This isn’t just email automation. It’s adaptive, intelligent recovery that earns you revenue and goodwill. What’s the smartest thing you’ve done to reduce churn that nobody talks about?