You’re focused on growing your paid subscriber base. Meanwhile, how many paid subscribers are you losing each month?

Churn is the real metric that keeps recurring revenue business owners up at night.

Growth is good, but you’ve got to keep as many of your supporters with you as you can to make your business sustainable. Otherwise, it becomes a real grind to replace churned subs with new ones.

That’s why we’re focusing this month on win back campaigns.

Just because someone has canceled, does not mean they are gone forever. Credit cards expire. Budgets shift. Motivation wanes. But conditions change all the time, when the winds may turn back in your favor, you want to be standing there with open arms and flowing hair!

Last week, we kicked off a win back sprint to build a campaign you can use to encourage lapsed or canceled subscribers to start up again.

Today, I want to show how you can do this inside Outpost, because they are the ONLY TOOL I know of that has a built-in win back automation.

All you need is a little sweet talk for your subscribers and you’re ready to party. Let’s have a look!

How to add a win back campaign inside Outpost

What’s stopping you from doing a win back campaign? I’m gonna bet it’s time! Who has the time?!

Well, YOU DO if you use Outpost, because Outpost has made your win back campaign so effortless, it will take you just one hour. Try the steps below, time yourself and come after me if it takes longer than that.

A win back campaign is a short series of messages you send to subscribers who have canceled to try to WIN THEM BACK and encourage them to restart their subscription. If you missed our win back issue, find the recap here and there’s still time to join our live sprint.

The messaging itself is pretty similar to any other campaign you’re sending. You’re reminding them why they love you, what their support makes possible and what’s coming next for your publication. It’s the timing that’s the real magic here—hitting these readers in the moment when they really might be considering coming back.

Outpost already has an answer for that timing so we’ll start with their easy mode and then, I’ll offer you a more customized option too.

Easy mode

Outpost’s cancellation flow will catch cancellations as soon as they happen in your Stripe account—meaning before the end of the subscription.

If I subscribe to your publication on October 1, and I cancel on October 14, I still have several days left to read, but you’ve already lost me as a subscriber. Outpost detects this and offers you a chance to reach them before they’re gone.

1️⃣ Open your Outpost account and head into the Autoresponder

2️⃣ Tab over to Retention and Renewal

3️⃣ Scroll down to Cancellations

4️⃣ Tap the down carrot and then Edit to update the messaging, subjects and discount offers on each email (there are five optional emails in the cancellation section)

5️⃣ Once you have your messaging updated, toggle each email on (and make sure the big on/off button is on up top!)

Advanced mode

You can also work to win back canceled or lapsed subscribers months after they have already canceled, like having a cool off period. If immediate prompts to bring them back didn’t work, a delayed note might do the trick.

You’ll need to bring in Zapier (a general automation tool) to help, alongside Outpost.

1️⃣ Go to Zapier and set up a new zap that goes from Stripe → Ghost

2️⃣ Your trigger event in Stripe will be Canceled Subscription 

3️⃣ Your action event in Ghost will be Update Member

4️⃣ Map the Stripe email to the member email, following Zapier’s instructions, and then inside the Ghost step, add a label “canceled subscriber” (or whatever you want to call this)

5️⃣ Test your Zap and turn it on

6️⃣ Head back to Outpost and go into Autoresponder → Advanced

7️⃣ Create a new campaign with the following conditions

• Start condition: Member label added

• End condition: Member upgrades to paid

• Apply to: Free

• Only Include Members Labeled: Canceled subscriber (or whatever you used)

8️⃣ Add a new email for 3 months after this label is added and write your win back message there (need ideas? I have them in this post)

9️⃣ Optionally add 1-2 more emails and then turn your campaign on!

Do you have an hour to win back some subscribers?

If you’ve been running your publication for at least a few months, you probably have churned subscribers. Spending the time to set up an automation like this will keep paying you back as it starts winning back some of that lost revenue. Set aside an hour and turn on at least one of these emails so you can see it in action!

If you’re a Ghost publisher who hasn’t tried Outpost yet, start your free trial and test this feature out for yourself.

You can also check out my starter guides on everything Outpost here if you’re just getting going with it.