As a marketing strategist, my favorite method of marketing is through email. This is because you already have people interested in your Org, you just need to convert them into lifelong customers. By integrating with Customer.io you can more easily reach your customers and start building that lifelong relationship with a variety of sales funnels.

Within Customer.io you’ll build campaigns. These are the individual sales funnels going out based on specific interactions inside your Union Org. This could be anything from purchasing a pass to canceling a subscription or actually taking the class (redeeming a registration). Below are the campaigns I suggest every Org to set up. This doesn’t have to happen all at once and should be prioritized based on what will keep your current subscribers happier to what will lead to the biggest sales. 

The very first step is to build a welcome message that's specific to each point of entry into your Org. This means having some sort of campaign for every single pass and subscription. Take a deep breath, the idea of creating this many campaigns seems like a lot but it’s really not. 

After you build one or two campaigns you’ll be duplicating the campaign and making small copy edits to make sure it aligns with the right segment (audience). By doing it this way you are sure to say hello to all new students and can continue to build each campaign by adding appropriate sales emails for ways students can upgrade within your Org or highlight the benefits of what they just purchased. Once again all emails can be built once, copied to another campaign, and tweaked to fit that audience. 

Within the subscription campaigns, I like to include a few different emails that walk students through your Org. You might have one email that highlights all the different styles of classes you offer or 3-5 classes they should start with. You might send a separate email that talks about the benefits and differences of Live classes vs. replays. Most importantly in the welcome email be sure that ALL the benefits of their subscription are listed out so they know exactly what they have access to. I can’t tell you the number of times students haven’t known all their benefits and canceled because they didn't think they were getting their money's worth!

Customer retention is important for your Org to flourish. So finding out why people are leaving or making sure they have the right subscription for their needs will help you make changes in your marketing to please future subscribers. Within your canceled subscription campaign I like to include a short (2-3 questions) Google Survey to find out why they’re leaving. The following emails can offer lower-cost options like a simpler subscription option, class packages, or a 30-day program that might better fit their needs.

Whether the student has canceled their subscription or just did a drop-in and forgot about you, having a “we miss you campaign” will help you get back in front of old students and potentially get them back for a new sale. Offer something simple and on the lower end of the pricing scale to ease them back in. This might be 50% off their first month or a discounted class package to get them back in the studio. Then those passes will have their own campaigns to keep them as customers. 

These three types of campaigns will help you stay front and center of your student’s minds while also offering value through education or new student deals and proving they can trust you with testimonials from past students in your emails. After you build your campaigns let them run for 3-6 months and then check back into the analytics and see what’s working and what’s not. From there make small adjustments and see what changes over another 3-6 months. 

Katie Leigh is a Marketing Strategist for small businesses. She helps Orgs simplify their marketing, connect with their audience, and create work-life balance. Download her free guide to work-life balance here.