The $50K/Month Mistake You Might Be Making

Hey it’s Max from The Inbox Newsletter.

Marketing isn’t that complicated.

In fact, I put $50,000/month back into a brand’s pocket with one simple tweak that was hiding in plain sight.

Their current email agency didn’t spot this, but I did.

Here’s what happened and how you can do the same.

Key Takeaways:

• Most subscription brands obsess over acquisition but ignore retention.

• Email campaigns often remind customers to cancel, unintentionally.

• Segmentation is everything, stop emailing current subscribers like they're cold leads.

• One tweak dropped cancellations by 51% and saved $50K/month.

• Simple, expert eyes can spot hidden revenue leaks instantly (which is why you should get expert opinions often!)

The Subscription Business Trap

Subscription-based ecom brands usually live and die by how many people they can get to sign up each month.

And while acquisition is important, most completely overlook a more important stat: retention.

I was auditing a client’s Klaviyo campaigns for their subscription product. On the surface, things looked great… thousands of dollars in new subscription revenue rolling in every week.

But then I looked deeper...

The Ugly Truth Behind the Numbers

Here’s what we saw:

• Subscription Starts: $2K, $3K, $5K, all looking solid.

• BUT Subscription Cancellations? $6K, $14K, even $16K from singular emails

Just these 6 campaigns resulted in:

• +$13,300/mo in new monthly subscriptions

• -$62,400/mo in cancelled monthly subscriptions

That’s a net negative of $49,100/mo from just 6 campaigns 🤯

When we zoomed out, they had started $33,000 in new subscriptions across the last 30 days... but lost $129,000 from cancellations that same month.

They weren’t just leaking money. They were setting it on fire.

Yikes…

So, they started working with us to fix this (we’ve had some great results).

Here’s what we did.

The “Why am I subscribed to this?” Problem

What was causing the drop-off? So many damn cancellations.

Well, they were blasting their 2-3 email campaigns per week everyone including active subscribers.

They were good emails… educational and value-driven.

You would assume active subscribers on the product would want education and nurturing to stay subscribed.

But that’s just not what happens with subscription products…

Every time a subscriber opened an email, they were reminded they were still subscribed to the product.

And a good chunk of them went, “Oh yeah, I meant to cancel this,” ... and they did.

Every time you remind a subscriber you exist, you run the risk of them being like “eh I’ll cancel this I don’t want to pay another $75”.

But what if you never messaged them? And had them just receive your product?

You see it with app subscriptions…

Sometimes I’ll check my bank subscriptions and see I’ve been getting charged $29.99 once a month for 6 months for an app I haven’t checked once in that time period lol.

That same logic should apply to your brand.

The less you can message someone and remind them “HEY YOU ARE PAYING US MONEY HAHA THANK YOU” the better.

The $50K/mo Fix: Segmentation

Here’s all we did:

✅ We excluded active subscribers from their general email campaigns.
✅ That’s it.

No crazy flows (we did at that shortly after). No complicated logic. Just common-sense segmentation.

Since implementing the change, among other things, email cancellations dropped by 51%.

That’s over $50,000/month in saved recurring revenue.

We added more advanced strategies to get new subs and more strategies for keeping subs…

The results have been sweet.

• 76% INCREASE in Subscriptions Started (+$48k/mo)

• 51% DECREASE in Subscriptions Cancelled (-$59k/mo)

= $107k/mo EXTRA swing in subscription revenue... just our first full month together 😉

The Real Lesson Here… Get Second Opinions

Great email marketing isn’t about being fancy, it’s about being smart.

This was a basic oversight that cost this brand multiple six figures per year.

Mistakes like this are incredibly common which is why you need to be consulting with experts often.

Want a $150M Expert to Audit Your Account?

We’ve generated over $150M+ for ecom brands through email and SMS.

If you’re wondering whether a hidden mistake like this is quietly killing your revenue,
Book a free audit with us and we’ll take a look inside your email account.

👉 Book Your Free Audit Here

PS - Something big is coming…

I'm opening a private 90-day mentorship for a small group of brands. Private Slack, group, calls with me, 24/7 access to my team, exclusive templates, and a full email course.

We’ll work directly with you to build your full email engine from scratch… flows, campaigns, segmentation, calendar, everything.

Same stuff we use to generate $10M+/mo for clients.

If you want in on the waitlist, just reply to this email and I’ll let you know when we open up.

Only launching this to people who raise their hand.

Respond and I’ll add you to the list.

Email Inspiration Of The Day

Brand:
Bloom

Email Design:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KWeDF2ivxNZvTp19NdaMHW7tDGBmUB4K/view?usp=sharing

Notes:
Such a cool unique idea! Love the Instagram question layout to answer FAQs / questions on your product.

Makes the email less of an email and more like a native platform they are used to.

Amazing stuff.

Reply to this email if you have any questions or further content you want covered.

Cheers,

Max

PS - If you run a 7-9 figure ecommerce brand and you want to have a free email strategy consultation, book a call here »

PPS - I have a few different products you can buy. If you purchase any one of these products you get access to my private community of 1500+ members with daily posts from me, access to me for support 24/7, and private calls.

• Ecommerce Email Mastery: A 60 lesson course breaking down everything you need to know about ecommerce email marketing in the most concise and organized manner. learn more »

• Mix and Match Email Design Templates: 134 email section templates that can make 5,000+ unique email designs with, learn more »

• QuickFlow Templates: All core 7 core email marketing flows fully templatized with examples, learn more »