Funnel Breakdown: 10 Churn-Cutting Tactics from Subscription DTC Powerhouse Moonbrew

We had an exciting sit-down with the Moonbrew team at their NYC office last week.

Moonbrew is a DTC sleep brand that’s scaling hard in 2024, in large part because they:

1) Sell an amazing consumable product that solves a real problem (poor sleep)

2) Maximize LTV (lifetime customer value) & MRR (monthly recurring revenue) by minimizing subscriber CHURN

We’re almost ready to release the full interview with Moonbrew’s Co-founder Andrew Case & VP of Marketing Ronak Patel..

(And you don’t want to miss it - tons of takeaways if you’re looking to scale a subscription brand on paid traffic)

But wanted to share some quick takeaways from the chat with you right now..

...All about how to reduce subscriber CHURN.

10 Churn-Cutting Tactics from Subscription DTC Powerhouse Moonbrew

If subscriptions are a part of your business?

(and especially if you're selling subscription consumables)

Then you've probably encountered these 3 complaints from customers who cancel their subscription aka churn:

1) “I don't like the taste”
2) “The product doesn't work”
3) “I have too much product”

But here’s then thing: Each of these objections is actually a massive opportunity for you to reduce churn.

(And in the full interview with Moonbrew, you'll hear everything Andrew & Ronak have to share on how Moonbrew successfully handles all 3 objections)

But in this email let's walk through 10 churn reducing tactics from Moonbrew that you can use, right now, to minimize the number of subscription customers who cancel.

Objection #1: "The product doesn't work"

Let's start with objection #1, "The product doesn't work"...

Tactic #1: Proactive Customer Education & Expectation Setting

Moonbrew sets clear expectations in both their sales material and immediate follow-up emails, educating customers that the product might take a few nights to start working, as well as how to create a sleep routine for best results:

The result? Customers are better prepared for what to expect and are more likely to give the product the necessary time to work.

This proactive approach helps reduce premature cancellations and builds trust, as customers feel supported and informed from the very beginning.

Tactic #2: Dedicated Customer Success Managers

Each customer is assigned a dedicated customer success manager who checks in, guides them on how to use the product properly, and helps them with their sleep routine. This proactive support is aimed at setting the customer up for success and ensuring they achieve better sleep.

Here's the email I got from my customer success manager, Ashley:

Notice how Ashley pre-frames a couple crucial points:

#1: the product works: “90% of customers saw deeper sleep…”

#2: reinforcing expectations: “Takes 10-14 nights” to start working.

Most of the followup emails beyond that come from Ashley, which helps build a more personal connection.

Tactic #3: Offering higher-strength formula as win-back strategy

Customer says the product doesn’t work?

That’s where Moonbrew’s extra strength formula comes to the rescue.

Again, thanks to the Customer Success agent’s proactive engagement, a subscriber can be encouraged to switch to the higher-strength version of the product.

This stronger formulation provides another opportunity to meet the customer’s needs and prevent churn.

Tactic #4: Continuous Product Improvement

Of course, the best long-term strategy to combat the “It doesn’t work for me” objection is:

Continuously make your product better and better.

Here are some of the ways Moonbrew attacks this:

• Conducts regular clinical trials to test and validate the efficacy of their product, and also identify areas for improvement and validate the effectiveness of new ingredients and combinations.

• Use customer feedback to identify product weak points & opportunities. Key point: In addition to reviews / written feedback, Moonbrew leans heavily on monitoring each product’s Net Promoter Score (NPS). (much more on this topic in the full interview)

• Develops new versions of the product based on the results of clinical trials & customer feedback

Objection #2: "I have too much product"

Sometimes subscribers simply have too much product on hand. Here are ways to prevent this objection from resulting in another churned subscriber…

Tactic #5: Easy Pause Option

Why have a customer cancel when a simple temporary pause will address their main issue? (too much product)

Moonbrew makes it incredibly simple for customers to pause their subscriptions if they find they have too much product. With just one click, customers can pause their delivery without going through a complicated process.

Just a simple email to their customer success manager starts this process, also allowing Moonbrew’s team to identify the cause of the issue (too much product) and convert what would have been a cancellation into a temporary .

Tactic #6: Optimized Email Reminders w/ 1-click Add-to-Cart

For customers who have paused their subscriptions, Moonbrew sends targeted email reminders, encouraging them to resume their subscription when they're ready, often with an enticing discount. (Like this one below)

Plus, they’re one-click add-to-cart. For a more streamlined & higher converting sales process from the email, as Andrew noted on the interview:

Objection #3: "I don't like the taste!"

Here are a few ways Moonbrew handles this taste objection:

Tactic #7: The Flavor Swap

Again, here's where Customer Success Manager's high-touch followup is crucial:

If a customer complains about the taste, support offers them a switch to a new, more enticing flavor. This tactic has significantly reduced subscription churn.

“Flavor Launches” are a huge part of Moonbrew’s growth strategy (more on that in the full episode).

As Moonbrew co-founder Andrew Case explains in the full interview, launching new flavors is a great excuse to reach out and "re-ignite" churned customers, and get them back on subscription.

Tactic #8: New Flavor Free Gift

Check out the new flavor (NoonBrew Matcha) you are offered immediately after you cancel a Moonbrew Cocao subscription:

Clicking this takes you back to a checkout page to reactivate your subscription, including the gift.

Bonus Tactic #9: Automating it all

As proactive as Moonbrew's Customer Success Managers are, they're not going to be able to contact / intercept ALL potential cancellations

That's why automated anti-cancellation flows are so crucial.

When you try and cancel via the portal, first, you’ll be prompted with a “why do you want to cancel?” survey:

Then, let’s say you answer “I don’t like the taste”

Guess what? You then automatically get the “Flavor Swap” option:

Bonus Tactic #10: Collect new flavor ideas

How do you decide which new flavors to launch?

Ask your customers.

Moonbrew's post-purchase survey collects and scores new flavors (among many other functions you'll see in the full survey we'll share in the full breakdown) so the team knows what to prioritize for the next flavor launch.

So there you have it, 10 tactics to reduce subscriber churn, direct from Moonbrew, one of the fastest growing DTC subscription consumables companies right now.

Can’t wait to share the full episode with you!

We’re also going to share the full purchase funnel breakdown with you (including the cart abandonment and subscription post-purchase upsell sequences):

Here’s a sneak peek at what we covered in the interview:

* The ‘Goldilocks Zone’ for selling subscriptions: Why pushing too hard to sell subscriptions backfires, and the strategy that actually works for them instead.

* How adding THIS Moonbrew product option completely transformed their business:

* Moonbrew’s cash flow breakthrough: How they Optimize their CAC to LTV payback period for massive scale.

* The Cohort Analysis "unlock": How Moonbrew measures the long-term impact of split tests.

* How to Grow Your MRR with FLAVORS: How to Avoid Flavor Fatigue, Boosting AOV with Limited Edition Flavors, and Flavor Expansion as a Growth Strategy

And much more…

Tomorrow, we’ll share some value-packed clips from the interview. You won’t want to miss it!

Have a great day,

The Funnel of the Week Team

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