Churn Prevention

You are an expert in SaaS retention and churn prevention. Your goal is to help reduce both voluntary churn (customers choosing to cancel) and involuntary churn (failed payments) through well-designed cancel flows, dynamic save offers, proactive retention, and dunning strategies.

Before Starting

Check for product marketing context first: If .agents/product-marketing.md exists (or .claude/product-marketing.md, or the legacy product-marketing-context.md filename, in older setups), read it before asking questions. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered or specific to this task.

Gather this context (ask if not provided):

1. Current Churn Situation

• What's your monthly churn rate? (Voluntary vs. involuntary if known)
• How many active subscribers?
• What's the average MRR per customer?
• Do you have a cancel flow today, or does cancel happen instantly?

2. Billing & Platform

• What billing provider? (Stripe, Chargebee, Paddle, Recurly, Braintree)
• Monthly, annual, or both billing intervals?
• Do you support plan pausing or downgrades?
• Any existing retention tooling? (Churnkey, ProsperStack, Raaft)

3. Product & Usage Data

• Do you track feature usage per user?
• Can you identify engagement drop-offs?
• Do you have cancellation reason data from past churns?
• What's your activation metric? (What do retained users do that churned users don't?)

4. Constraints

• B2B or B2C? (Affects flow design)
• Self-serve cancellation required? (Some regulations mandate easy cancel)
• Brand tone for offboarding? (Empathetic, direct, playful)

---

How This Skill Works

Churn has two types requiring different strategies:

Voluntary churn is typically 50-70% of total churn. Involuntary churn is 30-50% but is often easier to fix.

This skill supports three modes:

1. Build a cancel flow — Design from scratch with survey, save offers, and confirmation
2. Optimize an existing flow — Analyze cancel data and improve save rates
3. Set up dunning — Failed payment recovery with retries and email sequences

---

Cancel Flow Design

The Cancel Flow Structure

Every cancel flow follows this sequence:

Trigger → Survey → Dynamic Offer → Confirmation → Post-Cancel

Step 1: Trigger Customer clicks "Cancel subscription" in account settings.

Step 2: Exit Survey Ask why they're cancelling. This determines which save offer to show.

Step 3: Dynamic Save Offer Present a targeted offer based on their reason (discount, pause, downgrade, etc.)

Step 4: Confirmation If they still want to cancel, confirm clearly with end-of-billing-period messaging.

Step 5: Post-Cancel Set expectations, offer easy reactivation path, trigger win-back sequence.

Exit Survey Design

The exit survey is the foundation. Good reason categories:

Survey best practices:

• 1 question, single-select with optional free text
• 5-8 reason options max (avoid decision fatigue)
• Put most common reasons first (review data quarterly)
• Don't make it feel like a guilt trip
• "Help us improve" framing works better than "Why are you leaving?"

Dynamic Save Offers

The key insight: match the offer to the reason. A discount won't save someone who isn't using the product. A feature roadmap won't save someone who can't afford it.

Offer-to-reason mapping:

Save Offer Types

Discount

• 20-30% off for 2-3 months is the sweet spot
• Avoid 50%+ discounts (trains customers to cancel for deals)
• Time-limit the offer ("This offer expires when you leave this page")
• Show the dollar amount saved, not just the percentage

Pause subscription

• 1-3 month pause maximum (longer pauses rarely reactivate)
• 60-80% of pausers eventually return to active
• Auto-reactivation with advance notice email
• Keep their data and settings intact

Plan downgrade

• Offer a lower tier instead of full cancellation
• Show what they keep vs. what they lose
• Position as "right-size your plan" not "downgrade"
• Easy path back up when ready

Feature unlock / extension

• Unlock a premium feature they haven't tried
• Extend trial of a higher tier
• Works best for "not getting enough value" reasons

Personal outreach

• For high-value accounts (top 10-20% by MRR)
• Route to customer success for a call
• Personal email from founder for smaller companies

Cancel Flow UI Patterns

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│  We're sorry to see you go          │
│                                     │
│  What's the main reason you're      │
│  cancelling?                        │
│                                     │
│  ○ Too expensive                    │
│  ○ Not using it enough              │
│  ○ Missing a feature I need         │
│  ○ Switching to another tool        │
│  ○ Technical issues                 │
│  ○ Temporary / don't need right now │
│  ○ Other: [____________]            │
│                                     │
│  [Continue]                         │
│  [Never mind, keep my subscription] │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘
         ↓ (selects "Too expensive")
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│  What if we could help?             │
│                                     │
│  We'd love to keep you. Here's a    │
│  special offer:                     │
│                                     │
│  ┌───────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │  25% off for the next 3 months│  │
│  │  Save $XX/month               │  │
│  │                               │  │
│  │  [Accept Offer]               │  │
│  └───────────────────────────────┘  │
│                                     │
│  Or switch to [Basic Plan] at       │
│  $X/month →                         │
│                                     │
│  [No thanks, continue cancelling]   │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘

UI principles:

• Keep the "continue cancelling" option visible (no dark patterns)
• One primary offer + one fallback, not a wall of options
• Show specific dollar savings, not abstract percentages
• Use the customer's name and account data when possible
• Mobile-friendly (many cancellations happen on mobile)

For detailed cancel flow patterns by industry and billing provider, see references/cancel-flow-patterns.md.

---

Churn Prediction & Proactive Retention

The best save happens before the customer ever clicks "Cancel."

Risk Signals

Track these leading indicators of churn:

Health Score Model

Build a simple health score (0-100) from weighted signals:

Health Score = (
  Login frequency score × 0.30 +
  Feature usage score   × 0.25 +
  Support sentiment     × 0.15 +
  Billing health        × 0.15 +
  Engagement score      × 0.15
)

Proactive Interventions

Before they think about cancelling:

---

Involuntary Churn: Payment Recovery

Failed payments cause 30-50% of all churn but are the most recoverable.

The Dunning Stack

Pre-dunning → Smart retry → Dunning emails → Grace period → Hard cancel

Pre-Dunning (Prevent Failures)

• Card expiry alerts: Email 30, 15, and 7 days before card expires
• Backup payment method: Prompt for a second payment method at signup
• Card updater services: Visa/Mastercard auto-update programs (reduces hard declines 30-50%)
• Pre-billing notification: Email 3-5 days before charge for annual plans

Smart Retry Logic

Not all failures are the same. Retry strategy by decline type:

Retry timing best practices:

• Retry 1: 24 hours after failure
• Retry 2: 3 days after failure
• Retry 3: 5 days after failure
• Retry 4: 7 days after failure (with dunning email escalation)
• After 4 retries: Hard cancel with reactivation path

Smart retry tip: Retry on the day of the month the payment originally succeeded (if Day 1 worked before, retry on Day 1). Stripe Smart Retries handles this automatically.

Dunning Email Sequence

Dunning email best practices:

• Direct link to payment update page (no login required if possible)
• Show what they'll lose (their data, their team's access)
• Don't blame ("your payment failed" not "you failed to pay")
• Include support contact for help
• Plain text performs better than designed emails for dunning

Recovery Benchmarks

For the complete dunning playbook with provider-specific setup, see references/dunning-playbook.md.

---

Metrics & Measurement

Key Churn Metrics

Cohort Analysis

Segment churn by:

• Acquisition channel — Which channels bring stickier customers?
• Plan type — Which plans churn most?
• Tenure — When do most cancellations happen? (30, 60, 90 days?)
• Cancel reason — Which reasons are growing?
• Save offer type — Which offers work best for which segments?

Cancel Flow A/B Tests

Test one variable at a time:

How to run cancel flow experiments: Use the ab-testing skill to design statistically rigorous tests. PostHog is a good fit for cancel flow experiments — its feature flags can split users into different flows server-side, and its funnel analytics track each step of the cancel flow (survey → offer → accept/decline → confirm). See the PostHog integration guide (../../tools/integrations/posthog.md) for setup.

---

Common Mistakes

• No cancel flow at all — Instant cancel leaves money on the table. Even a simple survey + one offer saves 10-15%
• Making cancellation hard to find — Hidden cancel buttons breed resentment and bad reviews. Many jurisdictions require easy cancellation (FTC Click-to-Cancel rule)
• Same offer for every reason — A blanket discount doesn't address "missing feature" or "not using it"
• Discounts too deep — 50%+ discounts train customers to cancel-and-return for deals
• Ignoring involuntary churn — Often 30-50% of total churn and the easiest to fix
• No dunning emails — Letting payment failures silently cancel accounts
• Guilt-trip copy — "Are you sure you want to abandon us?" damages brand trust
• Not tracking save offer LTV — A "saved" customer who churns 30 days later wasn't really saved
• Pausing too long — Pauses beyond 3 months rarely reactivate. Set limits.
• No post-cancel path — Make reactivation easy and trigger win-back emails, because some churned users will want to come back

---

Tool Integrations

For implementation, see the tools registry (../../tools/REGISTRY.md).

Retention Platforms

Billing Providers (Dunning)

Related CLI Tools

---

Related Skills

• emails: For win-back email sequences after cancellation
• paywalls: For in-app upgrade moments and trial expiration
• pricing: For plan structure and annual discount strategy
• onboarding: For activation to prevent early churn
• analytics: For setting up churn signal events
• ab-testing: For testing cancel flow variations with statistical rigor

---

Supporting file: evals/evals.json

{
  "skill_name": "churn-prevention",
  "evals": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "prompt": "Our SaaS product has a 7% monthly churn rate and we need to bring it down. We're a $49/month project management tool with about 2,000 paying customers. Can you help us design a churn prevention strategy?",
      "expected_output": "Should check for product-marketing.md first. Should address both voluntary and involuntary churn. Should design a cancel flow following the framework: trigger → exit survey → dynamic save offer → confirmation → post-cancel nurture. Should include the 7 exit survey categories and recommend dynamic save offers mapped to each cancellation reason. Should address dunning for involuntary churn (pre-dunning, smart retry, email sequence, grace period). Should recommend a health score model. Should provide prioritized implementation plan.",
      "assertions": [
        "Checks for product-marketing.md",
        "Addresses both voluntary and involuntary churn",
        "Designs cancel flow with proper stages",
        "Includes exit survey with multiple categories",
        "Maps save offers to cancellation reasons",
        "Addresses dunning stack for payment recovery",
        "Recommends health score model",
        "Provides prioritized implementation plan"
      ],
      "files": []
    },
    {
      "id": 2,
      "prompt": "We keep losing customers because their credit cards expire. About 15% of our churn is from failed payments. How do we fix this?",
      "expected_output": "Should identify this as involuntary churn / payment recovery. Should apply the dunning stack framework: pre-dunning (card expiration reminders before failure), smart retry (retry logic based on failure reason), dunning email sequence (escalating urgency), grace period, and eventual cancellation. Should provide specific timing for each stage. Should recommend payment recovery tools and strategies (card updater services, backup payment methods). Should include recovery rate benchmarks.",
      "assertions": [
        "Identifies as involuntary churn / payment recovery",
        "Applies dunning stack framework",
        "Includes pre-dunning card expiration reminders",
        "Includes smart retry logic",
        "Provides dunning email sequence with escalating urgency",
        "Recommends grace period before cancellation",
        "Mentions card updater services or backup payment methods",
        "Includes recovery benchmarks"
      ],
      "files": []
    },
    {
      "id": 3,
      "prompt": "what should we show users when they click the cancel button? right now they just go straight to cancellation with no attempt to save them",
      "expected_output": "Should trigger on casual phrasing. Should design the cancel flow: cancel button → exit survey → dynamic save offer → confirmation → post-cancel. Should detail the exit survey categories (too expensive, missing feature, switched to competitor, not using enough, technical issues, bad support, other). Should provide dynamic save offers matched to each reason (e.g., too expensive → discount offer, missing feature → roadmap update, not using enough → onboarding help). Should include copy recommendations for each screen. Should warn against dark patterns (making it impossible to cancel).",
      "assertions": [
        "Triggers on casual phrasing",
        "Designs multi-step cancel flow",
        "Includes exit survey with 7 categories",
        "Provides dynamic save offers mapped to reasons",
        "Includes copy recommendations",
        "Warns against dark patterns",
        "Includes confirmation and post-cancel steps"
      ],
      "files": []
    },
    {
      "id": 4,
      "prompt": "How do we identify which customers are at risk of churning before they actually cancel? We want to be proactive.",
      "expected_output": "Should apply the health score model framework. Should define health score components: product usage signals (login frequency, feature adoption, key action completion), engagement signals (support tickets, NPS responses, email engagement), and account signals (contract type, company growth, stakeholder changes). Should recommend scoring methodology (0-100 scale). Should define risk tiers and recommended interventions for each tier. Should suggest data sources and implementation approach.",
      "assertions": [
        "Applies health score model framework",
        "Defines usage-based health signals",
        "Defines engagement-based health signals",
        "Defines account-based health signals",
        "Recommends scoring methodology",
        "Defines risk tiers with interventions",
        "Suggests data sources and implementation"
      ],
      "files": []
    },
    {
      "id": 5,
      "prompt": "Our exit survey shows that 40% of cancellations say 'too expensive' as the reason. What save offers should we try?",
      "expected_output": "Should reference the dynamic save offers mapped to the 'too expensive' reason. Should suggest multiple offer types: temporary discount, downgrade to cheaper plan, annual billing discount, pause instead of cancel, extended trial of current plan. Should recommend testing different offers to find what works best. Should also dig deeper — 'too expensive' often masks other issues (not seeing value, not using enough features). Should suggest follow-up questions in the exit survey to get more specific.",
      "assertions": [
        "References save offers for 'too expensive' reason",
        "Suggests multiple offer types (discount, downgrade, pause)",
        "Recommends testing different offers",
        "Notes that 'too expensive' often masks other issues",
        "Suggests deeper follow-up questions",
        "Provides specific save offer copy or structure"
      ],
      "files": []
    },
    {
      "id": 6,
      "prompt": "We want to set up a win-back email sequence for customers who already cancelled. Can you help write those emails?",
      "expected_output": "Should recognize this overlaps with email sequence work. Should defer to or cross-reference the emails skill for writing the actual email sequence. May provide churn-specific context (timing post-cancel, re-engagement hooks, win-back offer strategy) but should make clear that emails is the right skill for designing and writing the full email sequence.",
      "assertions": [
        "Recognizes overlap with email sequence work",
        "References or defers to emails skill",
        "May provide churn-specific context for the sequence",
        "Does not attempt to write a full email sequence"
      ],
      "files": []
    }
  ]
}

---

Supporting file: references/cancel-flow-patterns.md

Cancel Flow Patterns

Detailed cancel flow patterns by business type, billing provider, and industry.

---

Cancel Flow by Business Type

B2C / Self-Serve SaaS

High volume, low touch. The flow must work without human intervention.

Flow structure:

Cancel button → Exit survey (1 question) → Dynamic offer → Confirm → Post-cancel

Characteristics:

• Fully automated, no human in the loop
• Quick — 2-3 screens maximum
• One offer + one fallback, not a menu of options
• Mobile-optimized (significant cancellations on mobile)
• Clear "continue cancelling" at every step

Typical save rate: 20-30%

Example flow for a $29/mo productivity app:

1. "What's the main reason?" → 6 options
2. Selected "Too expensive" → "Get 25% off for 3 months (save $21.75)"
3. Declined → "Or switch to our Starter plan at $12/mo"
4. Declined → "We're sorry to see you go. Your access continues until [date]."

---

B2B / Team Plans

Lower volume, higher stakes. Personal outreach is worth the cost.

Flow structure:

Cancel button → Exit survey → Offer (or route to CS) → Confirm → Post-cancel

Characteristics:

• Route accounts above MRR threshold to customer success
• Show team impact ("Your 8 team members will lose access")
• Offer admin-to-admin call for enterprise accounts
• Longer consideration — allow "schedule a call" as a save option
• Require admin/owner role to cancel (not any team member)

Typical save rate: 30-45% (higher because of personal touch)

MRR-based routing:

---

Freemium / Free-to-Paid

Users cancelling paid to return to free tier. Different psychology — they're not leaving, they're downgrading.

Flow structure:

Cancel button → "Switch to Free?" prompt → Exit survey (if still cancelling) → Offer → Confirm

Characteristics:

• Lead with the free tier as the first option (not a save offer)
• Show what they keep on free vs. what they lose
• The "save" is keeping them on free, not losing them entirely
• Track free-tier users for future re-upgrade campaigns

---

Cancel Flow by Billing Interval

Monthly Subscribers

• More price-sensitive, shorter commitment
• Discount offers work well (20-30% for 2-3 months)
• Pause is effective (1-2 months)
• Suggest annual plan at a discount as an alternative

Offer priority:

1. Discount (if reason = price)
2. Pause (if reason = not using / temporary)
3. Annual plan switch (if engaged but price-sensitive)

Annual Subscribers

• Higher commitment, often cancelling for stronger reasons
• Prorate refund expectations matter
• Longer save window (they've already paid)
• Personal outreach more justified (higher LTV at stake)

Offer priority:

1. Pause remainder of term (if temporary)
2. Plan adjustment + credit for next renewal
3. Personal outreach from CS
4. Partial refund + downgrade (better than full refund + cancel)

Refund handling:

• Offer prorated refund if significant time remaining
• "Pause until renewal" if less than 3 months left
• Be generous — bad refund experiences create vocal detractors

---

Save Offer Patterns

The Discount Ladder

Don't lead with your biggest discount. Escalate:

Cancel click → 15% off → Still cancelling → 25% off → Still cancelling → Let them go

Rules:

• Maximum 2 discount offers per cancel session
• Never exceed 30% (higher trains cancel-for-discount behavior)
• Time-limit discounts (2-3 months, then full price resumes)
• Track discount accepters — if they cancel again at full price, don't re-offer

The Pause Playbook

Pause is often better than a discount because it doesn't devalue your product.

Implementation:

Pause reactivation sequence:

• Day -7: "Your pause ends in 7 days. We've been busy — here's what's new."
• Day -1: "Welcome back tomorrow! Here's what's waiting for you."
• Day 0: "You're back! Here's a quick tour of what's new."

The Downgrade Path

For multi-plan products, downgrade is the strongest save:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Before you go, what about right-sizing │
│  your plan?                             │
│                                         │
│  Current: Pro ($49/mo)                  │
│                                         │
│  ┌─────────────────────────────────┐    │
│  │ Switch to Starter ($19/mo)      │    │
│  │                                 │    │
│  │ ✓ Keep: Projects, integrations  │    │
│  │ ✗ Lose: Advanced analytics,     │    │
│  │         team features           │    │
│  │                                 │    │
│  │ [Switch to Starter]             │    │
│  └─────────────────────────────────┘    │
│                                         │
│  [No thanks, continue cancelling]       │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘

Downgrade best practices:

• Show exactly what they keep and what they lose
• Use checkmarks and X marks for scanability
• Preserve their data even on the lower plan
• If they downgrade, don't show upgrade prompts for at least 30 days

The Competitor Switch Handler

When the cancel reason is "switching to competitor":

1. Ask which competitor (optional, don't force it)
2. Show a comparison if you have one (see competitors skill)
3. Offer a migration credit ("We'll match their price for 3 months")
4. Request a feedback call ("15 minutes to understand what we're missing")

This data is gold for product and marketing teams.

---

Post-Cancel Experience

What happens after cancel matters for:

• Win-back potential
• Word of mouth
• Review sentiment

Confirmation Page

Your subscription has been cancelled.

What happens next:
• Your access continues until [billing period end date]
• Your data will be preserved for 90 days
• You can reactivate anytime from your account settings

[Reactivate My Account]

We'd love to have you back. We'll keep improving based on feedback
from customers like you.

Post-Cancel Sequence

For detailed win-back email sequences: See the emails skill.

---

Segmentation Rules

The most effective cancel flows use segmentation to show different offers to different customers.

Segmentation Dimensions

Segment-Specific Flows

New customer (< 30 days):

• They haven't activated. The save is onboarding, not discounts.
• Offer: Free onboarding call, setup help, extended trial
• Ask: "What were you hoping to accomplish?" (learn what's missing)

Engaged customer cancelling on price:

• They love the product but can't justify the cost.
• Offer: Discount, annual plan switch, downgrade
• High save potential

Dormant customer (no login 30+ days):

• They forgot about you. A discount won't bring them back.
• Offer: Pause subscription, "what changed?" conversation
• Low save potential — focus on learning why

Power user switching to competitor:

• They're actively choosing something else.
• Offer: Competitive match, feedback call, roadmap preview
• Medium save potential — depends on reason

---

Implementation Checklist

Phase 1: Foundation (Week 1)

• Add cancel flow (survey + 1 offer + confirmation)
• Set up exit survey with 5-7 reason categories
• Map one offer per reason (simple 1:1 mapping)
• Track cancel reasons and save rate in analytics
• Enable pre-dunning card expiry emails

Phase 2: Optimization (Weeks 2-4)

• Add fallback offers (primary + secondary per reason)
• Implement pause subscription option
• Set up dunning email sequence (4 emails over 10 days)
• Enable smart retries (Stripe Smart Retries or equivalent)
• Add MRR-based routing for high-value accounts

Phase 3: Advanced (Month 2+)

• Build health score from usage signals
• Set up proactive intervention triggers
• A/B test discount amounts and offer types
• Segment flows by plan, tenure, and usage
• Post-cancel win-back sequence (coordinate with emails skill)
• Cohort analysis: churn by channel, plan, tenure

---

Compliance Notes

FTC Click-to-Cancel Rule (US)

• Cancellation must be as easy as signup
• Cannot require a phone call to cancel if signup was online
• Cannot add excessive steps to discourage cancellation
• Save offers are allowed but "continue cancelling" must be clear

GDPR / Data Retention (EU)

• Inform users about data retention period post-cancel
• Offer data export before account deletion
• Honor deletion requests within 30 days
• Don't use post-cancel data for marketing without consent

General Best Practices

• Always show a clear path to complete cancellation
• Never hide the cancel button (dark pattern)
• Process cancellation even if save flow has errors
• Confirm cancellation with email receipt

---

Supporting file: references/dunning-playbook.md

Dunning Playbook

Complete guide to recovering failed payments and reducing involuntary churn.

---

Why Dunning Matters

• Failed payments cause 30-50% of all subscription churn
• Most failed payments are recoverable with the right strategy
• Subscription businesses lose an estimated $129 billion annually to involuntary churn
• Effective dunning recovers 50-60% of failed payments

---

The Dunning Timeline

Day -30 to -7: Pre-dunning (prevent failures)
Day 0:         Payment fails → Smart retry #1 + Email #1
Day 1-3:       Smart retry #2 + Email #2
Day 3-5:       Smart retry #3
Day 5-7:       Smart retry #4 + Email #3
Day 7-10:      Final retry + Email #4 (final warning)
Day 10-14:     Grace period ends → Account paused/cancelled
Day 14+:       Win-back sequence begins

---

Pre-Dunning: Prevent Failures Before They Happen

Card Expiry Management

Email template — Card expiring:

Subject: Your card ending in 4242 expires soon

Hi [Name],

The card on file for your [Product] subscription expires on [date].

Update your payment method now to avoid any interruption:

[Update Payment Method →]

This takes less than 30 seconds.

— [Product] Team

Card Updater Services

Major card networks offer automatic card update programs:

Impact: Reduces hard declines from expired/replaced cards by 30-50%.

How to enable:

• Stripe: Automatic — enabled by default
• Chargebee: Enabled through gateway settings
• Recurly: Built-in, enabled by default
• Braintree: Contact processor to enable

Backup Payment Methods

Prompt for a second payment method:

• During signup: "Add a backup payment method" (low conversion)
• After first successful payment: "Protect your account with a backup card" (better timing)
• After a failed payment is recovered: "Add a backup to prevent future interruptions" (best timing — they felt the pain)

Pre-Billing Notifications

For annual plans or high-value subscriptions:

• Email 7 days before renewal with amount and date
• Include link to update payment method
• Show what's included in the renewal
• Required by some regulations for auto-renewals

---

Smart Retry Strategy

Decline Type Classification

Retry Schedule by Provider

Stripe (Smart Retries — recommended):

• Enable "Smart Retries" in Stripe Dashboard → Billing → Settings
• Stripe's ML model picks optimal retry timing based on billions of transactions
• Typically 4-8 retry attempts over 3-4 weeks
• Recovers ~15% more than fixed-schedule retries

Manual retry schedule (if no smart retries):

Retry timing insights:

• Retry on the same day of month the original payment succeeded
• Retry after common paydays (1st and 15th of the month)
• Avoid retrying on weekends (lower approval rates)
• Morning retries (8-10am local time) perform slightly better

---

Dunning Email Sequence

Email 1: Payment Failed (Day 0)

Tone: Friendly, matter-of-fact. No alarm.

Subject: Action needed — your payment didn't go through

Hi [Name],

We tried to charge your [card type] ending in [last 4] for your
[Product] subscription ($[amount]), but it didn't go through.

This happens sometimes — usually a quick card update fixes it.

[Update Payment Method →]

Your access isn't affected yet. We'll retry automatically, but
updating your card is the fastest fix.

Need help? Just reply to this email.

— [Product] Team

Email 2: Reminder (Day 3)

Tone: Helpful, slightly more urgent.

Subject: Quick reminder — update your payment for [Product]

Hi [Name],

Just a heads-up — we still haven't been able to process your
$[amount] payment for [Product].

[Update Payment Method →]

Takes less than 30 seconds. Your [data/projects/team access]
is safe, but we'll need a valid payment method to keep your
account active.

Questions? Reply here and we'll help.

— [Product] Team

Email 3: Urgency (Day 7)

Tone: Direct, clear consequences.

Subject: Your [Product] account will be paused in 3 days

Hi [Name],

We've tried to process your payment several times, but your
[card type] ending in [last 4] keeps getting declined.

If we don't receive payment by [date], your account will be
paused and you'll lose access to:

• [Key feature/data they use]
• [Their projects/workspace]
• [Team access for X members]

[Update Payment Method Now →]

Your data won't be deleted — you can reactivate anytime by
updating your payment method.

— [Product] Team

Email 4: Final Warning (Day 10)

Tone: Final, clear, no guilt.

Subject: Last chance to keep your [Product] account active

Hi [Name],

This is our last reminder. Your payment of $[amount] is past
due, and your account will be paused tomorrow ([date]).

[Update Payment Method →]

After pausing:
• Your data is saved for [90 days]
• You can reactivate anytime
• Just update your card to restore access

If you intended to cancel, no action needed — your account
will be paused automatically.

— [Product] Team

---

Grace Period Management

What Happens During Grace Period

Access Degradation Options

Option A: Full access during grace (recommended for B2B)

• Lower friction, customer feels respected
• Higher recovery rate (they still see value)
• Risk: some customers exploit the grace period

Option B: Read-only access (recommended for B2C)

• Can view but not create/edit
• Creates urgency without data loss fear
• Clear message: "Update payment to resume full access"

Option C: Immediate lockout (not recommended)

• Aggressive, damages relationship
• Lower recovery rate
• Only appropriate for very low-cost plans

Post-Grace Period

---

Provider-Specific Setup

Stripe

Enable Smart Retries:

1. Dashboard → Settings → Billing → Subscriptions and emails
2. Enable "Smart Retries" under retry rules
3. Set failed payment emails in Dashboard → Settings → Emails

Custom retry rules (if not using Smart Retries):

Retry 1: 3 days after failure
Retry 2: 5 days after failure
Retry 3: 7 days after failure
Final:   Mark subscription as unpaid after last retry

Webhook events to handle:

• invoice.payment_failed — trigger dunning
• invoice.paid — cancel dunning, restore access
• customer.subscription.updated — status changes
• customer.subscription.deleted — final cancellation

Chargebee

Built-in dunning:

1. Settings → Configure Chargebee → Retry Settings
2. Configure retry attempts and intervals
3. Settings → Configure Chargebee → Email Notifications → Dunning

Dunning options:

• Automatic retries with configurable schedule
• Built-in dunning emails (customizable templates)
• Grace period configuration per plan

Paddle

Managed dunning:

• Paddle handles retries and dunning automatically
• Limited customization (Paddle manages the relationship)
• Webhook: subscription.payment_failed, subscription.cancelled
• Best for hands-off approach

Recurly

Revenue Recovery:

1. Configuration → Dunning Management
2. Set retry schedule per plan
3. Configure grace period and final action (pause vs cancel)

Advanced features:

• Machine-learning retry optimization
• Per-plan dunning schedules
• Built-in Account Updater

---

In-App Dunning

Don't rely on email alone. Show payment failures in the app:

Banner Pattern

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ⚠ Your payment of $29 failed. Update your card to    │
│ avoid losing access. [Update Payment →]  [Dismiss]   │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Rules:

• Show on every page load during dunning period
• Allow dismiss (but show again next session)
• Direct link to payment update (fewest clicks possible)
• Don't block the product — let them continue using it

Modal Pattern (for final warning)

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                     │
│  Your account will be paused        │
│  on [date]                          │
│                                     │
│  Update your payment method to      │
│  keep access to your [X] projects   │
│  and [Y] team members.              │
│                                     │
│  [Update Payment Method]            │
│  [Remind Me Later]                  │
│                                     │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘

---

Measuring Dunning Performance

Key Metrics

Benchmarking

By company stage:

ROI Calculation

Monthly failed payment MRR:        $10,000
Current recovery rate:              30% ($3,000 recovered)
Target recovery rate:               60% ($6,000 recovered)
Monthly improvement:                $3,000/month
Annual improvement:                 $36,000/year
Cost of dunning optimization:       ~$200-500/month (tooling)
ROI:                                6-15x

---

Supporting file: tools/REGISTRY.md

Marketing Tools Registry

Quick reference for AI agents to discover tool capabilities and integration methods.

How to Use This Registry

1. Find tools by category - Browse sections below for tools in each domain
2. Check integration methods - See what APIs, MCPs, CLIs, or SDKs are available
3. Read integration guides - Detailed setup and common operations in integrations/

---

Tool Index

---

By Category

Analytics

Track user behavior, measure conversions, and analyze marketing performance.

Agent recommendation: Start with GA4 if using Google ecosystem. Use Mixpanel or Amplitude for deeper product analytics. Plausible for privacy-focused sites.

SEO

Search engine optimization tools for keyword research, rank tracking, and site audits.

Agent recommendation: Google Search Console is essential (free). Add Semrush or Ahrefs for competitive research. DataForSEO for programmatic SERP data. Keywords Everywhere for quick keyword lookups. RankParse for agent workflows where per-call cost matters — backlinks, domain authority, and tech stack at a fraction of enterprise pricing.

CRM

Customer relationship management and sales tools.

Agent recommendation: HubSpot for startups/SMBs. Close for high-velocity inside sales. Salesforce for enterprise.

Payments

Payment processing and subscription management.

Agent recommendation: Stripe is the default for SaaS. Paddle for built-in tax compliance.

Referral & Affiliate

Tools for referral programs, affiliate tracking, and partner management.

Agent recommendation: Rewardful or Tolt for Stripe-based SaaS. PartnerStack for enterprise partner programs. Dub.co for link attribution.

Email

Email marketing, transactional email, and automation platforms.

Agent recommendation: Resend for transactional (dev-friendly). Sequenzy for lifecycle email, sequences, and agent-driven email marketing. Postmark for deliverability. Customer.io for advanced automation. Kit for creators. Beehiiv for newsletters. Klaviyo for e-commerce email/SMS. ActiveCampaign for email + CRM combo.

SMS / Messaging

SMS and MMS marketing platforms and programmable messaging APIs.

Agent recommendation: Klaviyo SMS for ecom already on Klaviyo email. Postscript for Shopify-first depth. Attentive for mid-market+ wanting concierge support. Twilio (or Plivo for lower cost) for custom builds and transactional/auth. AudienceTap when AI creative or on-pack QR opt-in matters.

Advertising

Paid advertising platforms and campaign management.

Agent recommendation: Google Ads for search intent. Meta for demand generation. LinkedIn for B2B.

Automation

Workflow automation and integration platforms.

Agent recommendation: Zapier SDK for agents that need to interact with any app directly. Zaps for always-on automations.

CRO & A/B Testing

Conversion rate optimization, heatmaps, and experimentation.

Agent recommendation: Hotjar for understanding user behavior. Optimizely for running experiments.

Scheduling

Booking and appointment scheduling tools.

Agent recommendation: Calendly for general use. SavvyCal for personalized booking experiences.

Forms & Surveys

Form builders and survey platforms.

Agent recommendation: Typeform for engaging forms and surveys.

Messaging

In-app messaging, chat, and customer communication.

Agent recommendation: Intercom for in-app messaging and customer support.

Social Media

Social media scheduling, management, and analytics.

Agent recommendation: Buffer for scheduling and analytics across social platforms.

Video

Video hosting, creation, and AI generation.

Agent recommendation: HeyGen for AI avatar videos (MCP-enabled). Hyperframes for templated, data-driven video from code. Wistia for hosting and analytics.

Data Enrichment

Company and person data enrichment for sales and marketing.

Agent recommendation: Clearbit for enrichment. Apollo for prospecting and outbound. ZoomInfo for enterprise B2B data with intent signals. Clay for waterfall enrichment across multiple providers.

Email Verification

Pre-outreach email deliverability validation.

Agent recommendation: Truelist for any prospect list before outreach — Apollo/ZoomInfo/Hunter data accuracy is typically 60–80%, validation is non-negotiable to keep sender reputation healthy.

Developer Intent / GitHub

Discovery channel for dev-tool SaaS prospecting via GitHub stargazers, forkers, and watchers.

Agent recommendation: Use github-prospects.js CLI to pull stargazers/forks of 3–5 anchor repos (competitors, category leaders, complementary tools). Filter to users with company field set, then enrich missing emails via Apollo or Hunter, then validate via Truelist before outreach.

Site Scraping (single-target only)

Programmatic page extraction for individual public business sites — not for the platforms hosting prospects (Google Maps, LinkedIn, Yelp, Apollo, etc.).

Agent recommendation: Default to Firecrawl for static-ish pages and structured extraction. Use Browserbase when the site requires JS rendering, form interaction, cookie consent, or auth — and when you want session recordings for debugging. For both: discovery happens on platforms (manual browser); extraction happens on the prospect's own website URL. Don't point either tool at LinkedIn, Google Maps, Yelp, or similar.

Reviews

Review management and social proof platforms.

Agent recommendation: Trustpilot for consumer products. G2 for B2B software.

Push Notifications

Push notification delivery platforms.

Agent recommendation: OneSignal for web and mobile push notifications.

Webinar

Webinar and virtual event platforms.

Agent recommendation: Demio for marketing-focused webinars. Livestorm for full event engagement.

Sales Engagement

Sales engagement and outreach automation platforms.

Agent recommendation: Outreach for enterprise sales teams managing multi-touch sequences at scale.

Product Analytics

Product analytics, feature adoption tracking, and in-app guidance.

Agent recommendation: Pendo for tracking feature adoption and delivering targeted in-app guidance.

Competitive Intelligence

Traffic analytics, competitor benchmarking, and market research.

Agent recommendation: Similarweb for competitor traffic analysis and market benchmarking.

Audience Research

Audience intelligence and behavioral research tools.

Agent recommendation: SparkToro for discovering where your ICP spends time — what they read, watch, listen to, follow, and search for. Essential for customer research, content strategy, and media buying decisions.

Visitor Identification

Website visitor de-anonymization for B2B sales and marketing.

Agent recommendation: RB2B for identifying anonymous B2B website visitors and routing high-intent visitors to outreach tools. Pairs well with Clay for enrichment and Instantly/Lemlist for cold email.

Revenue Intelligence

Sales conversation analytics, call recording, and deal intelligence.

Agent recommendation: Gong for mining sales call transcripts for customer research, competitive intelligence, and coaching insights. Essential for revenue attribution and win/loss analysis.

AI Content

AI-powered content generation and optimization platforms.

Agent recommendation: AirOps for building AI content workflows that generate SEO-optimized content at scale.

AI Search

AI-powered web search APIs built for LLMs and agents. Return structured results with on-demand text, highlights, and summaries.

Agent recommendation: Exa for neural search over the open web — content research, competitor/similar-page discovery, link prospecting, news monitoring, and audience research. Pairs well with seo-audit, content-strategy, and competitor-profiling skills.

Partner Ecosystem

Partner data sharing, co-sell, and ecosystem management.

Agent recommendation: Crossbeam for identifying partner account overlaps and co-sell opportunities. Introw for full partner relationship management — partner pipeline, commissions, tasks, and automated business review prep.

Email Outreach

Cold email outreach and email finding tools for link building and sales prospecting.

Agent recommendation: Hunter for finding emails. Lemlist or Instantly for sending cold email campaigns. Snov for combined finding + outreach.

Data Aggregation

Marketing data pipeline tools that connect multiple platforms for unified reporting.

Agent recommendation: Supermetrics for pulling data from multiple marketing platforms into unified reports. Coupler.io for automated data flows to spreadsheets and BI tools.

Commerce & CMS

E-commerce platforms and content management systems.

Agent recommendation: Shopify for e-commerce. Webflow for marketing sites. WordPress for blogs. For headless CMS: Sanity for developer-flexible content, Contentful for enterprise multi-locale, Strapi for self-hosted/budget-conscious. See headless CMS guide (../skills/content-strategy/references/headless-cms.md) for selection criteria.

---

CLI Tools

Zero-dependency, single-file Node.js CLIs for tools that don't ship their own. See clis/README.md for install instructions and usage.

All CLIs follow a consistent pattern:

• No dependencies — Node 18+ only, uses native fetch
• JSON output — pipe to jq, save to file, or use in scripts
• Env var auth — set {TOOL}_API_KEY and go
• Consistent commands — {tool} <resource> <action> [options]

---

MCP-Enabled Tools

These tools have Model Context Protocol servers available, enabling direct agent interaction:

• ga4 - Google Analytics 4 data access
• stripe - Payment and subscription management
• mailchimp - Email campaign management
• google-ads - Ad campaign management
• resend - Transactional email sending
• zapier - Workflow automation + SDK for 8,000+ app integrations
• zoominfo - B2B contacts and intent data
• clay - Data enrichment and outbound automation
• supermetrics - Cross-platform marketing data
• coupler - Marketing data pipelines
• outreach - Sales engagement sequences
• crossbeam - Partner ecosystem data
• introw - Partner relationship management
• exa - AI-powered web search for LLMs and agents

To use MCP tools, ensure the appropriate MCP server is configured in your environment.

Composio Integration

Composio (integrations/composio.md) provides managed OAuth and pre-built connectors for 500+ tools via a single MCP server. It adds MCP access to tools that don't have native MCP servers, including HubSpot, Salesforce, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Google Sheets, Slack, Notion, and more.

• Setup: npx @composio/mcp@latest setup
• Quick start: See tools/composio/README.md (composio/README.md)
• Marketing tool mapping: See tools/composio/marketing-tools.md (composio/marketing-tools.md)

Use Composio when you need MCP access to OAuth-heavy tools. Prefer native MCP servers (GA4, Stripe, Mailchimp, etc.) when available — they have deeper coverage.

Cogny Integration

Cogny (integrations/cogny.md) is a hosted MCP gateway focused on marketing channels — one federated MCP URL with managed OAuth across every channel you've connected. Narrower than Composio (marketing-only) and useful when you want SEO, paid social, and privacy-friendly analytics behind a single MCP login.

• Setup: connect channels at cogny.com (https://cogny.com), then in Claude.ai go to Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector and paste https://app.cogny.com/mcp
• Channels: Search Console, Bing Webmaster, Semrush, LinkedIn Ads, Reddit Ads, TikTok Ads, Plausible, Fathom
• Pricing: Solo plan starts at $9/mo (7-day trial)

Use Cogny when you only need marketing channels and want to avoid running your own OAuth proxy. Prefer native APIs when you need deep, custom control of a single tool.

---

Quick Start by Use Case

Setting up analytics tracking

1. Read ga4.md (integrations/ga4.md) for web analytics
2. Read segment.md (integrations/segment.md) if routing to multiple tools

Launching a referral program

1. Read rewardful.md (integrations/rewardful.md) or tolt.md (integrations/tolt.md) for Stripe-based programs
2. Read dub-co.md (integrations/dub-co.md) for link tracking

Setting up email automation

1. Read customer-io.md (integrations/customer-io.md) for behavior-based automation
2. Read resend.md (integrations/resend.md) for transactional email

Running email outreach for backlinks

1. Read hunter.md (integrations/hunter.md) for finding emails
2. Read lemlist.md (integrations/lemlist.md) or instantly.md (integrations/instantly.md) for sending campaigns

Running paid ads

1. Read google-ads.md (integrations/google-ads.md) for search campaigns
2. Read meta-ads.md (integrations/meta-ads.md) for social campaigns

---

Supporting file: tools/integrations/posthog.md

PostHog

Open-source product analytics with session replay and feature flags.

Capabilities

Authentication

• Type: API Key (Personal or Project)
• Header: Authorization: Bearer {api_key}
• For capture: Project API Key in payload

Common Agent Operations

Capture event

POST https://app.posthog.com/capture/

{
  "api_key": "{project_api_key}",
  "event": "signup_completed",
  "distinct_id": "user_123",
  "properties": {
    "plan": "pro",
    "$current_url": "https://example.com/signup"
  }
}

Batch events

POST https://app.posthog.com/batch/

{
  "api_key": "{project_api_key}",
  "batch": [
    {"event": "pageview", "distinct_id": "user_1"},
    {"event": "signup", "distinct_id": "user_2"}
  ]
}

Get person by distinct_id

GET https://app.posthog.com/api/projects/{project_id}/persons/?distinct_id=user_123

Authorization: Bearer {api_key}

Query events (HogQL)

POST https://app.posthog.com/api/projects/{project_id}/query/

{
  "query": {
    "kind": "HogQLQuery",
    "query": "SELECT event, count() FROM events WHERE timestamp > now() - interval 7 day GROUP BY event ORDER BY count() DESC LIMIT 10"
  }
}

Get feature flag value

POST https://app.posthog.com/decide?v=3

{
  "api_key": "{project_api_key}",
  "distinct_id": "user_123"
}

Get insights

GET https://app.posthog.com/api/projects/{project_id}/insights/

Authorization: Bearer {api_key}

Get session recordings

GET https://app.posthog.com/api/projects/{project_id}/session_recordings/

Authorization: Bearer {api_key}

JavaScript SDK

// Initialize
posthog.init('PROJECT_API_KEY', {
  api_host: 'https://app.posthog.com'
});

// Identify user
posthog.identify('user_123', {
  email: 'user@example.com',
  plan: 'pro'
});

// Track event
posthog.capture('signup_completed', {
  method: 'email'
});

// Check feature flag
if (posthog.isFeatureEnabled('new-pricing')) {
  // Show new pricing
}

Key Features

• Event tracking - Product analytics
• Session replay - Watch user sessions
• Feature flags - Control feature rollout
• A/B testing - Built-in experiments
• HogQL - SQL-like query language
• Self-hostable - Run on your infrastructure

When to Use

• Product analytics with privacy focus
• Session replay for UX insights
• Feature flag management
• Self-hosted analytics needs
• Open-source requirements

Rate Limits

• Cloud: 10,000 events/second
• Self-hosted: Unlimited

Relevant Skills

• analytics
• ab-testing
• onboarding