OVERVIEW

It always sucks when a user wants out of a relationship with you and your product. The problem is that we usually view this decision as final. They want out and there is nothing we can do about it. This is a sophomore mistake. They were with you for a reason in the first place, so winning them back is always a possibility!

STEP ONE

The first kind of breakup is the ubiquitous website bounce. They were on your site and everything seemed fine. Then boom. Out of nowhere, they want to start seeing other sites. Normally you’d just let them go, but not when you’re using Exit Monitor (http://exitmonitor.com). Now you can track their mouse movements and right when they start to exit your site it shows them a perfectly timed popup to re-engage them. You can offer a deal, capture an email, and more. I guess sometimes being a little paranoid and tracking their movements turns out ok in the end.

STEP TWO

Another very common kind of breakup is when a user opts out of your mailing list. If you’ve used email at all then you know how often this occurs. The question is, what can you do to get people to think twice about their opt-out, even though they already clicked the “unsubscribe” button. Easy. Send them to a landing page that gives them a chance to resubscribe, but use the landing page to show the user how awesome your company is. Remind them why they liked you in the first place. For a long time Groupon had what was known as the “Best. Unsubscribe. Ever.” and even though they took it down, it lives on in a YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to5znws7mvU

STEP THREE

Of all the breakups, an account cancelation has to sting the worse. Well, Citrix found a genius way to reduce this kind of revenue loss on their Go To Meeting product. When you cancel your $49/month account then they ask you if you’d like to purchase their $19/month “essentials” account instead of canceling altogether. This is kind of like deciding that you’ll stay friends, even if you’re not seriously dating anymore. Read more about this hack here: http://goo.gl/vk7YQZ

If the down-sell doesn’t work then you can move on to the next tactic. Send them a funny breakup email. Here is the Growth Hacker TV email: “I just came into the office and they broke the bad news to me. They told me that you canceled your membership. I never thought this day would come, and to be honest, I wasn’t really emotionally prepared for it. However, I understand. All I ask is that you email me back one piece of valuable feedback that I can use to improve Growth Hacker TV for everyone else.”

At least now you’re learning from your mistakes so that hopefully your next relationship will work!

STEP FOUR

The last kind of breakup is due to a delinquent credit card. This is when someone just loses interest in the relationship and you drift apart. This isn’t technically a breakup since no one actually talked about it. You just went your separate ways. This too can be avoided. Whenever someone’s credit card becomes delinquent most people just send a reminder email to the user that asks them to update the card on file, but there is a better way.

Instead, send them an email that says you have a free gift for them (I use my Growth Robot ebook for this), tell them how much the gift is worth (hopefully a lot), and then tell them that the gift is only for members and that they’ll need to update their credit card to receive it. Once they successfully update their card you send them the gift and everyone is happy. This works surprisingly well 🙂 Here is a copy of the Growth Hacker TV email:

“As a Growth Hacker TV member, I wanted to give you free access to my new e-book: ($79) Growth Robot – A guide to automatically growing your startup while you sleep, by Bronson Taylor. The only problem is that it looks like the credit card on your account is not working, so I can’t send you any of the member perks. All you have to do is click here to give us an up-to-date credit card, and I’ll send you a copy of Growth Robot for free, which is normally $79, so it’s a pretty sweet offer 🙂 “

NEVER BREAKUP CONCLUSION

We focus so much on new relationships that sometimes we forget to put growth-hacking effort into relationships that are on the way out. Remember, even breakups can be profitable to a skilled growth hacker. (Photo courtesy of Khoi Nguyen)