How to Create a WooCommerce Subscription Reminder Email in WordPress (2023)

Want to create a WooCommerce subscription reminder email in WordPress? Avoid confusion by sending a WooCommerce subscription reminder before taking payments.

As a WordPress consultant with over 7 years of ecommerce experience, I always recommend reminder emails. In this comprehensive guide, I’ll show you how to create them using the best tool in 2023.

The Critical Impact of Renewal Reminders

Before diving into the how-to, you need to understand why subscription reminder emails are so important for customer retention and recurring revenue.

Let me share some insightful statistics:

• 63% of subscribers forget their renewal date according to a Brightback survey
• Reminders can increase renewal rates by 30% according to Rooftop Solutions
• Email reminders reduce involuntary churn by 22% according to Square

As you can see, most customers simply forget when they‘ll be charged again. Reminder emails combat this by giving them advance notice to:

• Update expired payment methods
• Change billing details
• Cancel (or pause) the subscription

This results in fewer failed renewals, fewer refunds, and more recurring revenue!

Now let‘s see how to set this up…

Why FunnelKit Automations is the Best Subscription Reminder Tool

While there are various ways to get subscription reminders working, I recommend FunnelKit Automations for several reasons:

Easy drag-and-drop builder
FunnelKit has an intuitive workflow builder for automations compared to writing code.

Works for any subscription product
FunnelKit works with all WooCommerce subscription solutions including official subscriptions, paid memberships pro, Yith, and more.

Powerful conditional logic
Send reminders only to users that meet your advanced criteria. For example, target subscribers from a specific membership level or product.

Insights to optimize
See open rates, click through rates and unsubscribe rates to improve email effectiveness.

Flexible design options
FunnelKit connects to your email provider for beautiful, branded subscription reminder templates.

Simply put, FunnelKit is by far the most user-friendly and feature-rich automation solution for subscription reminders.

Now let‘s dive into the setup…

Step 1: Install and Activate FunnelKit Automations

If you don‘t already have FunnelKit Automations, here are simple steps to install it:

1. Install and activate FunnelKit (free version)
2. Buy and install FunnelKit Automations
3. In FunnelKit Automations > Settings:
   • Enter your license key
   • Click Activate

And you‘re all set!

(If you run into any issues, see FunnelKit‘s comprehensive setup guide.)

Step 2: Create a Reminder Automation

With FunnelKit installed, now we can create your first automation:

1. In FunnelKit Automations > Automations (Next-Gen)
2. Click Add New Automation
3. Give it a name like "Subscription Renewal Reminder"
4. Click Create

You‘re now on the main workflow builder screen:

This is where you‘ll design your renewal reminder automation in WordPress.

Step 3: Set Up the Automation Trigger

The trigger dictates what events activate the reminder emails.

For subscription renewals, use this one:

1. Click Select Trigger
2. Choose WooCommerce tab
3. Click Subscriptions Before Renewal
4. Configure settings:
   • Days before renewal (we use 5 days)
   • Time of day
   • Once or recurring
5. Click Done

This sets your automation to send reminders a set number of days before each subscription renews.

For example, if you enter 5 days with once recurring, it will email reminders 5 days before every subscription renewal date.

Pretty cool!

Step 4: Create Your First Reminder Email

Now that the trigger is firing properly, you need to build the actual reminder email for your subscribers.

1. Click the + button
2. Select Action > Send Email
3. Add a subject like:
   {first_name}, your subscription renews soon on {subscription_end_date}
4. Write a preview text snippet
5. Compose your email body copy in the editor
   • Tip: Save as a template to reuse
6. Preview how it looks
7. Click Save & Close

The email is now ready to send automatically based on your trigger.

Make sure you included:

• Renewal date {subscription_end_date}
• Instructions to update payment info
• Unsubscribe link {unsubscribe}
• Clear call-to-action buttons

This covers the basics to get started. But…

What about sending multiple reminder emails?

Step 5: Create Follow-Up Emails

While one reminder is good, multiple messages improve open rates and conversions.

Here‘s how to add more automated follow-up emails:

1. Click the + button
2. Select Delay:
   • Choose between minutes, hours, days, weeks, etc.
   • Enter number of units to wait
3. Click + > Action > Send Email
4. Build the follow-up email
5. Repeat steps to add more reminders!

For example, you might set up this automated email sequence:

1. 1st reminder – 5 days before renewal
2. 2nd reminder – 2 days before if 1st email not opened
3. Last chance reminder – 4 hours before renewal

This combo covers all bases to turn renewals.

Extra Tips to Improve Your Reminders

Here are some pro tips for getting the highest email open rates:

Personalize subject with {first_name} makes it feel more 1:1.

Send based on user timezone using FunnelKit‘s options to catch at best time.

Make mobile friendly so it looks good on all devices.

A/B test reminders with different copy/timing to determine optimal approach. running split tests is key to continually refine and enhance subscriber messaging.

Review analytics inside FunnelKit Automations for open rates, click rates, and unsubscribe rates. Identify issues for ongoing improvements.

That‘s really all there is to creating automated WooCommerce subscription renewal reminders in WordPress using FunnelKit.

The flexibility makes it easy to experiment to determine the optimal timing and messaging for YOUR audience and products.

If you have any other questions on setting this up, feel free to ask in the comments!