Pausing and subscriber retention options

Offering paid subscriptions is a powerful way to monetize your newsletter. Along with creating a clear upgrade path, you can also use a subscriber retention flow to help reduce churn and keep your audience engaged. 

When a subscriber begins the cancellation process, you can:

• Offer the option to pause their subscription for 1, 3, or 6 months.
• Present a personalized discount to encourage them to stay.
• Display a downgrade survey to capture feedback on why they’re leaving.

This article covers how to set up each option in the flow, shows what these options look like to your audience, and answers common questions — so you can give your subscribers more flexibility while gathering valuable insights to improve retention.

Setting up a subscription retention flow involves accessing a few areas of your beehiiv account. While you must first enable the pause option (as outlined below) the following two steps — adding a discount option to your paid plans and offering a downgrade survey — are optional and can be done in any order. 

1. Click on the Settings icon in the bottom left corner of your account.
2. Your publication settings will open with the General Info section visible. If you have multiple publications, select the desired publication in the top left corner.

3. Scroll down to the Content Access section, then toggle on Subscription Retention Flow. Changes are automatically saved.
   
   

   

   Enabling the Subscription Retention Flow gives your subscribers the ability to:

• Pause paid or free subscriptions for 1, 3, or 6 months.
• Temporarily stop all emails instead of unsubscribing.
• Resume anytime, with no charges during the pause for paid plans.
• Access downgrade discounts, if enabled.
• Take a survey based on their downgrading experience, if enabled. 

4. To continue to your paid plans, click on Settings in the top left corner to return to the main dashboard.
   
   
   

5. From the left panel dashboard, go to Monetize > Paid Subscriptions, then select the Paid Tiers tab on the right.

   

6. Scroll down to your Paid Subscription Offers and click Add New Offer to create a new discount.

   
7. The offer form will appear on the right. To add a discount option, you’ll need to select these aspects (more details found below the image):

• Select a Tier that the discount will apply to.
• Set the Terms to be a Percent Discount.
• Choose the percentage of the discount amount.
• Check the Show discount on downgrade under Advanced Options.

• Review all the details, then click Create in the bottom right corner of the form.

  

  If your offer is already set up, navigate to it in your list and click the 3 dots menu, then select Edit. Update the existing offer with the aspects in the step above. Be sure to check Show discount on downgrade, and click Update on the bottom of the form.

  

  Subscription offer form contents: 

• Name: Give the offer a name, which will be displayed to the subscriber.
• Description: Add short, visible context for the subscriber.
• Private Description: Provide an internal description for the discount. This information is not visible to subscribers.
• Tier: Choose one of your paid subscription tiers for the offer, or select All Tiers.
• Terms: Select a Percent Discount. Then, use the slider to choose a percentage for the discount. Determine how long the discount will run, Forever, Once, or, Repeating (then select number of months).
• Advanced Options:
  • (Required for retention flow) Check Show discount on downgrade.
  • (Optional) Set when subscribers must redeem this offer by: If this is selected, you’ll also need to set the date and time the offer ends.
  • (Optional) Limit this offer to specific plans: Choose between your Monthly and Annual plans.
• Default Options: You can choose to set the offer as the default for your Monthly or Annual Subscriptions, or as a One Time Payment Offer.

8. Upon creating/saving, the discount will be featured under your Paid Subscription Offers. Click the 3 dots menu to access options for Copy Link, View Redemptions, Edit, or Delete.

   

9. From the left panel dashboard, go to Audience > Surveys. Click the Create survey button.

   

10. Create a survey with questions tailored to understand why subscribers are downgrading, then publish it. 

    Reminder: You will not be able to edit any of the survey details once it is published, so consider your survey questions. You can always deactivate the survey and create a new one, if needed.
    

11. Once the survey is live, it will appear on your Surveys page. Click the 3 dots menu for the new survey and select Enable as downgrade survey. Only one survey can be designated as the downgrade survey at a time.

    

12. After saving, you’ll receive a quick success message at the top of your screen, and the survey’s type will display as Downgrade in your list. When a subscriber chooses to pause their plan, the downgrade survey will pop up immediately after.

    

Subscribers can easily manage their subscription — including downgrading, pausing, or canceling — directly from the Subscriber Preferences Center when these have been set up for your publication. This page is accessible from their profile on your website or through links in the email footer.

If you offer a free subscription as well as paid plans, it will be showcased as a downgrade option after a subscriber chooses to unsubscribe.

If you offer both a discount and the option to pause, these will appear together after a subscriber chooses to cancel.

To select a pause length, subscribers can use the arrows under Pause Your Plan.

Paused subscribers will see their current plan marked as Paused in the Subscriber Preferences Center. If they hover over the word, Paused, they will see the date the pause expires. They can click on Unpause at any time to resume their subscription.

If a subscriber clicks on Unsubscribe, a confirmation will appear prompting them to confirm or cancel to keep their subscription.

If the unsubscribe is confirmed, the subscriber is redirected to their account profile, with a Resubscribe option found under their current plan.

Clicking on Resubscribe opens a confirmation pop-up, then once confirmed by again clicking on Resubscribe, emails will resume immediately.

When a subscription is paused, the subscriber’s profile dashboard in your publication account will display the status as Paused, along with the date the subscription will automatically resume.