I got the above email from SnapEngage when my plan expired (click to enlarge). As a potential customer I had two questions:

1. What do I get with a paid account that I don’t get with a free account?
2. Will I lose any features that I’m currently using with the downgrade?

Answering these (especially #2 – humans fear loss more than they appreciate gains) could have made it a no-brainer for me and other customers who get these emails to upgrade. In essence, they’d be triggering me to remember why I use SnapEngage (“Oh yeah, feature ABC – I *need* that! Here’s my money!”)

Instead, I have to dig up the info on my own, which makes it less likely for me to pay SnapEngage. Why?

Because SnapEngage is important only when I’m thinking about the problem it solves. I’m not thinking about the “solving live customer support issue on my webapp” issue right now. But this email could have triggered it (see above).

Here are the key lessons:
– remind ppl what they get when you’re asking them to give you money
– let them know what features and benefits they’re losing when they downgrade plans
– trigger a customer to think about how painful the problem is that you so effectively solve when you ask them for money. this frames their thinking as “yeah, that problem sucks. is it worth $X to solve it? of course! *opens wallet*”