Today, we are bringing lightness to Black Friday. Plus, how to become an email master.

Your top subscription news

Extreme Couponing

If your business sends emails containing coupon codes, vouchers, booking confirmations, tickets for travel or events, or any content that requires a print-out (which is undeniably an effort amped up this time of year) you should consider tracking your print-per-open rate. 

Because the average email generates one print per every 313 email opens. 

That’s a print rate of .32%. 

And Litmus email software has an entire report for your downloading convenience. 

It’s called the State of Email Engagement. 

Because in email marketing, data means power. The better you understand your audience and how they engage with your email, the better you can fine-tune your email strategy and execution—ultimately, sending better email.

So, the Litmus team analyzed more than 10 billion email opens, tracked with email analytics in the past year, to provide you with actionable insights into how the average subscriber engages with email.

They’re including aspects like :

• When subscribers read email
• Where subscribers engage with email
• How long subscribers spend reading an email
• How often they print and forward emails

Which are all items you need prior to pushing send on that Black Friday message. 

Here's the full report so you’re fully prepped for the holiday rush (if attaining that is even possible???).

Revving up renewals

In a win for the developers out there, Apple has made the server-to-server notifications feature of App Store Connect more useful for developers, now providing alerts for when a customer's subscription fails to renew, as well as when it is resolved.

We know a thing or two about subscription renewals—the process each customer goes through when continuing their subscription into the next billing cycle.

Involuntary churn tends to sneak up on recurring revenue companies without warning. In an ideal world, every customer would renew their subscription when it’s due. But like any subscription service, customers frequently fail to renew their subscriptions for all kinds of reasons.

So Apple provides the notifications to developers for a variety of reasons, but chiefly so that the business logic of the app's server can perform a developer's designated action for that particular situation. 

While before, this could've covered things like advising users of renewal notices before the App Store took another subscription payment, the new addition informs the users from within the app of any payment issues.

Here's a better resource on subscription renewals, plus five ethical tactics for increasing renewal rate.

The deals are screamin'

Sure, there are endless Black Friday/Small Business Saturday/Cyber Monday deals yelling at you out there… and although we’re no retail shop, we felt remiss not to mention a few cool subscription-based ones for our crew.

• Rosetta Stone, the language learning service that’s won awards in practical exercises to teach you new skills, is offering a $189 lifetime subscription—which is pretty nuts when you consider the usual price at $249 for 24 months. And this one, is already available for sign up.
• With Amazon Music, new customers can get four months of Amazon Music Unlimited for 99 cents.
• And you’ll likely need some caffeine amid the process. Bean Box is offering half off your first order.
• And although not technically “subscription,” here's a coffee tumbler that gets you free caffeine every day this January. 

Because we care.

Recur Boston

In just two weeks, we're collaborating with the top subscription execs from across the globe. 

And so are you.

That’s a wrap for your November 27 subscription news. Recruit your teammates into the subscription know: profitwell.com/recur/recurnow to sign up for episodes on the daily.

If you have news to share, hit me up at abby@recurnow.com and we'll collaborate.