Subscription Cortex: Passive

This article is part of the Subscription Cortex Stage Guide. For the standard Cortex Stage Guide click here.

Passive is one of the targeted retention stages in Subscription Cortex that reaches out to your current subscribers. Passive targets the subscribers who are least active, and generally disinterested in the online content from your brand. Because these are established subscribers, extending their lifetime value is a priority. Passive is a great opportunity to showcase the additional value your brand can provide through blog posts, recipes, style guides, and local events.

Who will receive Passive?

Passive is a retention stage that only targets current active subscribers. More specifically, it only targets the active subscribers who are not, or are barely engaged with your brand post-subscription: not opening emails, browsing the on-site blog, or browsing your online store.

When will Passive send?

Passive will send to your disengaged active subscribers when they are not eligible for more focused messaging like Upsell Abandon or Cart Abandon, or you are not sending an email blast that day. Passive will send at a user's predicted best interval until they become eligible for a different stage.

How do product recs work for Passive?

For the Passive stage, product recommendations are targeted based on behavior, purchase history, and matched against patterns from your customer base. The Cortex product recommendation engine evaluates each individual’s browsing behavior, the purchase behavior of similar customers, the popularity of items in the catalog, and more. Cortex uses this data to predict the preferences of each individual and target them with the best recommendations. 

You can learn more about adding dynamic product recommendations to your Passive emails here.

Best Practices:

• Remind the shopper of your brand's value proposition
• Experiment aggressively with subject lines to increase engagement
• Experiment aggressively with different types of content
• Use a minimum of 3 dynamic recommendations per template