Plan price increase: Communicating the change
Optimize your subscription price change communication strategy using Recurly. Learn how to build an multi-touch announcement timeline, customize native email templates with dynamic merge tokens, and leverage pre-renewal webhooks to seamlessly integrate with your external ESP to maintain high retention and prevent support volume spikes.
Acquire • Plan price increase
Communicating the change
What to say, when to say it, and how to use Recurly's notification tools to reach every subscriber at the right moment.
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Communicating the change
Notification timeline
A well-timed sequence does three things: gives subscribers enough runway to make a decision, prevents a single-day support spike, and reinforces your value rationale at each touchpoint.
Initial announcement — 30–90 days before the change
Your primary notification. Explain the why, state the new price, give the effective date. This is the most important message in the sequence — give it the most attention. Personalize with the subscriber's current plan name and price where possible.
Reminder — for subscribers who haven't engaged
A shorter follow-up for subscribers who didn't open or act on the first email. One paragraph restating the change and the effective date. Include a link to your FAQ or support page if you've created one.
Final notice — close to the subscriber's renewal date
A brief confirmation sent near each subscriber's individual renewal date — not on a fixed calendar day. Keep it factual: their subscription renews on [date] at [new price]. Use Recurly's renewal.scheduled prerenewal webhook to trigger this automatically via your ESP. See Recurly Docs: Prerenewal notifications.
Email template — Subscription change
The "Subscription Change" email template is triggered when a subscription is modified. It can be customized to communicate your plan price change in a meaningful way. You'll find it here: Configuration → Email Templates → Subscription. Feel free to use the sample messaging provided below, complete with accurate tokens, and tailor it to your brand.
The feature bullets should be specific and demonstrate value. Generic language like, "We've been working hard," may be too vague to your customers.
Subject: An update to your {{company_name}} subscription pricing
Hi {{account_first_name}},
We're writing to let you know that the price of your {{subscription_plan_name}} subscription will increase from [manually enter current price] to [manually enter new price], effective {{subscription_current_period_ends_at}}.
Since you joined, we've shipped a lot — including:
— [manually enter specific feature or improvement 1]
— [manually enter specific feature or improvement 2]
— [manually enter specific feature or improvement 3]
This update reflects the continued investment we're making in {{company_name}}. Your subscription will renew at the new price starting {{subscription_current_period_ends_at}} — no action is required on your end.
If you have questions, reply to this email or visit {{account_hosted_maintenance_url}}.
{{company_name}}
If you are using ramp pricing, you can replace the price entries with {{subscription_next_ramp_interval_price}} for the new price and {{subscription_next_ramp_interval_start_date}} for the effective date, rather than entering those values manually.
Email template — Term renewal reminder
Make sure your customers get a final notification before their term renewal takes place. This message is short by design. Subscribers already know the change is coming — this is a confirmation, not a pitch.
You'll find the "Term renewal reminder" template in Configuration → Email Templates → Subscription Renewal.
Subject: Your {{company_name}} subscription renews on {{subscription_current_period_ends_at}}
Hi {{account_first_name}},
Just a heads-up: your {{subscription_plan_name}} subscription renews on {{subscription_current_period_ends_at}} at the updated price of [manually enter new price].
If you'd like to make any changes before renewal, you can do so at {{account_hosted_maintenance_url}} or by replying to this email.
{{company_name}}
Recurly notification tools
You have two paths for delivering these notifications — Recurly's native email system or your own ESP via webhooks. Both work; the right choice depends on how much design control you need.
Go to Configuration → Email Templates to customize subscription event emails. Templates must be enabled in two places: globally under Email Templates, and at the plan level — check both if emails aren't sending. See Recurly Docs: Email templates for the correct variable syntax — Recurly uses its own parameter format, not dot-notation.
If you use Braze, Iterable, Klaviyo, or similar, subscribe to the subscription.updated webhook event to trigger migration notifications, and the renewal.scheduled prerenewal webhook for the final notice. See Recurly Docs: Subscription notifications for the full list of valid event names.