Who is Grind?
Grind is one of the UK's most recognized specialty coffee brands, built on the belief that great coffee shouldn't require barista-level knowledge or equipment. Founded in 2011, Grind started as a collection of coffee shops across London before evolving into a subscription-first ecommerce business delivering freshly roasted beans, ground coffee, and their signature coffee pods to homes across the country.
What sets Grind apart isn't just the quality of their roast, it's their obsession with making coffee culture accessible. Their subscription model turned coffee from a commodity purchase into a lifestyle habit, building a loyal base of customers who rely on Grind to fuel their mornings.
But like any subscription business, Grind faces the reality that not every customer is ready to commit forever. Life changes. Budgets tighten. Coffee habits shift. And when customers hit cancel, they usually don't come back.
When Unsubscribe Means Goodbye
Grind's CRM team knew the playbook cold: send winback emails to cancelled subscribers. Remind them what they're missing. Offer an incentive. Cross your fingers.
The issue? Everyone does the same thing. Cancelled subscribers aren’t just ignoring Grind’s emails, they’re tuning out all of them. For a brand like Grind, where subscriptions rely on daily ritual, a lost customer isn’t just lost revenue, it’s a broken habit. Once that morning coffee routine is replaced, it’s hard to interrupt.
Digital channels weren’t cutting through. SMS felt too pushy. Retargeting ads lacked the personal touch to reignite a relationship. Grind needed a way to show up differently, in moments where people weren’t bombarded by every other brand.
A Postcard Worth Brewing Over
Grind launched a win-back flow for cancelled subscribers - but instead of another digital message, they went physical. With Paper Run, they automated personalized postcards sent at a specific time window after cancellation.
The flow is fully automated and prints daily based on cancellation events in Grind's system. No manual uploads, no batch-and-blast timing. After someone cancelled a certain period ago, the system triggers. The postcard prints. It ships. It lands. And it converts.
It works not just because it’s a different channel, but because it feels thoughtful: a personal nudge from a brand that genuinely wants you back, not another generic pitch. A postcard sits on the counter or fridge long enough to prompt reconsideration.
The flow continues to run today, quietly converting cancelled subscribers back into loyal customers without any ongoing lift from the team.
Grounds for Celebration
5.6x LTV
3.5%
The winback flow delivered a 5.6× LTV ROAS, meaning every pound spent on direct mail returned over five pounds in customer lifetime value. The conversion rate hit 3.5%, a remarkably strong performance for a winback audience that had already actively chosen to leave.
These aren't just reactivations, they're high-value customers coming back into the fold. Because the flow targets people who were already subscribers, the returning customers have a proven track record of retention and loyalty. They're not first-time buyers testing the waters. They're familiar faces coming home.
DTC & Marketing Director at Grind
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