Meet Ferdinand Schnitzer, Head of Operations at ImmoMetrica, a platform for private investors in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. They built out a full lifecycle messaging system in Userlist, from onboarding to upsells to win-backs.
We interviewed Ferdi to learn more about their setup and accomplishments.
The problem: lots of trial signups, not enough structure to convert them
- A product-led growth model brings in a high volume of trial leads through partnerships
- No structured way to nurture trials, upsell customers, or win back cancellations
- Needed to reduce churn on yearly plans, especially right after signup
- Wanted purpose-built lifecycle automation, not a generic newsletter tool
ImmoMetrica offers three plans: an entry-level monthly package, and two yearly packages, Investor and Investor Pro. Most leads come in through trials, funneled in through partnerships with large communities.
“We have a lot of people thrown into the funnel because we have big partnerships with big communities. Our goal was to monitor them, and get value out of these leads.”
Without a structured lifecycle system, that volume of trial leads was going largely unmanaged. Ferdinand also noticed a pattern hurting revenue directly: a quarter of yearly subscribers were canceling immediately after signing up.
“I recognized that around 25% of our customers using a yearly package cancel the subscription directly after they subscribed. I think it’s more to prevent the auto-renewal.”
He needed a way to build real touchpoints across the customer journey (onboarding, education, upsells, and win-backs) without turning it into a manual, one-off effort.
The solution: nine workflows covering the full customer lifecycle
- Built 9 separate workflows (“series”) in Userlist over about 4 weeks
- Triggered emails off specific behaviors: saved searches, offer tags, subscription cancellations, engagement stats
- Combined product education, content marketing, and workshop invitations
- Used Teleports to keep workflows flexible as new emails get added
Ferdi started from the first touchpoint: trial users with no subscription get a three-email sequence explaining why the current market matters, offering a simple strategy for beginners, and inviting them to a monthly live workshop.
“The goal of this workflow is to get customers to use ImmoMetrica in the future. There are three emails: one on why it’s crucial to invest in the current market, one with a simple strategy even beginners can use, and one inviting them to a workshop with a Q&A session.”
From there, he built out behavior-triggered upsell workflows. Customers on the Investor plan who log 7 or more saved searches get a campaign nudging them toward Investor Pro. Customers who use 5 or more offer tags (a sign they’re a serious investor rather than a hobbyist) get a content-marketing sequence, followed by an upsell pitch for API access.
“If a customer reaches 7 saved searches, he gets an email about why it’s important to have a bigger package. For the tags, my goal was to do content marketing first, showing how other users use these tags, and then upsell to Investor Pro to get an API token.”
New customers on the monthly entry plan get a check-in three weeks after signing up, pointing them to the live workshop as a way to reduce entry-to-investor churn. And for the cancellations Ferdi had flagged as a problem, he built a dedicated sequence: emails 3 days before the cancellation takes effect, 1 day before, and a follow-up 8 days after, plus an invitation to book a 1:1 call via Calendly for anyone who cancels outright.
“These clients are hot leads. I’ve done 4 or 5 calls with customers through that workflow already. It’s still a test, but it’s working.”
Throughout, Ferdi used Userlist’s teleport action even on single-email workflows, in case he wanted to add more emails to a sequence later without restructuring it.
The results: strong engagement and early signs the churn workflow is working
- Open rates as high as 70% on content and stats-based emails
- Customers already replying to renew after the cancellation workflow launched
- More structured upsell paths from entry to investor to investor pro
- A clearer, more intentional customer lifecycle instead of ad hoc communication
The workflows Ferdi built are already performing well. A stats-focused email sent to engaged onboarding users saw open rates near 70%, and the workshop invitation workflows are seeing similarly strong engagement.
“Open rate is almost 70%, that’s very good. The call to action is to log in and use the stats.”
The cancellation win-back workflow, only live for about a week at the time of this call, was already showing signs of working.
“I also got different emails saying, okay, I want to renew my existing package. So it worked out already.”
During a review call, Jane pointed out one gap: while the workshop invitation nudges entry-plan customers toward upgrading, there wasn’t yet a dedicated slow-paced upsell workflow from entry to investor. Ferdi agreed it was the next thing to build.
With 9 workflows live and more planned, including a slow-burn entry-to-investor upsell and an evergreen newsletter for leads who never convert, ImmoMetrica now has a real lifecycle system in place, built entirely around how their customers actually behave.
Impressed with these results?
We’d love to help you engage your users and customers as well. If you’re not already a Userlist customer, click here to book your discovery demo.
