Maren Holt
Fractional CMO
CASE STUDY
Fernway
Turned a churn problem into a retention story.
Turned a churn problem into a retention story.
Logistics software
Series A, 35 people
Sep 2021 – Aug 2022
Net revenue retention, 2022
When I joined
Result
Result
+18 pts
net revenue retention
Before
Before
Customers churned in month four and nobody knew why.
After
After
An onboarding programme, a customer council and a quarterly value review.
My role
My role
Fractional CMO, one day a week. Plan, team, leadership meeting.
Where they were
Fernway was winning customers and losing them again around month four. Sales blamed onboarding, onboarding blamed sales, and nobody owned the number in between.
What I did
Find the month‑four moment
Exit interviews showed the same story: customers never saw a report that proved the software was saving them money. So we built one, and sent it every quarter.
Make retention a marketing job
We launched an onboarding email programme, a customer council of twelve accounts and a quarterly value review led by customer success with marketing’s materials.
What they kept
Net revenue retention rose eighteen points in a year. The value review became the company’s main expansion motion, and it still runs today.
“
She made retention a marketing job, which nobody here had thought to do.
She made retention a marketing job, which nobody here had thought to do.
Sam Okafor
COO, Fernway
Maren Holt
Fractional CMO
CASE STUDY
Fernway
Turned a churn problem into a retention story.
Turned a churn problem into a retention story.
Logistics software
Series A, 35 people
Sep 2021 – Aug 2022
Net revenue retention, 2022
When I joined
Result
Result
+18 pts
net revenue retention
Before
Before
Customers churned in month four and nobody knew why.
After
After
An onboarding programme, a customer council and a quarterly value review.
My role
My role
Fractional CMO, one day a week. Plan, team, leadership meeting.
Where they were
Fernway was winning customers and losing them again around month four. Sales blamed onboarding, onboarding blamed sales, and nobody owned the number in between.
What I did
Find the month‑four moment
Exit interviews showed the same story: customers never saw a report that proved the software was saving them money. So we built one, and sent it every quarter.
Make retention a marketing job
We launched an onboarding email programme, a customer council of twelve accounts and a quarterly value review led by customer success with marketing’s materials.
What they kept
Net revenue retention rose eighteen points in a year. The value review became the company’s main expansion motion, and it still runs today.
“
She made retention a marketing job, which nobody here had thought to do.
She made retention a marketing job, which nobody here had thought to do.
Sam Okafor
COO, Fernway
Maren Holt
Fractional CMO
CASE STUDY
Fernway
Turned a churn problem into a retention story.
Turned a churn problem into a retention story.
Logistics software
Series A, 35 people
Sep 2021 – Aug 2022
Net revenue retention, 2022
When I joined
Result
Result
+18 pts
net revenue retention
Before
Before
Customers churned in month four and nobody knew why.
After
After
An onboarding programme, a customer council and a quarterly value review.
My role
My role
Fractional CMO, one day a week. Plan, team, leadership meeting.
Where they were
Fernway was winning customers and losing them again around month four. Sales blamed onboarding, onboarding blamed sales, and nobody owned the number in between.
What I did
Find the month‑four moment
Exit interviews showed the same story: customers never saw a report that proved the software was saving them money. So we built one, and sent it every quarter.
Make retention a marketing job
We launched an onboarding email programme, a customer council of twelve accounts and a quarterly value review led by customer success with marketing’s materials.
What they kept
Net revenue retention rose eighteen points in a year. The value review became the company’s main expansion motion, and it still runs today.
“
She made retention a marketing job, which nobody here had thought to do.
She made retention a marketing job, which nobody here had thought to do.
Sam Okafor
COO, Fernway