Brand
Canva
Subject line
Action required - please update your payment details
Use case
Transactional EmailsTags
About this email
This email is a payment failure notification from Canva addressed to a user with a Canva Pro subscription. It clearly informs the recipient that their recent payment could not be processed due to card issues, advises them to update their payment method, and warns about subscription cancellation if payment is not made by a specific date. The email is structured with a direct, urgent tone, includes clear calls to action with links to update payment details and find payment-related support, and reassures the user that it is a transactional, non-promotional message.
Canva journey
Why this works
**Why this works.** The subject line "Action required" front-loads urgency and specificity (the missing action is named, not buried) rather than leading with "Payment Issue" or "We Need Your Help", which trains the user to open because something concrete is broken and fixable right now. The pattern here is "name the gap before the problem"; you can lift it for any payment or account-critical email where you need users to remediate before churn happens.
