What is SaaS self-serve onboarding?
SaaS onboarding emails are the set of emails sent to users to educate them about the product or service and help them learn to use it.
It’s necessary to directly send SaaS onboarding emails because you don’t use the sales or customer support team to provide demos on how to use the product.
🎯 The goal of SaaS onboarding sequence
To help educate new users on how the product or service works.
To get them to start using the product.
To improve customer retention and reduce the churn rate.
Recommended emails in onboarding sequence: 5 emails
Optimum flow time: 1-2 weeks (space it on based on your product’s complexity)
Emails in SaaS onbording sequence
Email # 1: Welcome Email
Email # 2: Account setup (optional)
Email # 3: Nudge success actions
Email # 4: Case study/testimonial
Email #5: Reminder email
Email # 1: SaaS onboarding welcome Email
📩 Why this email
Thank your customers for signing up, introduce the brand and what you provide. You can also add a double opt-in process at this point if you want to verify these email ids before you send the usual flow of emails.
This email will also decrease spam complaints and unsubscribes in the future as people are made aware that they will receive emails from you.
✅ Best practice
Don't overwhelm them with all the info in a single email. Show the scope and roadmap only
Email # 2: SaaS onboarding account setup email
📩 Why this email
This email is not necessary for all self-serve SaaS companies. Provide the steps they need to take to set up their account.
Email # 3: Nudge success actions
📩 Why this email
Send an email for every successful action made by the customer. Success action depends on your product. It can be milestones like the first campaign created, the first use of a feature, etc. Share necessary help docs or blogs to help them understand how to proceed and use your product features.
💼 Expert tip
"Visualize your customer’s onboarding experience, and how they would use your product to identify the points where they might drop off. You can tailor your onboarding or product adoption sequence to prevent that."
-Austin Beveridge, Arc
Email # 4: SaaS onboarding case study email
📩 Why this email
Show how people can use your product to solve their pain points. Provide social proof of how effective your product or service is. Re-engage leads who were interested in certain industries or features.
✅ Best practice
Send testimonials or case studies of brands in their industry, niche, or closely related.
Email #5: SaaS onboarding reminder email
📩 Why this email
Send them a final reminder to try out the product, check your resources, and learn how to use your product efficiently to get the best results.
💼 Expert tip
"Make sure your marketing automation tool has access to key product metrics so that you don't waste emails on actions people are already taking."
-Damian Wisniewski, Miter
⛔ SaaS onboarding sequence exit:
After completing the flow, send them to the product/feature adoption flow. However, if you identify people as churn risk, send them to the churn prevention flow.
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