SaaS Email Marketing: What is it, Features, Strategies & Examples

Email remains one of the most powerful tools for SaaS companies to engage customers and drive growth.

A well-executed SaaS email marketing strategy can boost product adoption, reduce churn, and increase customer lifetime value.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll dive into the essentials of email marketing for SaaS and share proven strategies to elevate your campaigns in 2024.

What is SaaS Email Marketing?

SaaS email marketing involves using emails to nurture leads, onboard users, promote features, and retain customers for subscription-based software products. It includes various email types like onboarding sequences, product updates, educational content, and promotional offers. These emails aim to guide users through the customer journey and elevate their product experience.

To achieve these goals, email marketing efforts must stay contextual and span the entirety of the customer journey, using effective marketing automation, promotional emails using relevant content and saas marketing strategies to maximize lead generation and conversion rates to increase brand awareness and engagement in the user base.

What Makes Email Marketing For SaaS So Different?

Unlike traditional businesses that mostly rely on channels like ADS and SEO, SaaS companies rely on recurring revenue from subscriptions.

Email marketing automation and content marketing plays an important role in engaging users throughout their lifecycle—from initial signup to long-term loyalty.

SaaS emails must continually demonstrate the product’s value, highlight target audience’s pain points, provide ongoing education, and proactively address customer needs to prevent churn.

As a thumb rule, always do omni channel marketing using top Ads and SaaS SEO tools – and not just emails. This will also help you with your email opt-ins and subscriptions using ads, SEO and content marketing.

As a fun fact, it has been found by various experts that running Google Ads does improve SEO performance, leading to a significant improvement in your traffic to email opt-ins, thereby increasing your email marketing results.

SaaS Email Marketing Features

To be effective, SaaS email marketing funnel should include the following key features:

1. Personalization: Leverage customer data to create targeted, relevant email content. Personalized emails have higher open and click-through rates.
2. Customer Education: Educate users on how to get the most out of your SaaS product. Tutorials, tips, and best practices help them realize value faster.
3. Customer Success Stories: Showcase how other customers have achieved success with your software. Case studies and testimonials build trust and credibility.
4. Incentivized Referrals: Encourage satisfied customers to refer their friends and colleagues. Referral programs with enticing incentives can drive significant growth.
5. Product Updates and Feature Releases: Keep users informed about new capabilities and improvements. Highlight how these enhancements benefit them directly.
6. Account Activation Emails: Prompt new customer signups to complete key onboarding steps. Getting users to engage early increases their likelihood of becoming paying customers.
7. Free Trial Reminders: Notify free trial users & free plan users before their access expires. Offering an extension or discount can nudge them to convert.

Why is Email Marketing Important For SaaS Products?

Benefits

• Cost-effective way to reach and engage customers at scale
• Drives product adoption and feature usage
• Reduces churn by continuously delivering value
• Increases upsell and cross-sell opportunities
• Builds brand loyalty and advocacy

Disadvantages

• Can be time-consuming to create effective email content
• Requires ongoing list hygiene to maintain deliverability
• Customers may tune out if emails are irrelevant or too frequent

Types of SaaS Models

1. The Free Trial Model: Users get full access to the software for a limited time before requiring payment. Email is important for converting trials to paid subscriptions.
2. The Freemium Model: The core product is free indefinitely, with advanced features behind a paywall. Emails aim to upsell free users to premium plans.

Main Email Categories For SaaS Companies

Email marketing for SaaS companies is divided into four key types:

1. Product: Onboarding, feature announcements, tips and tricks, product-focused newsletters.
2. Marketing: Promotional offers, gated content, event invitations, company news.
3. Sales: Demo follow-ups, trial expiration warnings, upgrade nurture campaigns.
4. Transactional: Welcome emails, receipts, password resets, usage alerts.

Types of SaaS Emails (With Examples)

1. The Onboarding Flow: Welcome new users and guide them to experience the core value of your product. Asana’s onboarding emails are a great example.
2. The Trial Expiring Flow: Create urgency for trial users to convert. Dropbox’s trial-ending reminders are effective yet friendly.
3. The Upgrade Flow: Entice freemium users with premium features. Grammarly highlights advanced capabilities in upgrade emails.
4. Product Education Emails: Share helpful resources to enable customer success. Shopify’s expert guides are a perfect example.

How To Do Email Marketing For SaaS?

When it comes to email marketing for SaaS, you’ve got to have a plan if you want it to work well. Here’s what you should do:

• Step 1. Define Strategy: Determine your goals, target segments, email types, and successful marketing metrics. Consider how email fits into your overall marketing efforts. In case you are interested, we have a dedicated blog that highlights various B2B SaaS marketing strategies explained end to end.
• Step 2. Collect Contacts: Capture leads through your website, app, events, and other channels. Always get explicit permission before adding someone to your mailing list.
• Step 3. Create and Send Content: Create compelling email copy and design for each campaign. Segment your audience and personalize content where possible. Use an email automation tool to streamline delivery.
• Step 4. Analyze Results: Track key performance indicators like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. Use these insights to optimize future campaigns. Continuously A/B test elements like subject lines and calls to action.

12 SaaS Email Marketing Strategies to Build Your Plan

Email marketing is a super useful way for SaaS companies to get and keep customers, boost how often people say “yes” to offers, and make customer bonds stronger.

Here are 12 tips on creating a top-notch email marketing strategy for your SaaS company:

1. Know Your Goals: Clearly define what you want to achieve with each email campaign. Common SaaS goals include user activation, feature adoption, upgrades, and retention.
2. Have a Solid Lead-Generation Strategy: Grow your email list with gated content, free trials, and other signup incentives. More qualified leads mean better campaign results.
3. Segment Your Audience: Group subscribers based on attributes like job title, company size, behavior, and lifecycle stage. Segmented emails perform significantly better than blast campaigns.
4. Personalize Your Emails: Use merge tags to include recipient names and other details. Create copy that speaks to each segment’s unique needs and interests.
5. Plan The Triggers: Determine which user actions or inactions will trigger specific emails. Behavioral triggers make your campaigns feel timely and relevant.
6. Perfect Your Subject Line: Experiment with different subject line styles to see what resonates. Aim for clarity, brevity, and evoking curiosity.
7. Add Possible Micro-Conversions: Include secondary calls-to-action for those not ready to buy. Downloading a guide or booking a demo can move them closer to purchase.
8. Align Emails With Your In-App Messaging: Ensure a consistent, cohesive user experience across touchpoints. Reinforce email content with in-app notifications and vice versa.
9. Keep an Eye on Performance: Monitor email metrics regularly and watch for any deliverability issues. Proactively address problems before they impact results.
10. Send Surveys For Feedback: Solicit input on how to improve your product and email content. User feedback is invaluable for optimization.
11. Keep Testing: Continuously A/B test subject lines, copy, design, and calls to action. Incremental gains can drive significant impact over time.
12. Re-Engage Inactive Users: Launch win-back campaigns for subscribers who haven’t opened or clicked recently. Reminding them of your product’s value can reignite engagement.

8 Examples of Successful SaaS Email Marketing Campaigns

1. Canva — Illustrated Recommendation: Canva suggests design ideas with eye-catching visuals, inspiring users to keep creating.
2. Loom — Celebrating Customer Success: Loom spotlights impressive user-generated videos, making customers feel appreciated.
3. MacPaw — Celebrating Together With a Referral Offer: MacPaw combines a company milestone with a referral incentive, giving users two reasons to share.
4. Shopify — Expert Customer Education: Shopify’s in-depth guides help entrepreneurs master e-commerce, establishing the brand as a trusted resource.
5. Grammarly — Helpful Tips to Educate Customers: Grammarly’s writing tips showcase the product’s value while providing practical advice.
6. Webflow — Short But Clear Incentivized Referral: Webflow’s concise referral email makes sharing easy with a prominent CTA and reward details.
7. Trello — Smart New Feature Introduction: Trello announces new features with animated GIFs, showing users how to take advantage of them.
8. Zapier — Calculated Trial Ending Reminder: Zapier’s trial expiration email is perfectly timed and includes a list of accomplished tasks to highlight progress.

FAQ’s:

Why is Email Marketing Relevant For SaaS?

Email is a direct, owned channel that allows SaaS companies to build relationships, deliver value, and drive key actions throughout the customer lifecycle.

How Often Should SaaS Companies Send Out Marketing Emails?

Frequency depends on the type of emails and user preferences. A good starting point is at least one monthly newsletter, supplemented by targeted automated campaigns.

What Types Of Content Work Well For SaaS Email Marketing?

Educational guides, customer success stories, product tips, and industry insights tend to perform well. The key is providing value and addressing real user needs.

Can Email Marketing Drive SaaS Product Upgrades?

Absolutely. Emails that demonstrate the value of premium features, combined with special offers and social media proof, can effectively motivate users to upgrade.

How to Ensure Compliance With Email Marketing Regulations?

Always obtain explicit consent before emailing someone. Provide an easy way to unsubscribe, and promptly honor those requests. Consult with legal counsel to ensure your practices adhere to GDPR, CAN-SPAM, and other applicable laws.

Conclusion

Email marketing is a powerful lever for SaaS growth when executed strategically. By deeply understanding your customers and consistently delivering value at every stage of their journey, you can harness email to drive acquisition, engagement, and retention.

Remember, effective SaaS email marketing requires a mix of art and science—compelling content, data-driven segmentation, and continuous testing. With the right approach, email can be an indispensable growth engine for your SaaS business in 2024 and beyond.

Looking to level up your SaaS email marketing? VH-info offers expert guidance and proven strategies to help you capture more leads, convert trial users, and boost customer lifetime value. Book a free consultation with our SaaS email specialists today to uncover growth opportunities hiding in your subscriber base.