As a SaaS business owner or marketer, you are overwhelmed with the things you need to keep under control. From acquiring and nurturing existing customers to winning back the lost ones, SaaS customer journeys usually take more time and effort than other businesses.
That’s where SaaS email marketing comes into play. Email marketing is a cost-effective channel that enables SaaS companies to fuel growth across the entire sales lifecycle. By adopting the best email marketing tactics for SaaS, you’re one step closer to capturing more leads and converting them into paying customers. But it’s time to see why email is such a powerful tool in your SaaS arsenal.
Why Is Email Marketing Crucial For Promoting Your SaaS Solution?
SaaS marketers turn to emails to generate leads, boost engagement, and build customer loyalty. Let’s discover why email marketing is still your most trusted ally in succeeding in these objectives.
Cost-effectiveness
Email marketing is cheaper and more effective than other marketing channels. , it brings a high return on investment (ROI). And with good reason. Robust email automation software allows you to set up automated emails or email series and handles dispatching targeted emails according to your chosen triggers. This way, you save valuable time and resources for different priorities.
Direct communication
Email marketing offers a direct line of communication to your recipients. Your email campaigns land in their inboxes, the most personal digital space you can get access to. In addition, there are no intermediaries managing your communication like in other forms of marketing. You own your email list and can reach out to your subscribers directly, sending personalized emails that match their preferences.
Personalized offers
SaaS email marketing is much more than sending emails to promote your unique value proposition. It’s about delivering personalized offers that speak to your recipients’ needs. All you have to do is leverage the data in your possession to effectively segment your contact database and create targeted emails according to your readers’ demographics and preferences. A personalized touch makes recipients feel special and appreciated, which, in its turn, boosts engagement and loyalty.
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Increased website traffic
Apart from targeting subscribers with customized offers, emails are a great way to bring visitors to your SaaS website. Your email campaigns provide a fantastic opportunity to promote your website by including links to your blog, product pages, or dedicated landing pages. Featuring this type of email content increases your click-through rate, leading readers to your website and driving traffic.
Enhanced engagement
And what comes after recipients land on your website? That would be engaging with your website content. The more visitors explore your site, the more they learn about your software and the value that comes with using it. Exclusive promotions provide opportunities for users to stay longer on your website and learn more about your unique selling proposition.
6 SaaS Email Marketing Tactics to Bring Sales
Hopefully, our detailed list of all the benefits of SaaS email marketing has incentivized you to invest in it. Now let’s dive deeper into the best tactics to follow and turn leads into paying and loyal customers through email marketing campaigns.
Nail your onboarding
Onboarding new users is the most critical step to getting them to understand and trust your SaaS solution. Welcome emails and onboarding sequences increase customer retention and loyalty while generating more revenue than other email types. First impressions are everything, and a well-executed onboarding removes frustration for new users, thus reducing your customer churn. When a new user starts using your software, the last thing you want is friction points getting in the way.
Efficient onboarding is a pillar of your lead nurturing, seeing that it could determine whether or not the customer will continue with your SaaS solution. Moreover, if you offer a free trial version, onboarding emails may serve as a gentle nudge for recipients to upgrade to a paid plan. Whatever the occasion, the objective you should set for your onboarding is to educate new customers and provide them with all the necessary resources to take the guesswork out of using your product.
Subject line: 🧰 Toolbox time: getting started with Typeform
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Typeform leverages its onboarding sequence to prompt subscribers to explore the software’s capabilities. Showcasing the tools users can benefit from to build the perfect form helps them make the most of every feature. Not only does the email include links to the question types, design features, and template gallery, but it also leverages video marketing to further engage recipients with visual content. And let’s not forget that these elements are translated into opportunities to boost website traffic.
Educate them beyond the onboarding process
Educating customers doesn’t end with onboarding. It’s quite the opposite. Customer education is even more critical when we talk about paying customers. Remember, these are people that have put their trust in your software and expect to get constant value in return. SaaS companies that neglect customer education once the sale ends leave their audience frustrated. Therefore, showcasing your solution’s capabilities throughout the entire journey plants the seed of customer retention.
The creation of SaaS solutions is an ongoing process. As your product grows and evolves, it expands in available features. And with new features come new resources on how users can address more pain points with your software. No matter the kind of update, ensure you present it as a step towards optimizing your solution. Trust us when we say that letting users figure things out themselves will make them lose trust and switch to a competitive brand.
Subject line: 👀 New challenge just dropped
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Duolingo is a language education platform. So, the fact that they make the most of customer education is no coincidence. The brand introduces its new “Friends Quest” challenge in the most entertaining and engaging way. Everything in the email content, from the attractive graphics to the thought-out CTAs, urges readers to explore the platform’s newest challenge: team up with a different friend each week to meet a shared goal. On top of that, they receive a reward for doing so. Who would say no to such an adventure?
Re-engage inactive users
A common challenge that SaaS companies face is re-engaging inactive users. As a typical rule, user engagement levels are high when familiarizing themselves with your SaaS solution, but their engagement tends to drop over time. This may lead to them not renewing or, even worse, canceling their subscription. Horrifying as it may sound, these inactive users aren’t necessarily a lost cause.
There are different stages when you may decide to take action to re-engage inactive users. It could be during the onboarding phase, when their subscription is about to expire, when they upgrade their plan, or anything in between. Depending on the stage and objective, you could try out several re-engagement tactics, such as sharing guides, videos, and any type of informative material, offering special discounts or promo codes, announcing new features or updates, and more. Anything goes, as long as it provides true value and highlights your work to improve your unique value proposition.
Subject line: Need some help getting started?
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Right from the email subject line, this email from Zapier is all about helping disinterested users sort things out. The email content showcases the tool’s most popular and powerful features and is centered around the CTA. Zapier even adds a human and personal touch since it’s the company’s founder signing the email and ensuring readers understand the value of using the platform.
Abandonment cart emails work wonders
Cart abandonment is a tactic tied to eCommerce email marketing. However, it’s equally effective for SaaS companies searching for ways to win back customers and drive revenue. Abandoned cart emails are behavior-triggered messages dispatched to visitors that added a product to their cart but left the site without completing the checkout. While it seems bad, it’s a blessing in disguise.
As a SaaS brand, you can use this email campaign to lure them back in with a limited-time offer. Depending on your objective and budget, this may vary from an exclusive discount to an extended free trial. No matter the incentive, employ urgent and actionable language to highlight that the offer won’t last forever. Moreover, timing matters with abandoned cart emails, so send them out as soon as possible for your brand and product to stay top of mind.
Subject line: Quick heads up
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Headspace uses this email to re-engage cart abandoners with different types of call-to-actions. Apart from continuing to checkout, readers can choose between emailing the support team, heading back to the website to discover more about the platform, or visiting the FAQ section. The brand paired these options with an inspired pun in the email subject line and a bold and action-oriented CTA to increase the chances of subscribers completing the purchase.
Leverage transactional emails
Transactional emails are dispatched when a user completes a specific action. It could be an account activation, a payment notification, a password reset, etc. Unfortunately, most companies don’t put any effort into such emails. Especially for SaaS providers, transactional emails could be a vital strategy for driving conversions. For instance, you can use them to promote content like event announcements or valuable tips based on the recipient’s stage within the buyer funnel.
What’s great about transactional emails is that recipients expect them. That’s why they have the highest open rate compared to other email marketing campaigns. As you can tell, not leveraging such an occasion is like leaving money on the table. But for this kind of email to work, you have to deliver it instantly, exactly when the transaction is still fresh in the user’s mind.
Subject line: Your email address has been changed
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Netflix uses this transactional email to confirm the account’s email address change. The email subject line is concise and straightforward so that the reader knows exactly what the email is about. And while the copy is centered around the transaction details, the company takes advantage of the opportunity to direct users back to the platform to browse their favorite shows and movies.
Monitor your email performance
The emails you choose to employ to promote your SaaS product depend on what resonates with your audience and what serves your business needs. However, there’s one thing you need to do, no matter the kind of emails you dispatch, and that’s monitoring their performance.
Measuring success enables you to redefine your email marketing strategy and make data-driven decisions to get the best results possible. There are a lot of email marketing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that offer you insight into the ways your recipients engage with your content. The most crucial metrics are email open rates, click-through rates, unsubscribe rates, and ROI.
We should note, though, that each metric contributes to solving the email marketing puzzle. Therefore, combining several metrics to understand better what works and what needs optimization is best. But to effectively measure your email performance, you must pick an email marketing platform with advanced reporting capabilities. You can even combine the metrics you collect from your ESP with third-party tools like Google Analytics to have a clear picture of your marketing efforts.
Final Words
SaaS email marketing is a prerequisite for business success and increased sales, whether you’re looking to educate your subscribers or boost your conversion rate. However, it’s not exactly a walk in the park. Setting a successful SaaS email marketing strategy requires careful planning and effort. By leveraging the tactics shared in this guide, you will ensure that your emails drive engagement and help your SaaS brand build trusting relationships with its audience.
Remember to pick strategies aligned with your marketing goals and contact recipients with tailored messages. But to do it right, it’s imperative that you have a deep understanding of their needs and aspirations. Prospects have grown weary of pitches that are just going after the sale. So, to stand out in the crowded market of SaaS businesses, providing readers with helpful email content is all they need to become your loyal customers and reach success.
About Author
Maria Fintanidou works as a copywriter for email marketing automation software Moosend, having created the Help Articles (FAQs) and overseen the platform’s translations in Greek and Spanish. She loves exploring new cultures and ways of thinking through traveling, reading, and language learning.
