Are your onboarding emails helping to retain and engage your user base? Perhaps you audited your email marketing and found that your onboarding email welcome sequence could use some attention.
To get straight to the point…
1. Have Users Accomplish Something Tangible
When a user first starts using your software, they can get a bit lost. So, make it easier for them by offering a quick, gamified guide which can help them find their way. Use progress bars and checklists to your advantage.
(source: useronboard.com)
Set up some basic actions that they have to complete and give them something at the end of the process. For instance, an extra 7 days of the free trial. Make sure that they know that there is a reward.
You can also give them a discount or anything else that counts as exclusive in your software. You accomplish two goals this way – you show them how to use your software and push them to reach their “aha” moment.
The biggest mistake you can make is to rush your users. If they are still on the free trial, you don’t have to send them an email every day asking them when they’ll pay for a real membership. Instead, follow the example below and offer them help in getting the most out of their free trial.
(source: freshbooks.com)
By giving them an empathetic human touch point, they’ll be more likely to bite into an upsell and/or spread the word about your product.
Check out the message below. It is a great example of how an automated onboarding email can be so personal. Look at what Dave (from Drift) did there – he was honest about the automation and admitted that he doesn’t know the user yet. The email is kind of funny and certainly different. It’s quite short and the copywriting is strong. He also asks the user to engage on a deeper level.
(source: drift.com)
^Give your users someone real that they can talk to if they choose to.
Take a look below at how Headspace, the meditation app, is proactively addressing a key pain-point of their user-base. They understand that not everyone has time for a full-blown meditation at home. So, they employ an onboarding email that directly addresses the “problem” and offers a solution.
(source: medium.com @clevertap)
Anticipating common objections and proactively calling out solutions helps to remove friction and increase stickyness.
Personalization is a big word nowadays and it spans all aspects of marketing. However, true personalization relies on providing value to the individual – not just calling them by their name and using a “hello @ email address”. These are common courtesies, not something that you do to serve your customers.
However, providing custom reports, like the one in the example below, makes the experience of interaction with your product feel even more personalized. FullStory delivers custom reports on a weekly basis to all of their customers.
(source: medium.com @aloha–welcome emails)
Many products are using now using “personal reporting” as a way to engage with their user-base in a meaningful way. Spotlight sends alerts on spend and marketing performance. FullStory sends usage overviews. Even Facebook is now sending push notifications detailing your average screen time breakdown.
This is an example of a solid onboarding email.
When a new user signs up for a free trial of your software, they may not be sure how to use it. Your job is to show them how – and quickly before the confusion causes them to quit.
Embedded video help users learn how to use your product in a format that is super easy to digest and understand. Rather than typing out paragraphs of if/then steps, you spend 60 seconds walking them through a screen recording.
For easier digestion (and maximum impact) – try breaking your onboarding down into several 2-minute videos and embedding one or two in each email of your onboarding drip.
Tools to improve your onboarding email copywriting:
*And shoutout to Grammarly– an excellent (and free) writing assistant.
Tools to improve your onboarding email content:
BONUS: Tools to improve your strategy:
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