SaaS Email Marketing: 7 Tips to Reach and Retain Users

Email is far from dead. It's one of the most effective and cost-efficient growth channels in SaaS. For SaaS founders and marketers, email is more than just a newsletter tool — it’s a channel for onboarding, retaining, and even reviving customers throughout the lifecycle. In fact, it's been found that every $1 spent on email marketing yields an average ROI of $36.

But like any tool, email only works if used strategically. SaaS businesses need more than generic blasts — they need lifecycle-aware, behaviour-driven, personalized campaigns that align with the customer journey and support user success and business growth.

This guide outlines seven essential email marketing tactics designed to enhance activation, engagement, retention, and referrals, ensuring that your SaaS business is maximizing email as a key growth lever. Whether you're early-stage or scaling, these tactics can help you drive more value through your email program.

Table of Contents

1. Tip #1: Onboard new users with a solid welcome email
2. Tip #2: Trigger emails based on user behaviour
3. Tip #3: Personalize messages using data
4. Tip #4: Educate users with valuable content
5. Tip #5: Use email to prevent churn
6. Tip #6: Re-engage inactive users
7. Tip #7: Ask for referrals when the time is right
8. Test, optimize, repeat

Tip #1: Onboard new users with a solid welcome email

A well-crafted welcome email sets the foundation for a user's relationship with your product. The moment a new user signs up for your SaaS platform is the most critical time to engage them, since they've asked to hear from you (and likely expect to).

Studies show that welcome emails have an average open rate of nearly 70-80%, making them about four times more effective than other email types.

A strong welcome email should include:

• A warm greeting and appreciation. A simple “Thank you for signing up” helps establish a positive connection.
  
• Clear next steps. Users should know exactly what to do next, whether it’s setting up their account, watching a tutorial, or booking a demo.
  
• Key product value. Reinforce why they signed up and highlight the benefits they can expect.
  
• Support and guidance. Provide links to resources, FAQs, or direct customer support options.

For example:

LeadDyno, an affiliate marketing SaaS platform, sends a sequence of onboarding emails during a user’s 30-day trial. The initial welcome email says hello to new subscribers and explains how to reach out with questions or feedback, reassuring them that the team is available to help.

And the results speak for themselves. With an open rate of 68% — up 14% from the previous email — and an 11% click-through rate, LeadDyno's updated welcome emails effectively set users up for success.

Tip #2: Trigger emails based on user behaviour

Behaviour-triggered emails are one of the most powerful tools in a SaaS email marketing strategy because they engage users at the right time. Unlike generic newsletters, these emails are sent in response to specific actions (or inactions) taken by users, making them highly relevant and effective.

One type of behaviour-triggered email is inactivity reminders. For example, if a user signs up but doesn’t log in for a few days, an automated email can prompt them to return and remind them of key benefits.

You can also use milestone celebrations, which might congratulate users, say, for completing their first project, sending their 100th email, or hitting another usage milestone, to reinforce engagement. Another behaviour-triggered email is feature discovery prompts: suggesting advanced features based on a user’s behaviour can encourage deeper product adoption.

Case study: How MeetEdgar improved onboarding and activation with segmented emails

MeetEdgar, a social media scheduling and automation platform, leverages user behaviour data to personalize onboarding experiences. They recently updated their email marketing campaigns by segmenting users based on behaviour and tailoring their email content accordingly, going from 10 to 29 automated emails* to better address different customer journey touchpoints.

The team optimized message content, design, and overall user experience with dynamic email sequences aligned with customer actions, ensuring relevance at every stage. Personalization ensures users receive the right message at the right time, improving the likelihood of continued usage. These efforts improved engagement rates and reduced churn significantly.

For example, the Onboarding Trial series' open rate increased by nearly 10%, its click-through rate (CTR) increased by about 60%, and the Cancelled User Winback series jumped by about 12%.

Here's how the old and the new compare:

*The team's previous email strategy consisted of three campaigns totalling 10 emails: Onboarding, Abandoned Cart (3), Onboarding (5), Canceled User Winback (2). This was changed to eight campaigns totalling 29 emails: Onboarding Trial (6), Onboarding Buy Now (5), Abandoned Cart (4), Canceled User Winback (from active to paid user) (3), Canceled User Winback (from trial user) (3), Trial Extension (4), Pending/Set to Cancel (1), and Onboarding Converted (trial to paid user) (3).

Tip #3: Personalize messages using data

Today’s users expect personalized experiences — far beyond simply seeing their first name in an email message. To truly engage your users, take this a step further by tailoring content based on their behaviour, lifecycle stage, and/or plan type.

Strategies to personalize SaaS emails include behaviour-based segmentation, or grouping users based on feature usage, login frequency, or engagement levels, which allows for more relevant messaging.

Another is lifecycle-based messaging. With this, new users might get onboarding support, while long-term customers could receive advanced feature tutorials or loyalty rewards. Subscription-based personalization can be used to target free users with upgrade incentives, while you might offer premium users exclusive feature announcements.

Using tools like Customer.io, Intercom, or Twilio Segment, SaaS companies can collect and analyze user data to send hyper-relevant emails. Personalization leads to higher open rates, engagement, and conversions by ensuring users receive messages that truly resonate.

Tip #4: Educate users with valuable content

SaaS users don’t just want to use your product, they want to succeed with it. Educating users is a key way to keep them engaged and help them get more value from your product. When users understand how to use your SaaS platform effectively, they're more likely to remain engaged and become long-term customers.

Email is a fantastic channel to deliver that value through tutorials, use cases, and content that deepens product knowledge. These emails should guide users toward more advanced usage or help them solve real problems. The goal is to drive adoption, reduce support tickets, and increase perceived value.

Types of educational emails include:

• Product tutorials. Explaining key features in clear step-by-step guides help users get the most out of your software.
  
• Best practice tips. Providing industry-specific advice related to your software builds trust and engagement.
  
• Webinars and video content. Offering recorded or live sessions allows for interactive learning experiences.
  
• Case studies and success stories. Showcasing how other users have achieved success with your platform inspires confidence and deeper engagement.

Case study: How LeadDyno shortens 'time to first value' through educating 

LeadDyno, an affiliate marketing SaaS tool, sends a sequence of 10 onboarding emails during a user’s 30-day trial. These emails were updated this year to provide users with more personalized, relevant, and helpful information, plus an additional channel for onboarding support and education.

The team's initial welcome email says hello to new subscribers, explains next steps for their affiliate program, and indicates how to reach out with questions or feedback, reiterating that the team is available to help guide and share information.

Pro tip: that human connection, through 1:1 demos, configuration calls, and customer support team access, could be worth pursuing, as it's strongly impacted LeadDyno's trial-to-pay conversion rate — now at 87% for accounts that received a configuration call vs. 28% for those that didn't.

The new email content is highly educational, with links to guides, videos, and documentation on useful topics for users, like:

• how to connect their website and begin tracking with LeadDyno
• what reward structure is right for their business and affiliate program,
• how to build commission plans, invite affiliates, and use affiliate codes and coupons, plus
• case studies of other successful affiliate marketing programs and LeadDyno clients.

This updated educational content helps customers reduce "time to first value" by first getting their initial technical setup complete, then moving on to strategic guidance and considerations for managing their program, plus additional features they'll see value in leveraging. 

Tip #5: Use email to prevent churn

Preventing churn is one of the biggest challenges for SaaS companies. The key is to identify disengaged users early and re-engage them before they leave.

Emails that proactively offer support and emphasize product value can significantly reduce churn rates. With that in mind, here are some strategies to prevent churn with email:

• Identifying drop-off points. Monitor when users typically disengage (like after the first week or post-trial expiration) and trigger emails accordingly.
  
• Asking for feedback. Directly ask users what’s preventing them from using the product more effectively.
  
• Offering support. Reminding users that help is available and offering personalized assistance can make a big difference.
  
• Highlighting unused features. Showing users the value they’re missing out on can encourage re-engagement.

Tip #6: Re-engage inactive users

Not all inactive users are completely lost — many just need a reason to return. A well-crafted re-engagement email can reignite interest in your product and bring users back.

Launching a "We Miss You" or "Still Interested?" campaign can make an effective re-engagement email tactic. These emails create a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) and remind users why they signed up in the first place.

Offering special promotions, like a discount or free upgrade, to returning users can be another effective way to win them back. As well, feature updates and new content lets users know about improvements, bug fixes, or new capabilities, which might rekindle their interest.

Pro tip: The timing of re-engagement emails is crucial. If sent too soon, they may feel unnecessary, but if sent too late, users may have already moved on to another solution.

Tip #7: Ask for referrals when the time is right

Happy users are often willing to refer your product. The key is asking at the right moment to effectively encourage referrals — after all, they're busy people, just like you.

For instance, timing the request is huge. The best time to ask for a referral is when a user just experienced success with your product, such as after they’ve completed a major task or reached a milestone.

As well, be sure to make it easy by providing pre-written email templates, shareable links, or built-in referral buttons that simplify the process. Finally, incentivizing referrals with discounts, account credits, or exclusive features as a thank-you or reward can encourage participation.

Test, optimize, repeat

Remember, email marketing isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it strategy. To continuously improve performance, SaaS companies should:

• A/B test subject lines. Determine which phrasing drives higher open rates.
  
• Experiment with CTAs. Test different wording and placements to see what converts best.
  
• Analyze send timing. Research shows that emails sent on Tuesdays and Thursdays often perform best, but testing your audience’s preferences is essential.

Tracking engagement metrics — such as open rates, click-through rates, and churn reduction — allows SaaS companies to refine their email strategies for maximum effectiveness.

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By implementing these seven strategies, your SaaS business can use email marketing as a powerful tool to drive growth, increase retention, and enhance customer satisfaction. Learn more about how our portfolio companies are driving growth every day with strategies like these.