Email writing for Engagement stage

For all the advances in technology we’ve witnessed over the last two decades, the business world still runs on email.
You don’t even need to cherry pick the statistics. Email wins across virtually every metric:

1. Email marketing drives more conversions than any other marketing channel, including search and social. – Monetate
2. Email is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter. – McKinsey
3. Email subscribers are 3 times more likely to share your content via social media than visitors from other sources. – QuickSprout
4. 72% people prefer to receive promotional content through email, compared to 17% who prefer social media. – MarketingSherpa
5. 4.24% of visitors from email marketing buy something as compared to 2.49% of visitors from search engines and 0.59% from social media. – Monetate

Also read: Must-Read Startup Books For Students
Relevant read: How to Track Customer Acquisition in SaaS?

But like with anything worth doing, effective email marketing requires some persistence and attention to detail. You need to know when and what to send and you have to take advantage of every opportunity. It can be especially tough to choose the most important action for new users to take. Often though, there’s one step that’s absolutely necessary for people to ever realize any success in a product or service.
Now, we will look at some of the emails from which you can learn.

So, Let’s get started!

Filepicker.io activation email

Filepicker, a file management service for apps, has an activation email that starts right after their welcome and encourages new users to upload their first file. That’s the first behavioral conversion goal.

As Bethany Stachenfeld who manages online sales and marketing at the company explained: “If users haven’t uploaded a file, then there’s no way that they’re actually using Filepicker.” Once people upload a file, they receive the next email campaign explaining more advanced features.
The progression of emails is important. Director of Customer Success Joseph Palumbo adds, “The goal of these emails is to have people experience how simple it is to integrate our product and have that first experience set the bar for using the rest of our framework.”

Also read: Netmeds: India's Online Pharmacy
Important read: Challenges Faced by SaaS startups

SaneBox onboarding email

SaneBox, an email management tool that works in every inbox, triggers an activation email if you haven’t used a key feature. The subject line — “The most important feature you’re not using – SaneBlackHole” — adds urgency and FOMO to get the most out of the app.

Giving a heads up to new users that they can now unsubscribe from any email without leaving the inbox — while making sure to target only those people who haven’t used the feature yet — helps activation without annoying people who have already taken this step.

Also read: Top 10 Youngest Entrepreneurs of India
Relevant read: How to validate your SaaS idea before building an MVP?

Dropbox

Dropbox, a file hosting service, is another SaaS company that has a great email marketing strategy. They have so called “friendly reminder” emails that are simple, cute and personalized. First of all, they have a cute charming header cartoon that quickly draws the reader’s attention. Secondly, for more personalization, they greet recipient by their first name. Finally, the body of the text is straight to the point: it asks the recipient to download the software and reminds about the main benefits they might get.

Their primary CTA is also used straight to the point: they just ask the reader to “Download Dropbox here”. Though the usual rule of thumb is to make CTAs brighter and more eye-catching, in this case the CTA makes the transition from reading the email to downloading the software more fluid.

Also read: SimplyGuest - Find the Best Housing Solutions

Conclusion

What you can learn: The three main things you need to include in your email are:

• What: the purpose of the email
• Why: the benefits of the software
• How: the way users can get the software

The success of email marketing is ultimately in the follow up.
In this article, I’ve tried to cover scenarios in the engagement stage your business will likely face but in an evolving marketplace, there will always be new opportunities for follow up.

Please comment below your ideas to follow up in the engagement stage.