Activation emails: get people who signed up to use your product

What an activation email is for

Someone signed up and then nothing happened. No project, no import, no first anything. An activation email has one job: get them to do the first real thing in your product. Not to read your blog and not to book a call. One thing.

Decide what activated means

Pick the single action that shows someone has got what the product is for. The first invoice sent, the first report run, the first project made. Every email below points at that action. If you cannot name it, the emails will wander, so name it first.

When to send them

• A day or two after sign-up, only to people who have not done it.
• Around day four, with a smaller step or a question.
• Around day seven, a note from you asking what got in the way.

Then stop. Three is enough, and a fourth starts to feel like nagging. Stop earlier than that for anyone who does the thing, even in the middle of the sequence.

What to say

Name the step, give the link, make it small. There is an activation email template to copy.

Subject: One step left in Acme

Hi Sam, to get started you only need to add one project. It takes about a minute: [link].

When a nudge does not work, a question can:

Subject: What got in the way?

Hi Sam, you signed up for Acme last week and have not set anything up. Did something confuse you? Reply to this email and tell me, even if it is one word.

Replies from people who stalled tell you where your product loses them, which is worth more than the nudge.

What to avoid

• Listing every feature. Pick the one that leads to the first step.
• Guilt. Say what the step is, not how disappointed you are.
• A call as the first ask. It is a lot to ask of someone who has not tried the product.
• Carrying on after they activate. The email is for people who have not done it.

How Kicklace does it

On the Lifecycle map, activation is a stage. Signed up leads to Activated, and you say what Activated means: your app tells Kicklace when someone did the first real thing, with one line from your server (the kicklace package, and Events for what moves whom).

The nudges hang off the Signed up stage. The sequence starts once someone has been there a number of days, and it stops the moment they move on to Activated. Nobody gets the same email twice.

An email can also say what that one person has done so far, filled in when it sends. An email like that waits for your approval on Home first, so you read it as it will arrive.

Kicklace writes the first drafts in your voice from your site and from where each email sits, and you change what you like. Nothing sends until you switch it on, and before you do, it shows who would have got it over the last 30 days. See it with your own company's name in the demo.

FAQ

What counts as activation?

The first thing that shows someone what your product is for. It is different for every product, so you say what it is. If your product is a tool for sending invoices, it is the first invoice sent, not the account being made.

How soon should the first nudge go?

A day or two after sign-up suits most products. If your product takes ten minutes to understand, a few hours is fine. If people need time to gather something first, wait longer. Either way it should stop as soon as they have done it.