Product update email template for SaaS you can copy

When to send it

On a rhythm you can keep, or when something worth reading ships. Once a month is a fair rhythm for a small product. If a month passes with nothing to say, skip it. A thin update teaches people to stop opening them.

Send it to people who asked to hear from you, and nobody else.

The email

Subject: What's new in [Product]: [biggest change in a few words]

Hi {{first_name}},

This month in [Product]:

[Biggest change]. One sentence on what you can do now that you could not before. [Link]

[Second change]. One sentence on why it matters.

[Small fix]. One line.

If there is something you want that is not on this list, reply to this email.

Sam

Lead with what people can do, not what you built. "You can now export to CSV" beats "Added an export module".

Two variations

One big thing. When a single feature is the news, write only about it:

Subject: [Product] can now [do the thing]

You asked for [the thing], and it's live. Here is how to use it: [two short steps or a link]. Tell me how it goes. Reply to this email.

Sam

You asked, I built it. For a change that came from a customer:

Subject: The [thing] you asked about

A few of you wrote in about [the thing]. It is fixed as of today. If it was getting in your way, I'm sorry it took this long.

Sam

What to avoid

• A commit log. Customers do not care what you refactored.
• Jargon. Use the words your customers use for the thing, not your internal names.
• Sending when nothing changed. Skip the month.
• Too many items. Three is a good number. Past five, the list gets skimmed.
• Emailing people who did not ask. An update goes to the list people joined for it.

How Kicklace sends it

On your Lifecycle map, a Product updates list can send on a schedule: every week, every other week or every month, at 9:00. The email carries a variable that fills itself when it goes out. Connect Vercel (Deployments from Vercel) and every production deploy becomes a release, and the variable reads what shipped. With GitHub connected as well, it adds the commit and pull request titles, one dated line each.

Kicklace shows you the email as it will arrive before it goes. It lands on Home under Needs you, and you approve it or decline it. Where there is nothing new, that one is skipped: a week with nothing deployed sends nothing. You can change the words around it.

It goes only to people who joined the list. The exact sentence each one agreed to is kept beside their subscription, every email says why they are getting it, and every email carries a one-click unsubscribe. Nothing sends until you switch it on, and you can send yourself a test first.

The longer story of this email is in product update emails, and the Vercel deploy product update email guide covers the setup. Try the map on your own site in the demo, or see pricing.

FAQ

How often should I send product updates?

Monthly is a good start for a small product. Weekly works when you ship every week. Choose a rhythm you will keep, because an update that stops after two months is worse than one that never started.

Should it come from me or from the company?

From you, by name, with a reply address that reaches you. Updates read best as a note from the person who built the thing.

Do customers need to opt in?

Yes, for list email. Kicklace sends a list's email only to people who agreed, and keeps the sentence they agreed to. People who bought or signed up can be written to about that, which is a different email.