Re-engagement emails: bring back SaaS users who went quiet
What to send users who still have an account but stopped using your product: how to decide who is quiet, three emails to try, and when to stop.
Who they are for
Re-engagement emails go to people who still have an account, and may still be paying, but stopped using the product. They are not for people who never started (activation emails) and not for customers who cancelled (win-back emails).
First, decide what quiet means
Quiet depends on your product. For a tool people use every day, a week of silence is quiet. For a tool used once a month, it is normal. Pick a number of days that is clearly longer than the usual gap between uses, and start there. If your product is quiet by design, you may not need this email at all.
Three emails, then stop
Space them a week or two apart.
1. The check-in. Short, from you, one question, no offer.
Subject: Still useful?
Hi Sam, I noticed you have not been in Acme for a few weeks. Is something not working, or did you just not need it? Reply to this email and tell me. Either answer helps.
2. What is new. A line or two on what shipped since they last used it, only if it matters to them. If nothing does, skip this one. Product update emails covers writing it.
3. The last one. Say you will stop, and make it easy to leave.
Subject: I will stop here
Hi Sam, this is the last email from me about this. If Acme is not for you anymore, no hard feelings. If you want to come back, here is where to start: [link].
What to avoid
- Everyone on your list. Send it to the quiet ones only.
- "We miss you." Say something useful instead.
- No end. Three, then stop.
- Treating a rare user as a problem. Someone who needs the tool twice a year is not quiet.
How Kicklace does it
Kicklace works out where each person stands from what they did, so it needs a signal that someone has gone quiet. Here are two ways to give it one.
If you use PostHog, connect it. Kicklace reads when each person was last seen and how many events they fired in the last 7 and 30 days, and keeps those on their record. That makes "quiet for a month" a question about a person. See PostHog.
Or have your own server post an event of your own, such as went_quiet, for anyone who has not used the product in your number of days. A side road on your Lifecycle map can start from it, and the three emails hang off that side road. Events has the rules for naming one.
The "what is new" email can fill itself with what shipped, read from your deploys. You read it before it goes, and if nothing shipped, that email is skipped rather than sent with a hole in it. Write it for me drafts the others in your voice.
Nothing sends until you switch it on, and before you do, Kicklace shows who would have got it over the last 30 days. Tips and check-ins each carry Stop these emails, one click. Try it in the demo.
FAQ
How do I know who has gone quiet?
From something your product reports. Kicklace only knows what your product tells it, so use the PostHog connection or post an event from your server when someone passes your number of days.
Should I send this to people who never got started?
No. Someone who never did the first real thing needs a different email, one that points at that step. Activation emails covers it.
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