SaaS onboarding email sequence: what to send in the first 2 weeks

The short version

Five emails over two weeks is plenty for a small product. Each has one job, and the sequence stops for anyone who has already done what it asks. The days below are a starting point, not a rule. Use what you know about how long your product takes to show its value. There are also an onboarding email template and a welcome email template.

Email by email

Day 0: the welcome. Goes within minutes of sign-up. Its one job is the first step.

Subject: Welcome to Acme

Hi Sam, glad you signed up. Start with one project, it takes a minute: [link]. Reply to this email if you get stuck.

Day 2: the nudge. Goes only to people who have not done the first step. Shorter than the welcome, with the same link.

Subject: Stuck on the first step?

Hi Sam, you signed up on Tuesday and have not added a project yet. It is the one thing that makes the rest of Acme make sense: [link]. If something confused you, tell me what and I will fix it.

Day 4: the second step. For people who did the first step, show the next one. For people who did not, give one concrete example of what the product does for someone like them.

Day 7: the founder check-in. One question, from you.

Subject: A quick question

Hi Sam, what were you hoping Acme would do for you? One line is plenty. I am building it and want to know.

Day 12: the close. If they are on a trial, say when it ends and what happens then. Stripe tells Kicklace three days before a trial ends, so the trial ending email can go then. If they never started, say you will stop emailing about setup and tell them where to find help.

What to avoid

• A tour of every feature. One step per email.
• The same email for everyone. Someone who did the first step does not need the nudge.
• A no-reply sender. The check-in only works if people can answer it.
• Carrying on after they have done it. A nudge that arrives after the thing is done reads as noise.

How Kicklace does it

Each email lives on a stage of your Lifecycle map. The welcome and the nudges hang off Signed up. A sequence starts when someone arrives or once they have been at the stage a number of days, and its steps run in order: an email, a wait, a note to you, or a task for you. A task for you is a good fit for day 7 if you would rather write to a few people yourself.

When your app says someone did the first real thing, Kicklace moves them to Activated and the nudges stop with them. That is one line from your server with the kicklace package, and Events says what moves whom.

An email with no words yet has Write it for me. Kicklace writes it from where it sits and what comes before it, in your voice, and you change whatever you like. Nobody gets more than one tip or check-in a day, so two sequences cannot pile on.

Nothing sends until you switch it on. First Kicklace shows who would have got it over the last 30 days, and you can send yourself a test. Try the whole thing on your own site in the demo.

FAQ

How many emails should an onboarding sequence have?

As few as it takes to get someone to value. Three to five over two weeks suits most small products. More emails do not help if the first step is the thing in the way. Fix that step.

What if someone does the first step before the nudge goes?

Then the nudge should not go. In Kicklace a sequence stops the moment a person moves on from its stage, and each person gets each email once, as long as Kicklace hears that they did it.