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Email Marketing for SaaS 101: Engage, Retain, and Scale
From Onboarding to Retention, Discover Strategies To Scale Your SaaS With Email.
Moses Agbonmabi
April 1st, 2025
When it comes to SaaS marketing, email marketing often gets overshadowed by flashier strategies like SEO, content marketing, and retargeting. It’s frequently treated as an afterthought, handed off to a “growth manager” or even a social media marketer who may lack the expertise to make it impactful.
The result? Missed opportunities to engage users, increase lifetime value (LTV), and scale effectively—ultimately hurting the bottom line.
But what if we told you that email marketing, when done right, can be one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal?
In this article, we’ll be breaking down actionable strategies to optimize your email campaigns, boost user retention, and drive product adoption. And here’s the kicker: we’ve teamed up with industry experts to ensure every insight is practical, proven, and packed with value.
You’ll get exclusive advice from Maggie Glascott, Email Marketing Manager @ Buffer, Jimmy Kim, CEO & Co-Founder of eCom Email Marketer; and Tony Varghese, Senior Marketing Manager @ beehiiv.
With their expertise backing this guide, you’re not just reading another marketing article—you’re gaining access to strategies that can transform your email marketing game. This is one article you don’t want to miss.
Table of Contents
What Does Email Marketing for SaaS Look Like?
Unlike other businesses, SaaS email marketing involves more than just sending out the occasional newsletter or promotion.
SaaS email campaigns must address dynamic user journeys, often including free trials, onboarding, upgrades, and subscription renewals. The goal? To build a long-term, value-driven relationship with your customers.
This requires a thoughtful mix of personalization, automation, and an understanding of your audience’s lifecycle stage, which can be quite complex. Let's make it easier to understand.
Understanding the SaaS Customer Lifecycle
Every SaaS customer goes through a journey— from the first touchpoint as a lead to becoming a user. To make the most of email marketing, you need to align your campaigns with these stages. This ensures you’re delivering the right message at the right time.
Prospects: At this stage, focus on lead nurturing emails. Think educational content, free resources, or special offers to encourage users to take the next step (such as starting a trial).
Trial Users: Trial periods are critical. Your emails should concentrate on onboarding, emphasizing how users can solve their pain points with your product. Less talk about features, and more on value-driven tutorials that help solve a pain point, and offer personalized check-ins.
Subscribers: These are your paying customers, and retention is key. Use emails to showcase product updates, premium options, and best practices for maximizing their experience.
Advocates: These satisfied users are likely already talking about your product. Use referral incentives or loyalty programs to reward and engage them further.
Mapping emails to these lifecycle stages ensures you're talking to users about their needs instead of sending generic updates that might not resonate. Understanding the lifecycle of a customer in SaaS is one thing, but it goes much deeper than that, which leads us to…
Types of SaaS Email Campaigns
SaaS requires a diverse approach to email types. Here are the core formats you'll rely on:
Onboarding Emails: These ensure a smooth start for new users. Keep them engaged within the first few days by sharing valuable tips that solve specific pain points rather than focusing on your features. Notion does a great job at this.
Image source: Really Good Emails
Product Update Emails: SaaS is fast-moving. Regular updates about new features, bug fixes, or improvements keep users in the loop and showcase your commitment to delivering value. This should be sent to users already ahead in the customer's journey i.e. trial users or paying customers. An example is beehiiv boosts feature update.
Transactional Emails: Think account confirmations, payment receipts, or password resets. These are often overlooked opportunities to include subtle branding or value-driven messages.
Image source: Really Good Emails
Nurture Campaigns: Designed for leads that haven’t converted yet, nurture emails push them closer to making a decision, often by building trust and sharing social proof like testimonials or case studies. Here’s some inspo from Skillshare.
Image source: Really Good Emails
Knowing which type to use and when allows you to guide users at every step of their journey.
But you might be wondering…
Why Does Email Marketing Matter for SaaS?
In SaaS, your business thrives on building customer relationships and guiding users through complex journeys.
Unlike one-off purchases in other businesses, SaaS revolves around recurring revenue and continuous product usage.
Here, email marketing becomes your powerhouse: a direct, cost-effective channel to communicate, educate, and engage your audience.
But why is email so essential for SaaS? Let’s take a closer look.
Connecting Directly With Users
Social media and ads may seem like powerful tools, but their reach can be unpredictable. Algorithm changes and pay-to-play models often limit how consistently you can connect with your audience.
Email, on the other hand, guarantees delivery to your subscribers’ inboxes. It’s like texting a friend—direct, personal, and without interference.
For SaaS, this direct connection enables you to stand out. Whether it’s a welcome email or a renewal reminder, email ensures your message lands right where your users are looking. Unlike flashy ads, email lets you have meaningful, uninterrupted conversations with your audience.
Supporting Long Customer Cycles
The SaaS sales funnel isn’t quick—it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Customers often explore your product through free trials, research comparisons, and navigating onboarding before ever committing to a paid plan. Email marketing allows you to seamlessly guide them down this path.
For Trial Users: Your emails can highlight product use cases and testimonials from active users.
For Active Users: You can share tutorials or updates to enhance their experience.
For Churned Customers: A re-engagement email might just win them back with a targeted incentive.
With email marketing, you nurture users at every step, ensuring no opportunity is missed.
High ROI Makes Every Dollar Count
For SaaS companies, who often rely on lean budgets in their early stages, email offers a cost-effective way to both acquire and retain customers.
It’s smart spending that pays off over time. Automating sequences like onboarding or renewals ensures that you’re always working efficiently—without adding extra hours to your marketing team’s schedule.
Now, you're probably ready to start your SaaS email campaign. To make things easier, you can follow three simple steps.
3 Steps To Start a SaaS Email Marketing Campaign
If you’re ready to kick off a SaaS email marketing campaign, these three steps will set you on the path to success.
Building & Growing Your Email List
Your email list is the foundation of your campaign—without it, you’re shouting into the void. But how do you go about growing your list in a way that brings in high-potential leads?
Here are a few strategies tailored specifically for SaaS companies:
Offer Free Trials: A free trial is a golden opportunity to collect emails without unnecessary friction. Make signing up effortless and position the trial as a no-brainer for users to test your software. Similar to how we positioned our 30-day free trial offers.
Use Lead Magnets: Think beyond generic content—create resources that are truly valuable to your target audience. Examples include free eBooks, cheat sheets, or tools like ROI calculators tailored to your industry. Teachable has loads of this on its site.
Cold Outreach: Tap into platforms where your target audience already exists. Whether through LinkedIn or Twitter, send a direct message offering an incentive that you're sure would help solve a specific pain point, for example, a 10-minute video breaking down their sales process and how to improve it.
Here’s a customizable template you can use:
Hi Tim, do you know you're losing money without an email list?
I created a 10-minute breakdown of your current sales funnel by adding key areas for improvement and how you can get a 35% boost in revenue within 3 weeks
Here’s a case study of how we helped [a current user] achieve the same result, [yourcasestudylink.com]
Interested in seeing the breakdown?
Once they show interest, all you have to do is send them a sign-up form that redirects them to the video link after they subscribe.
Embed Signup Forms Everywhere: Add prominent signup forms on your website—think homepages, blog footers, and even within your app. Make it simple for users to join your list wherever they interact with your brand. Here’s a perfect example.
Remember, your goal isn’t just to collect emails—it’s to attract people who’ll value your product enough to convert down the line.
Prioritize quality over quantity.
Once you’ve built your list, the next step is creating content that keeps your SaaS users hooked. Nobody wants another meaningless email clogging their inbox; your newsletters need to stand out by providing value.
Jimmy Kim, CEO and co-founder of eCom Email Marketer, says the best way to achieve this is to send content that connects with users based on their journey.
He highlighted different groups of users to consider:
People who don’t know about you yet
Visitors who checked your website but didn’t sign up
Trial users
Paying customers
Former users who churned or didn’t convert
Here’s how to write emails for each group:
For people who don’t know about you yet: Start by introducing your product and how it solves a problem they might have. Don’t overwhelm them with features. Instead, keep the focus on their pain points and how you can help. A helpful blog post or guide can also work well here.
For visitors who didn’t sign up: These people are interested but weren’t ready to commit. Send them something valuable, like a free resource or success story, to show them what they’re missing. Keep it casual and low-pressure.
For trial users: These folks need to see the value of your product quickly. Share tips to help them get started, highlight features they might’ve missed, or send a case study showing how others succeeded using your tool.
For paying customers: Keep them excited about your product by sharing updates, advanced tips, or exclusive offers. Show them you care about their success. It’s also a good time to ask for feedback or reviews.
For former users or churned customers: Find out why they left. Send a quick survey or ask if there’s anything you could’ve done better. You can also offer a discount or a new feature preview to win them back.
Using Automation to Enhance Campaigns
When it comes to scaling your email marketing efforts, especially for SaaS, automation is your secret weapon. It saves time, ensures consistent communication, and helps you engage users at the right moments without feeling spammy.
Key ways to incorporate automation into your SaaS email marketing campaign include:
Onboarding Sequences: Automatically send a series of emails to new users, guiding them through your platform and highlighting essential features. This not only boosts engagement but ensures they see value quickly.
Behavior-Triggered Emails: Set triggers based on specific user actions—or inaction. If a trial user hasn’t logged in or activated a key feature, send them a nudge with actionable steps. Similarly, reward frequent usage with milestone emails to reinforce positive behavior.
Regular Check-ins: Use automation to touch base with customers periodically. These can be simple “How’s it going?” messages or deeper check-ins encouraging users to share feedback or explore overlooked product features.
Why Trust Me: Before pivoting into content writing, Moses freelanced as an email marketer, helping businesses in SaaS, self-help, and MMO industries.
3 Strategies for SaaS Customer Retention Through Email
Building stronger relationships through thoughtful email campaigns can lower churn, increase customer lifetime value, and deepen customer satisfaction.
Let’s explore three winning strategies you can use to retain more users with email marketing.
Personalization & Dynamic Content
Sending generic, one-size-fits-all emails? That’s a surefire way to lose your audience's interest. SaaS businesses thrive on delivering value—and nothing says value like emails tailored specifically for your customers.
Personalization and dynamic content transform your email campaigns into experiences that resonate on an individual level.
How Personalization Works in SaaS Emails:
Use the subscriber’s first name in subject lines and greetings to create a personal touch. A small touch, but it grabs attention.
Reference their actions inside your product, such as features they’ve explored or milestones they’ve achieved. For example, “Congrats on completing your first project!” If I signed up with Adobe and created my first video, I should expect an email congratulating me on that achievement and then tips/tutorials on how to improve my videos, rather than being bombarded with emails on features and functionalities.
Segment users based on trial usage, plan type, or engagement history, and send targeted emails that align with their behaviors.
To be blunt: nobody wants to feel like they’re on a cookie-cutter list.
Re-Engagement Campaigns
Churn is a constant battle for SaaS companies. Users sometimes neglect your product, not because they don’t need it, but because life and other priorities take over. That’s where re-engagement emails come in—they gently remind inactive subscribers why they signed up in the first place.
Maggie Glascott, Email Marketing Manager @ Buffer had this to say about re-engagement campaigns:
Maggie also shared, “Email marketing is uniquely positioned to reach users who have churned or are at risk of churning given its ability to reach users outside of the product. While there isn't a one-size-fits-all strategy for re-engagement, the key is reaching the right user at the right time with the right message, which takes a lot of testing.”
For testing, Maggie recommends activity and a subscription tier - eg. paid users who canceled their subscription - as a great starting point for segmentation.
Maggie continues, “A new feature or tool offered in your paid tier is a compelling hook for re-engagement for paid subscribers who have canceled (Consider offering discounts, free consultations, or bonus features for coming back—like “Reactivate your account and get an extra month free!”), but not necessarily those who churned from your free tier.”
Maggie cites the importance of further personalizing emails by highlighting any quantitative benefits they saw from using your product, this can serve as yet another compelling reason to return.
Upsell & Cross-Sell Opportunities
Upselling (encouraging users to move to higher-priced plans) and cross-selling (suggesting related features or add-ons) increase a customer’s lifetime value without requiring additional acquisition costs.
Strategies for Email Upsells and Cross-Sells:
Tie Upgrades to Customer Needs. For example, if a customer consistently hits a storage limit, an email offering a plan with more capacity is perfectly timed and helpful.
Feature Bundles and Add-Ons. Let’s say your SaaS includes integrations or advanced analytics. Highlight how these extras could save them time or unlock new possibilities.
Use Data To Make It Personal. Show how additional tools or features match their usage history. For instance: “You’ve created 10 reports this month—upgrade to Pro for unlimited reporting.”
Timing is everything here. Sending an upsell email too early can come off as pushy, while waiting too long means missing the window of opportunity.
Use triggers based on user behavior (e.g., when trial users are about to convert or when a baseline plan no longer meets their needs) to send emails at just the right moment.
Adopting these email retention strategies—personalized content, thoughtful re-engagement, and strategic upselling—doesn’t just keep customers happy. It turns them into loyal advocates who see your SaaS not just as a product but as an indispensable part of their success.
But it can be quite a bother doing it manually, that’s where automation comes into play.
Automating SaaS Email Campaigns
Manually sending emails won’t cut it in SaaS. Automation helps you handle repetitive tasks, nurture leads, and reach your users with personalized, actionable messages—all with minimal effort.
More importantly, automation ensures you never miss opportunities, whether it’s re-engaging a trial user before they churn or upselling a satisfied customer.
In fact, at beehiiv, we saw an increase in automation click-through rates (13.48%) which was nearly three times higher than regular newsletter posts (4.59%).
With the right automation tools and workflows in place, you can deliver tailored messages at exactly the right moments. Here’s how you can master automated email campaigns for your SaaS business.
Types of Emails To Automate in SaaS
Some emails deliver better results when automated. Below are the most effective types for driving engagement and retention.
Onboarding Sequences: A strong onboarding process is everything for SaaS. These emails guide new users as they explore your platform, ensuring they understand your product’s value.
Start with a welcome email identifying their pain points and seamlessly incorporate your product into educating users on how they can solve that problem.
Add actionable steps, like setting up their account or trying specific features.
Send milestone emails as users complete activities (e.g., “You’ve created your first report!”).
Behavior-Triggered Emails: When users perform key actions (or fail to), behavior-triggered emails prompt engagement and resolve friction points. For example:
Trial users who haven’t logged in get a “We noticed you haven’t explored [Feature] yet” email.
Active users who finish onboarding can receive upgrade suggestions.
Renewal & Retention Reminders: Retaining customers beats acquiring new ones, hands down. Automated renewal reminders and “stay engaged” emails help drive retention.
Send reminders before subscriptions expire.
Automate periodic check-ins to reduce churn, like “Here’s how [Feature] helped you last month.”
Win-Back Campaigns: If a user goes inactive, automated reactivation emails remind them why they chose your SaaS. Offer exclusive incentives, highlight product updates, or offer help to get them back.
Upsell and Cross-Sell Campaigns: Tailored upgrade emails work wonders when timed right. Automate suggestions based on usage levels or introduce add-ons, like advanced tools or integrations.
The Tools of the Trade
There isn’t a “best tool for email marketing” in SaaS, it all just depends on the specifics of what you plan to achieve with your email marketing and preference.
For example, some beehiiv users signed up for our platform because of our advanced 3D analytic dashboard, where you can track open rates, CTR, and more.
Before you pick a tool, here are key features to look for:
Drip Campaign Builders – Set up sequences based on user actions.
CRM Integration – Sync data across platforms for segmented targeting.
A/B Testing – Optimize subject lines, email designs, and CTAs for better results.
Analytics Dashboards – Track detailed metrics like click-through rates and conversions.
To see which tool would work best for your company, here's a comparison guide you should check out.
Best Practices for SaaS Email Automation
When done poorly, automated emails can feel robotic—or worse, spammy. To truly connect with your audience while scaling efforts, follow these best practices:
Start with Segmentation; Don’t send the same email to everyone. Segment users by lifecycle stage, behavior, or plan type for highly targeted campaigns.
Regularly Optimize Campaigns; Test subject lines, designs, and sequences. Adjust campaigns based on data insights.
Maintain Deliverability Standard: Authenticate your sending domain with SPF/DKIM records, avoid spam triggers in subject lines, and clean your email list regularly.
Automation makes SaaS email marketing powerful, efficient, and scalable. While tools and strategies evolve, the core remains simple: deliver the right message to the right user at the right time—and let automation do the hard work for you.
There are times when your “automated” messages don’t give you the results you desire, and how do you know that? Only through:
Tracking and Analyzing Performance
Think about it: if you’re not measuring your efforts, how do you know what’s working and what’s not? By keeping a close eye on the numbers, you understand your audience’s behavior, refine your campaigns, and ensure you’re moving the needle where it matters most.
Let’s break it down into actionable metrics and strategies.
Key Metrics to Monitor
To effectively gauge the success of your SaaS email campaigns, you need to track the right data. Here are the essential metrics you should monitor and what they tell you.
All of these strategies shared are being used by well-known SaaS companies out there, and from their results, you should be doing the same as well, here are a few we've taken note of.
Email Marketing Success Stories for SaaS
Email marketing can shape the entire journey your users navigate, from the moment they hear about your SaaS product to years of loyal subscriptions.
Let’s dive into real-life examples and strategies from successful SaaS companies to show how email marketing can deliver remarkable results.
Re-engaging Users After Trial Expiry: Grammarly
Grammarly found success with trial users by running re-engagement email campaigns that combined educational content with timely incentives. For users who hadn’t transitioned to paid plans after the free trial, Grammarly deployed a series of emails focusing on how their tools caught overlooked typos or saved hours of editing.
Why It Worked:
Problem-focused messaging showed users how life without Grammarly meant risking mistakes, directly tying the product back to their pain points.
Emails included real-time stats like “Grammarly caught 259 errors for you last month,” reinforcing the value users experienced.
Exclusive discounts (e.g., “50% off if you upgrade today”) created a sense of urgency, leading to a marked increase in conversion rates.
Image source: Really Good Emails
Grammarly’s approach is a reminder that sometimes the best way to re-engage users is to remind them of the problem they were trying to solve and how your SaaS fits in perfectly.
Boosting Retention With Educational Content: Zapier
Zapier doesn’t just sell you automation tools—they teach you how to automate your life. Their email campaigns include tutorials, webinar invites, and real-life use cases, offering education alongside their product.
Why Their Emails Shine:
A consistent flow of educational email content helps users discover more features they otherwise wouldn’t use.
By framing their product as a toolkit for solving specific problems, Zapier drastically reduces churn and keeps users engaged long-term.
Their "How-To" series—step-by-step guides on automating popular apps like Gmail or Slack—positions Zapier as an essential, functional resource.
For SaaS, this strategy proves you should never stop educating your customers. Done right, it boosts retention by ensuring users always see the value in your product.
Conclusion
Whether you're onboarding new users, holding onto existing ones, or re-engaging those who’ve lost touch, emails are a direct, cost-effective bridge between your product and your audience.
You can start small but make sure to stay strategic. Implement the strategies acquired from this article, track performance, and iterate until your email marketing becomes a seamless extension of your SaaS customer experience.
Now it’s time to take action. Start by auditing your current email marketing strategy. Are you segmenting your audience? Are you automating key touchpoints? Are you delivering value at every stage of the customer journey?
Next Steps:
Sign up for a free 30-day trial on beehiiv, to set up drip campaigns, behavior-triggered emails, and lifecycle workflows in minutes—no coding required. Plus seamlessly sync your CRM.
If you already have subscribers on another platform, watch this YouTube video on how to import subscribers on beehiiv
Start small but think big—pick one strategy from this article (e.g., onboarding sequences or re-engagement campaigns) and implement it this week.
Don’t wait for the “perfect” moment to start. Every email you send is an opportunity to connect, engage, and scale.
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