Top 5 Email Practices post trial signup

According to a marketing report by Marketing Sherpa, users start becoming disinterested in your offer two weeks after signing up. How do you keep your trial users engaged, go through the trial period, and eventually upgrade to paying customers?

Following up on trial users through email or phone is important for any business. Email follow ups help to find out what users think of your app and how you can help them. Smart SaaS businesses know how to cultivate a relationship with their trial users right after signing up. Below are 5 email best practices you should follow when sending post trial sign up emails.

1. Send email from a Personal ID preferably founder

Making personal contact is very important in making a user comfortable and establishing trust. The confirmation email is not a welcome email. A day or two after the user has signed up, follow up with a personal email to provide a welcoming message. Do not use “do not reply” emails for the welcome email. Instead, you want to use one of your personnel from the marketing department who will be available to reply emails or make phone calls.

Here is an example from Zferral.com

Your marketing team should encourage users to engage with your app. User engagement not only increase the chances of upgrades, but will also give you crucial feedback about your app.

2. Send behavior targeted emails

You should send a welcome email within 10 minutes of the user signing up. Send the right message, at the right time to the right prospects.

According to the Lyris Annual Email Optimizer Report, email personalization and segmentation helps to increase open rates and lower unsubscribe rates. Other benefits of segmentation include improved word of mouth referrals, greater customer acquisition and retention, better deliverability, increased sales and more revenue.

3. Offer helpful information

Get in touch with your user and provide helpful information about your service. This should be done a few days after sign up. For example, you can provide an overview of your service, tips and frequently asked questions. You can also link to relevant training material on your site. Here is a great follow up email example from Eloqua.

The key here is to provide information that your trial users will find helpful. You want to give them scheduled messages that will help them get around using your app quickly.

4. Follow up on usage

Follow up on your trial users and find out the extent to which they are using your app. Again, the follow up email should be from a real person, perhaps one of your customer success coaches or can be from the founder of the company. Address the user by name and introduce yourself.

Some of the things you should find out in this email include:

• What your audience think of your app
• Whether your audience have any problems with your app
• Whether your audience have time to chat with you in a few days

The key here is to establish a solid relationship by giving personal attention rather than blasting users with generic emails. Reiterate how your app can make your audience’s business more profitable.

5. Follow the Can Spam Act

When you send emails, make sure you follow the Can Spam Act. Make it easier for your users to unsubscribe from your emails. While you definitely want them to stay on their list, you also do not want your emails to be reported as spam. Following Can Spam Act best practices will keep you in the good books of your prospects.

Please note that “Can Spam Act” is exempted for transactional or relationship emails. Transactional emails are a great way to up-sell and cross-sell. But be sure to follow the best practices.

• Don’t have misleading subject lines.
• Subject line must reference the transactional purpose.
• Transaction information must be present before the marketing message and should be prominent than the marketing message.

Godaddy does a great job of including coupons in their transactional emails

Following up on users will encourage them to engage more with your app, and this will increase your conversions.