Email is a significant component of most SaaS companies’ marketing strategies. And for good reason. An exceptionally executed email can lead to an up to 4300% increase in ROI.
As a marketer or founder in the space, you’re probably aware of the power of email and have seen it work its magic for you. But you’ve likely also struggled to come up with fresh ideas or new angles to test out to see consistent results.
In this article, we provide aid in the form of 7 examples of SaaS marketing emails that have wowed us. Hopefully, they will inspire you to liven up your own email marketing strategy, kill your writer’s block and help you hit your marketing goals.
What makes a SaaS marketing email great?
Before we dive into some examples, let’s discuss what makes a SaaS marketing email “great”. After all, there are infinite SaaS email marketing examples and only some fit into this category.
While there’s no singular definition, formula or set of criteria you can apply to get a perfect SaaS email, there are some core principles that you can and should use as a starting point. Let’s run through them.
Simplicity
The biggest no-no regarding your email marketing campaign is overcomplicating or over-engineering. When your prospects have been working all day behind a screen, the last thing they want to do is sift through a vague, cryptic email to find meaning.
Make your intention clear and transparent from the start. And leave no room for confusion or obfuscation. Keep your language and design simple. Get rid of the fluff.
A clear purpose
Secondly, you want to make sure that there is a strategic intention or purpose behind your email. Without this, there’s no way you’ll see the results you want to or cut through in your prospect’s inbox.
The solution to this is simple. Ask yourself: “Why are you doing this?” If your answer is “a box-ticking exercise,” take a step back. This won’t suffice. Look at your overall marketing strategy and think more holistically about how you can effectively leverage email to achieve your goals.
Once your intention is clear, you’re in a much better position to create an email that lands. And nail your overall SaaS email marketing strategy.
An in-depth understanding of your audience
Tied into the need for purpose is the need to understand your audience. Who are they? Where do they work? What are their interests? Do they have challenges and pain points? Where on the funnel are they at? What do they respond well to? How do they prefer to be communicated with?
Being totally across your target audience is the only way to create email comms that resonate with them (and see results). Everything from the language you use, to the problems you dig up, to the email design and the offers and content you choose to highlight should be carefully curated based on what you know about your audience.
Perfect synchronicity between audience concerns and desires + your email is one of the keys to an uptick in all important email marketing metrics.
Perfect length
This one may seem like an afterthought, but having an ideally paced and sized email is necessary. And it should be matched to the funnel stage of your audience list and the type of offer you’re extending.
If you’re writing a short product-focused BOFU email on features – short and sweet is probably best method. If you’re looking at sharing a top-funnel educational blog post on a relevant topic, a longer email with more context is potentially more suitable.
Obviously, there’s flexibility here and no strict rules. However, length is not an email element you can ignore. Working out how to make length work for you is a tip all the pros use!
Personalisation
A level of personalisation is a necessary component for any exceptional SaaS marketing email. Not all of your customers will warm up to your email straight away.
However, by adding in personal details like first name and job title, you can really help trust-building. It’s a small signifier that you know them, and understand the problems they face daily.
Not all your customers or prospects are built the same, so they will want to be assured that you understand that. Even if there’s also 1000 other people you’re also talking to ????. Try using personalisation tokens in your subject lines and body text.
A powerful email marketing platform
Finally, if you’re looking to see results out of your email tactics, we’d highly recommend investing in a reliable, high-quality email marketing platform.
Some examples of platforms we’ve used include MailChimp, Hubspot, Salesforce, Active Campaign and Constant Contact.
It doesn’t really matter exactly what software you use, but you want to make sure that whichever one you goes with has the right tools to send out emails at scale, add personalisation tokens, segment email streams and set up powerful automation flows.
If you want to merge your email marketing software with other tools like your CRM, an all-in-one option like Hubspot may suit your needs.
7+ SaaS email marketing examples
Now that we’ve established the anatomy of a great SaaS marketing email, it’s time to move on to some examples.
Here are 7 of our favourite SaaS email marketing examples to help you increase your email marketing efforts:
Grammarly
This features email by Grammarly is a fantastic example of SaaS email done well. Particular highlights include the initial montage of platform screenshots which combine nicely to demonstrate the power of the focus feature (Gen AI).
This is enriched by the short, succinct explanation of what it helps you do (compose drafts & rewrite for tone and length) and an emphasis on the ease of integration with your existing workflows.
We also appreciate the headline text – “Boost Productivity with Gen AI.” In 5 words, the Grammarly team sums up the main benefit of this feature to teams that use them. This is topped off by a clear, low-friction CTA (“Learn More”) and consistent use of brand colours and signifiers. Perfection!
Zoom.info
Zoom.info’s prospect email is a great example of content marketing promotion executed well. Personalisation is combined with a simple question to reel the reader in, a pain-point is touched on, and then an eBook is offered as a temporary solution to it.
The CTAs are clear, in contrast colours that stand out on the page, and the desired action is obvious. There’s no doubt about the interest in the chosen topic either: marketer’s are always interested in new ways of ramping up ROI. We can’t think of anything this inbound marketing email does wrong.
Employment Hero
An underestimated but important email format is the content download email. If you’re promoting content online (whether through an ad platform or on your website), you need to set up automation to deliver that content.
This example from Employment Hero is an exemplar of this email type. They provide a link to the content (bolded for clarity) and also use the opportunity of a fresh touchpoint to promote an offer further down the funnel (demo of Employment Hero).
Strategic use of email. They know what they’re doing!
Monday.com
Monday.com‘s welcome email is top-notch. What do they do so well? Firstly, the manage to strike a balance between professional and conversational – a corporate down-to-earthness which is demonstrated by the use of the smiley face in the subject line and the CEO as the sender address.
Secondly, they use a video to give the reader a summary of what Monday.com does in a more dynamic, engaging and interesting way than simply plonking in a big blob of text. It’s succinct, simple and a warm welcome to Monday.com as a product
Canva
This customer retention email example from Canva is exactly what it should be: engaging and shareable. The main purpose of this email is to congratulate uses for using Canva, and in doing so, encourage them to continue using the platform.
The strong visual (using a trophy to place the user beyond 5 but behind 20), shows them they’ve made progress, whilst reminding them that they still have milestones to achieve. This reward model strikes the perfect balance of of noting customer achievement & providing motivation.
Beyond stimulating engagement for the specific user, the Canva team nudge them to share this on their key organic channels: Facebook and Twitter. In this way, their email also encourages other users to also get involved.
There’s hardly any text in this email but it’s smart, smart, smart!
Wistia
Wistia‘s welcome email makes a strong impression. On the visual side it’s simple and warm but it’s the copy that’s particularly memorable. Why is it so striking? It’s composed of what feels like a poem – a lyrical intro to the “World of Wistia.”
In the world of professional, often sterile corporate emails – this one certainly stands out. It covers all the main questions readers may want to know. But it does so in a personable, unique way.
While this more whimsical, creative approach might not work for everyone, it works really well for Wistia. It is perfectly aligned with their brand image, and target audience. In summary, it’s excellent.
Email success is in your hands now
Voila! Now we’ve given you the inspiration and ideas you need to get out there. Execute your own phenomenal SaaS marketing emails. It’s up to you to take this wisdom and convert it into reality for your business and use it to help you achieve your objectives.
Granted, there will need to be a bit of creativity and specificity brought to the table from your side, to get you over the line. But the results you’re looking for are well within your reach!
Want to lean on the experts for your email marketing?
At Digital Rhinos, we’ve spent years executing successful email marketing campaigns for 100s of SaaS clients like you. If you have any questions about email marketing for SaaS companies, would like help setting up emails (from a design and copy perspective) or want a hand with any other element of your digital marketing strategy – please book in a quick 15 minute chat with us today.
