Sales emails: Convert more trial users with drip campaigns

One of the easiest ways to convert more free trial users into paying customers is by using automated (drip) emails.

Set it up once and profit forever. Here are the 4 simple principles of an effective SaaS trial email series.

1. Frequency: Send 4–6 automated emails during the trial

We found that this is the ideal number of emails your trial users should receive from you. The three main objectives:

• Activate users and remind them that they signed up for your trial
• Get them engaged (click on a link, take some action, reply to your email, etc. )
• Get a chance to connect with your users and communicate with them

2. Style: Be personal

If you want higher response rates, then even your automated emails should make a personal impression. There are a couple of simple ways to do this.

Send from a personal email address

Rather than sending an email from something like newsletter@yourcompany.com or service@yourcompany.com, make it yourname@yourcompany.com.

Text-only emails

Don’t send out a professionally designed, HTML-newsletter style email. Instead, send an email that looks like a real human being just typed it up.

When the email has the look and feel as if it comes from a person, response rates go up. Sometimes people are surprised about this, but think about your offline mail behavior. If you receive a personal, handwritten letter, you’ll be much more likely to actually read it than a mass-printed company mail.

"Sent via iPhone"

This is a bit of a gray area, but we’ve seen it work effectively. At the end of the email, add “Sent via iPhone” after your signature—just like it would be the case if you actually sent the email from your iPhone.
Not everybody is comfortable doing this, but we’ve seen this work successfully for some startups.

3. Triggers and timing: Send emails in response to user activity

Use triggers for your drip emails based on the actions your trial users are taking. Examples?

When they sign up

No explanation needed here.

When they actually engage with your software

For example, when your user copies a piece of JavaScript code and puts it on their website, uploads contact data into your system, embeds something, or [insert whatever action is needed to get started with your product].

When they are inactive

If a user signed up and has just been inactive, send them an email to remind and reactivate them: “Hey, I saw you signed up 6 days ago, I’ve seen you didnt really have a chance to dive into the product, here are two things that you can do today.”

You could also tell them, “Hey, I want to offer you a quick guided tour. I can jump on a quick 10 minute call with you to help you out and show you how our product can benefit your organization.”

When their trial is about to end

Offer your users an extension before the trial ends: “Hey, your trial is about to end in two days, we didn’t have a chance to chat yet. Do you want me to extend your trial? Is there anything I can do to help? Just let me know!”

4. Call to actions: No emails without them

Every email needs to be call to action oriented. You always want to inspire them to take one specific action with every email that they receive from you.

For example, you can include CTA in the founder email signature that gets them to:

• Schedule a call with you
• Reply to the email with a question
• Sign into their account
• Try a certain feature

Want to learn more about drip emails for SaaS businesses? Read/watch these:

You Should Probably Send More Email Than You Do (If you believe that email marketing sucks, is spammy or won’t work for your company, you should read this.)

Hacking Lifecycle Emails (This is actually a “salesletter”, but in it he shares so much valuable information that it’s worth reading. Especially the part where he shares how WPEngine increased sales with lifecycle emails.)

This part of the talk at TwilioCon 2012 (Relevant part starts at 15:36. Although Patrick talks about Twilio apps, the insights he shares are relevant for pretty much every SaaS business.)

Send Drip email campaigns from Close via DripEmails.com
Want to easily send drip emails from within Close? Watch how easy it is with DripEmails.com, which is built to set up autoresponder sequences for your Close contacts.

Integration: Capture and warm-up email leads with marketing automation software, Drip
GetDrip.com allows you to warm up your leads with a pre-written sequence of behavior-driven emails, and track how engaged they are through lead scoring and conversion tracking.

Also make sure to watch our video recording of the Sales Email Webinar.

Any recommendations on software for drips?
Customer.io is a great drip email provider (Check out the webinar I did with Colin, the CEO of Customer.io, on driving sales engagement with triggered emails.)

There are many things you can do during your trial to convert more users to paying customers. One of our favorite things is actually calling trial users.

Download our free book today, SaaS Sales for Startup Founders.