SaaS Lifecycle Email Starter Kit 20 essential emails for successful SaaS apps Sponsored by
These are examples of emails that I use to run my own SaaS apps. Please feel free to use these in your own apps, and let me know how things turn out for you, or if you have any questions The parts of each email that are in bold need to be customized for your own app. In some cases, the entire email is bold. That means that the entire email is an example, and should be rewritten for your app. Thanks Richard Felix Founder, Stunning/Retained
A Welcome Email This email should be sent when a customer first signs up for your app. The main goal is to welcome them, introduce one or more of the humans behind the app, and let them know that you re there for them. Subject: [] Welcome to Congratulations on signing up for a shiny new account. You're going to love it. We use ourselves, and we can't wait for you to start getting value out of it as well. If you need anything, or ever have any questions at all, I'm here to help. Just reply to this email or open up a support request within. Thanks Your Name Founder
Dunning Emails The dunning process involves methodically communicating with your customers to ensure that they update their billing information when payments fail.
A Pre-Dunning Email One or more of these emails should be sent before a customer s credit card expires. This helps prevent failed payments in the future, which improves your cash flow. Subject: [] Your billing credit card will expire soon. Your Visa card ending in 4242, which is used to process payments for the Small plan on will expire at the end of this month. To avoid service interruption, please update your payment information here: PAYMENT_PAGE_LINK Thanks for being a customer
The First Dunning Email Ideally, you should be sending out a dunning email sequence. The first one should remind them who you are, what they ve bought, and why payment failed. It should also include a timeframe for updating their card, and a link to directly update their payment information without them having to log in. Subject: [] Please update your billing information. We just tried to charge your card for the Small plan at https://demoapp.com, but it failed because "Card was declined.". Please update your payment information to keep your account active by going to PAYMENT_PAGE_LINK within the next 7 days or your account will be cancelled. Thanks for using. Your Name Founder
The Second Dunning Email The point of the second dunning email is to increase the urgency of your request. Use wording that shows that this is not the first time that the payment failed, and show them that they have less time to update their billing information. Subject: [] Second Notice: Please update your billing information. We just retried the charge on your card for the Small plan at https://demoapp.com, but it failed because "Card was declined.". Please update your payment information to keep your account active by going to PAYMENT_PAGE_LINK We'll try to bill you again in 3 days, so please make sure to update your billing information as soon as possible. Thanks for being a customer Your Name Founder
The Final Dunning Email This email should come from a personal email address, and look like it is more of a personal letter from you, showing concern that if they don t update their billing info, they ll miss out on using your awesome product. Subject: [] Your account will be cancelled in 2 days. I just wanted you to be aware that your company has an account on (https://demoapp.com) that will be cancelled in the next 2 days unless you update the billing information for that account. We've sent several emails to you previously, but the billing information hasn't been updated, so I'm reaching out just in case you haven't gotten the other emails. I'd hate for your account to expire suddenly, because provides an important service for your company. If you'd like to update your billing information, you can do so here: PAYMENT_PAGE_LINK Thanks Please email me if you have any questions. Your Name Founder
The Automatic Cancellation Email This email is a very important part of the dunning process, and it should be sent when the dunning process is unsuccessful. It confirms that their account has been deactivated, and gives them an easy way to re-activate it. Subject: [] Account Cancellation: Your Small account has been cancelled. We've tried to charge your card several times recently for your subscription to Small, but we were unsuccessful. We haven't received updated billing information from you, so your subscription has been cancelled. Please reply to this email if this happened in error and you'd like to reactivate your subscription, otherwise, you won't hear from us again Thanks, Your Name Founder
Notification Emails These emails are sent to let your customers know about important events that happen in your app.
The Manual Cancellation Email The manual cancellation email is a nice-to-have notification email that s sent to confirm that an account has been canceled when a customer cancels their account (or you do it on their behalf). Subject: [] Your Small account has been cancelled. This email confirms that your subscription to Small has been cancelled. Thanks,
The Receipt Email This email is sent to confirm the charge for the customer s subscription. It s a good idea to mention coupon codes and line item charges that affect the charge total, to and to give the customer an easy way to contact you regarding the charges, which cuts down on chargebacks. Subject: [] Small Receipt You were just charged $37.04 for the Small plan. Here is a detailed breakdown of the charges: Subscription to Basic ($50.00/month) $50.00 CUSTOMERWELOVE (25% off) -$12.96 Thanks for your business
The Refund Email This email is a nice-to-have notification email that is sent to the customer to confirm that you ve refunded them. Subject: [] Small Plan Refund This email confirms that you were refunded $50.00 for the Small plan. You should see the refund post to your credit card in 5 business days. Please let us know if you need anything else. Thanks,
The Subscription Update Email This email is sent to confirm changes to a customer s account. This could include things like profile information changes, plan changes, or an email address change. Subject: [] Your subscription has been updated. Hi, Sydney Your subscription was just updated. Your plan is now Medium. Thanks,
A Trial Expiration Email (card not required) This email lets your customer know that they need to add billing information, or their account will be cancelled. Subject: [] Your free trial is ending. Your trial of Small is almost over. Please update your payment information to keep your account active by going to PAYMENT_PAGE_LINK within the next 3 days or your account will be cancelled. Either way, thanks for trying Your Name Founder
A Trial Expiration Email (card required) This email should be sent a few days before a customer is charged for the first time, to let them know that their trial is ending, how much they ll be charged, and to offer support if they need it. This email cuts down on chargebacks dramatically, as the customer has a chance to cancel before they are ever charged. Subject: [] Your free trial is ending. Your trial of Small is almost over, and you will be charged $50.00 in 3 days. We hope that you're loving so far. If you aren't, please reply to this email and let us know how we can help. Either way, thanks for trying Your Name Founder
Activation Emails These emails are sent either to help a customer to get value during their trial, or to see if they need any help once they have entered a key phase of their trial. These are 2 of the most important emails that you can implement.
The Get Some Value Email This email should be sent when a customer first signs up for your app. The main goal is to welcome them, introduce one or more of the humans behind the app, and let them know that you re there for them. Subject: [] Need help getting started? Hi Sydney I m Your Name, Founder of (https://demoapp.com). I noticed that you signed up for a account about a week ago, but haven't begun using your account yet. If you don't have time to install our JavaScript snippet in your site, we offer free Concierge installation, where we install the snippet in your app for you. We'd love to help, especially because we're sure that once you get all set up, you're going to love, because it will help you to communicate with your customers more effectively. Please just reply to this email if you want Concierge installation, need any help, or if you have any questions at all. I know that sometimes things get busy and that you might not have had time to dig into during the normal trial period, and I completely understand. If you just need a bit more time to get started, that is totally ok. We're happy to extend your trial for another 15 days. Just reply to this email and I'll get you set up. Whatever you need, I'm here to help. Thanks, Your Name Founder
The Checking In Email This email should be sent soon after a customer has performed some important action, to see how things are going for them. Subject: How s working out for you? It looks like you added our JavaScript snippet to your app recently, so I'm just checking in to make sure that everything is going ok for you. Please let me know if there are any features that you were looking for that we don't have (we are always working to add things that will help our customers to be more awesome), or if you have any questions or comments at all. We built for you, so we'd love to hear from you. Thanks so much Your Name Founder
Retention Emails These emails keep your customers (and excustomers) coming back for more
A Feature Introduction Email This email should be sent when a customer hasn t used a particular feature. The goal is to explain the feature to them and get them to start using it, because the more that customers are invested in your app, the longer they tend to stay customers. Subject: [] Set up to pull in more information about your customers Hi Sydney, We noticed that you ve added the JavaScript snippet to your app, and we re pulling your customers in successfully. Did you know that you can also pass in more information about your customers (such as user id, name, phone number, or trial start date)? When you pass in more information about your customers, gets smarter, and we can show you more information about your customers on one page. Just thought you d like to know We have detailed information about passing in more data at this link: LINK If you need some help getting this set up, we re here to help. Just reply to this email and we ll get right back to you. Thanks Your Name Founder
An Inactivity Email This email should be sent when a customer hasn t logged in or gotten value out of your app in awhile. Subject: [] We haven t seen you around in awhile We just realized that we haven t seen any events come in from your app recently, and that you haven t logged in in awhile. Is there anything that you ve been having trouble with? If you don t mind taking a couple of minutes to let me know what we can be doing better, or where you ve gotten stuck, I d really appreciate it. We d be happy to add a month s worth of credit as a thank you for helping us to make better. Thanks Your Name Founder
A Targeted Offer Email Emails like these are normally sent to customers who are already getting value, to encourage them to upgrade to a plan that has more features/functionality that would be beneficial to them. It s good to offer an exclusive discount in this email. Subject: [] Make your account more awesome. It looks like you re getting a lot of use out of You ve added a ton of customers to the system lately. Did you know that we have Weekly Summary Emails on the Medium plan? Weekly Summary Emails are a great way to keep your eye on the pulse of what your customers are doing within your app, as we gather up all of the most important activity and send it to you without you even needing to log in. If you re interested in this feature (and since you re one of our most favorite customers) we d be happy to give you an upgrade to the Medium plan (which includes Weekly Summary emails and many more awesome features) at a 25% discount for 2 months. Just let us know Thanks, Your Name Founder
A Trial Re-activation Email Trial Re-activation emails should be sent to people who went through the trial at some point in the past, but did not become paying customers. It should tell them how the product has improved since they last used it, and invite them back for another trial. Subject: [] Since You ve Been Gone (New 15 day trial of ) Firstly, thanks for checking out in the past. I just wanted to let you know that has been improving steadily since your trial ended, and we have some new features that I think you re going to love. We re offering you a new 15 day trial so you can check them out if you re interested. Here are some of the things that we ve added since you ve been gone: - Custom Domain support - The ability to pass customer information directly into your emails - Integrations with Stunning, Retained and Dispatch - Better user profiles, with social data - Mobile apps for iphone and Android If you re interested, just reply to this email and we ll get you all set up. Thanks for your time. Your Name Founder
A Getting Started Email The Getting Started Email is basically a quick start guide to using your app. It should be sent after a personal welcome email from a founder. Subject: [] Getting Started with It looks like you re ready to get started with. Here s what s next. 1. Install the JavaScript snippet (you can copy it from this page: SNIPPET_PAGE_LINK) 2. Check the activation page to make sure that we are receiving data from your app (we ll also email you) 3. Add a support link to your app (instructions for doing that are here: SUPPORT_LINK) 4. Log in to the Dashboard and start giving your customers amazing support If you have any questions at all about getting started, we re here for you. Just click the Support link on top of your dashboard, or reply to this email. Thanks Your Name Founder
A Product Update Email Product Update Emails are sent to let your active customers know what you ve changed/improved recently. Keeping your customers in the know shows them that you re always working on making the product better. Send these every month or so. Subject: [] is having an Awesome April We ve been releasing new features left and right this month to make better. Here s what we ve been working on. Custom Domain support Now, you can use your own domain for your Help site, so your customers don t ever leave your domain, which they know and trust The ability to pass customer information directly into your emails In your app settings, you can now select custom fields from your data that are passed into the email that you receive when a customer emails you for the first time. Mobile apps for iphone and Android You requested them and we have delivered native applications for both iphone and Android. Both of them have push notification support, so you re notified of incoming support requests immediately. Thanks for reading our April update. If there are any features that you d love to see in, please let us know Thanks Your Name Founder
Need help implementing emails like this in your own app? If you re using Stripe subscriptions to run your SaaS, Stunning has many of these email types built in for you, so you can add these emails to your SaaS app with just a few clicks. You ll save time now, and revenue later https://bestunning.net
Want to keep more of your customers? If you re running a SaaS app, Retained helps you to know who your customers are, and how they feel about your app, so that you can help them before they ever decide to cancel. https://getretained.com