Ultimate UX Design Guide to SaaS On-Boarding, Part 2: Welcome Email
- Sign up form
- Welcome email
- Drip campaigns
- First login & product tutorial
- Data import & notifications
- Check up calls & swag
There was a strong correlation between good welcome messages / emails and user engagement. Moreover, good welcome messages are an important predictor of user behaviour and potential revenue in the long run.A welcome email is the point where you can quickly communicate the value of your product and can make or break a conversion. The email can contain a lot of things you would want your customer to know, and therein lies the risk. Bombarding the customer with too much information can be a conversion killer.
Summing Up: The Point of the Welcome Email
- Build signup momentum
- Get users to take the next step (not reach the end goal)
- Give them an idea of what the experience of your product is going to be like
- Getting the user to complete their profile
- Getting them to “create their first <whatever your product offers>”
- Getting them to “import data”
- Getting them to “download your app”
Drafting the Email: Things to Keep in Mind
- Simplicity: Like we said, you probably want to let your user know about a bunch of things. But don’t let them know it all at once! Let them spend some time using your product so that they can get acquainted.
- Resources: Give your users some additional links or resources that help them engage better with your product.
- Thanking them: You can choose any way to express your gratitude. It could be simply thanking them or telling them that you’re excited that they’ve signed up for you.
- Actionable: As mentioned above, there should be clarity in the content of the email; it should have relevant information and, above all, it should be actionable. It should be clear to the user what you want them to do, now that they’ve received and opened the email.
Zapier
Zapier’s welcome email is an excellent example. It’s simple; users are being told what the application does, along with a link to user examples. Conditions of the trial period are clearly mentioned. Additional resources, such as the help documentation are mentioned clearly. The email starts with a thank you of sorts, because Zapier is excited to have the user on board. The next step Zapier wants the user to take is developing a profile, which makes the email actionable. Zapier welcome email screenshotInVision
Users who are signing up for InVision’s prototyping application receive a welcome email that is crystal clear in terms of what it wants to achieve: Get the user to start using the app. Hence the email is clearly actionable. In order to help with that, users don’t get a list of things they need to do to start using the app. Users get to see some quick videos in succession to understand what they need to do. Considering that the app is highly interactive and visually appealing, the nature of the email coincides well with the nature of the product. The email is simple in its content, it links users to videos which are excellent resources to quickly understand and engage with the product. There’s admittedly no thank you, but that is more than compensated by the simplicity of the email. InVisionApp welcome email screenshotBasecamp
Basecamp’s welcome email is simple and not long at all, with a clear welcome message along with a thank you for signing up. There’s proof given in the form of mentioning how many organisations use the product. There’s a clear link for downloading the app for Android or iPhone, which serves as a resource for users to better engage with the product. The purpose behind the email is clear, i.e. logging in to your account. Hence the email is actionable. Basecamp’s welcome email screenshotConvertize
After signing up with Convertize you will receive a straight-forward, simple welcome email from the CEO, in which he will thank you for signing up in the first sentence. Then, throughout the email, there are actionable questions prompting you to reply directly to the CEO, and respond with the reason why you signed up. This highlights their appreciation for every single user. Convertize thus shows that they care about your feedback. At the very end, they also give you a link to their promotional video as a resource, it makes the platform come alive, creating a more human emotional connection. In the long run, this helps build a strong engagement with the product. Convertize’s welcome email screenshotConclusion
As the saying goes, the first impression is the last impression over here. In customer on-boarding, the success of the signup flow heavily hinges on the initial points of interaction between you and your customer. The level of customer engagement can be imagined in terms of an exponential curve. Successfully designing each point of the customer on-boarding flow ensures that the customer’s engagement with your company increases exponentially after each point. The customers that your business will get will be happier ones. There is a higher probability of them being able to understand, value and like what you have to offer. And if the first impression is thoughtfully and skilfully designed, it has the potential to develop customers that will be long term.Aleksander Góra
Aleksander Góra is enhancing user experience by crafting beautiful and intuitive interfaces since 2006. He is the co-founder & CEO of www.5next.io the first application for strategic networking based on UK accredited business networking program. Aleksander is the author of upcoming book The Open Heart Website Surgery—Ultimate guide for leads generation for medium and small businesses. Recently featured in Rafael Dos Santos book “100 Inspirational Migrant Entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom.” Currently working in London as a Product Manager and Lead UX Designer in one of the lead­­­ing conversion optimization platforms Convertize.io
Read Next
20 Best New Websites, April 2024
Welcome to our sites of the month for April. With some websites, the details make all the difference, while in others,…
Exciting New Tools for Designers, April 2024
Welcome to our April tools collection. There are no practical jokes here, just practical gadgets, services, and apps to…
14 Top UX Tools for Designers in 2024
User Experience (UX) is one of the most important fields of design, so it should come as no surprise that there are a…
By Simon Sterne
What Negative Effects Does a Bad Website Design Have On My Business?
Consumer expectations for a responsive, immersive, and visually appealing website experience have never been higher. In…
10+ Best Resources & Tools for Web Designers (2024 update)
Is searching for the best web design tools to suit your needs akin to having a recurring bad dream? Does each…
By WDD Staff
3 Essential Design Trends, April 2024
Ready to jump into some amazing new design ideas for Spring? Our roundup has everything from UX to color trends…
How to Plan Your First Successful Website
Planning a new website can be exciting and — if you’re anything like me — a little daunting. Whether you’re an…
By Simon Sterne
15 Best New Fonts, March 2024
Welcome to March’s edition of our roundup of the best new fonts for designers. This month’s compilation includes…
By Ben Moss
LimeWire Developer APIs Herald a New Era of AI Integration
Generative AI is a fascinating technology. Far from the design killer some people feared, it is an empowering and…
By WDD Staff
20 Best New Websites, March 2024
Welcome to our pick of sites for March. This month’s collection tends towards the simple and clean, which goes to show…
Exciting New Tools for Designers, March 2024
The fast-paced world of design never stops turning, and staying ahead of the curve is essential for creatives. As…
Web Tech Trends to Watch in 2024 and Beyond
It hardly seems possible given the radical transformations we’ve seen over the last few decades, but the web design…
By Louise North