Choosing a marketing agency for a SaaS company
What to ask a marketing agency before hiring them for a SaaS company, and why understanding activation and retention matters more than campaign creativity.
4 min read
A fixed onboarding sequence sent on the same schedule to every sign-up ignores what actually predicts activation: whether the user has completed specific steps in the product. Behaviour-triggered emails outperform a generic drip because they meet the user where they actually are.
Trigger by behaviour, not just by day
- An email nudging setup completion only if setup has not been completed by a certain point.
- A different message for users who completed setup but have not invited a teammate, if that action predicts retention.
- A congratulatory, feature-introducing email triggered by reaching a genuine activation milestone.
What causes disengagement
Too many emails in the first week, generic tips unrelated to what the user is actually trying to do, and emails that push an upsell before the user has experienced core value are the most common reasons a promising sign-up stops opening onboarding emails altogether.
A sign-up who has not activated after a week is not a lost cause — but generic tips will not bring them back. Specific, behaviour-based nudges might.
What to measure
Track activation rate by cohort, segmented by whether they received the behaviour-triggered sequence, against a control group if you have the volume to test it properly. Open and click rates alone do not tell you whether the sequence is actually driving activation.
The takeaway
Trigger onboarding emails by product behaviour, not just by signup date — a user who has not completed setup after three days needs a different message than one who has.
Written by Fibvo — Bengaluru and Erode, India — working with clients in other time zones. Questions, or think we have it wrong? Tell us.
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