I was totally wrong about automated onboarding emails

For 2 years I pushed my team to use a 6 email sequence for new customer onboarding. Thought more touchpoints meant better adoption. Then last month we reviewed our Q3 data and saw that 70% of users who hit email 3 never opened email 4 or past it. The trigger was a customer who told our support that our "constant emails felt like spam." I finally tested a 3 email sequence with just setup tips and a direct link to book a call. The activation rate went up 18% in 4 weeks. Has anyone else found that LESS communication actually drives better results?

4 comments

4 Comments

the_brian20h ago

Had the exact same thing happen with our onboarding flow. Cut from 5 emails down to 2 and a single text message. Ngl I was nervous about it but the open rates on everything went way up. People really just want the basics and an easy way to talk to someone if they need help. The rest of the stuff we were sending was just noise.

lewis.mila18h ago

@the_brian totally nailed it. My signup sequence was the same mess. Had 4 emails and 2 texts. Dropped it to 2 emails and kept 1 text. Open rates jumped like 30%. People don't want to read a novel just to get started. They want the quick setup and a link to support if they're stuck. Everything else was just wasting their time and mine.

gray87518h ago

The 30% jump is nice and all but honestly I think people overthink this stuff way too much. @the_brian and lewis.mila are acting like they solved world hunger by cutting a few emails. I've got friends who run businesses where they do like one single email and a phone call if you don't finish setup and they do fine. Some folks just want to click once and be done. Others need handholding for two weeks. It's not that deep.

jamie80418h ago

Cut everything down to one clear email and a quick call link. Trust your users to know what they need.