Swipe Files - 📂 The big & scary behavior-based email

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Today's newsletter is by my friend and SaaS founder Jane Portman.

Jane is the co-founder of Userlist, an email automation tool for SaaS companies. They’ve been out since 2017, and are well aware of any challenges when it comes to behavior-based email.

And for the Swipe Files audience only, she's sharing some subject matter expertise.

The email marketing industry is so full of… vague advice. We all know we should be tracking success metrics, driving the user to the aha moment, have one CTA per email, and “keep it personal.”

But when it comes to implementation, best minds fall flat. Nobody is born “an email automation specialist.” But rest assured, everyone’s born “an email automation procrastinator.”

You can change that.

So you’re tracking your success metrics. But how do you use this data to power that “behavior-based” email?

Let’s decompose the mechanics today, and explore 6 ways to use your data. Spoiler: it’s not just about the triggers.

1. Trigger campaigns

This is the most obvious one. Automated campaigns need that entry-point condition in order to happen. It can be an event happening, a certain condition becoming true, or a user joining or leaving a segment.

2. Skip messages

For each message, check if it’s applicable.

Here’s how a classic user onboarding campaign works. It’s linear, and we check on the user how they’re doing — similar to what a customer success manager would do manually.

Has the user started with Feature A? If not, send them a message offering advice or help. If they have, skip on that message and move forward to Feature B.

3. Exit campaigns

In plain English, you can keep hammering your point until the user converts. After that, they will exit your campaign.

Here’s a classic example: upgrading a free user to a paid plan. Such campaign can last for months, offering advice, inspiration, promocodes, anything — a friendly nudge every 30 days or so. As soon as the user joins the Paying Customers segment, they’ll exit the campaign and will receive no more nudges.

#4. Variables inside a message

This method needs no introduction. Have you heard of “customizing” your emails? Usually, they mean inserting custom variables inside your emails.

You can insert custom properties into the body of the email via Liquid. Liquid is an open-source template language, originally created by Shopify. These days, it’s used by email marketers across the world.

For example:

*Hi, ,*

Looks like could use some help…

#5. Variable blocks inside a message

Not everyone knows that Liquid has powerful conditions. You can use operators like if/else, unless, case/when to customize entire blocks of text.

For example, here’s our own end-of-trial email at Userlist. We use different language based on the number of tracked users:

In a similar way, you could collect user’s occupation when they sign up, and then customize your welcome email based on that.

#6. Use company-level data

This is an uncharted territory, as most email providers still pretend companies or teams don’t exist. At Userlist, we have solved this problem by supporting company accounts, including many-to-many relationships.

You can trigger a campaign when something happens on the company level, and then choose which team members should receive the messages.

• Failed payments or legal update? Send notifications to the admin.
• Poor activity? Send inspiring educational content to the editors.
• User onboarding? See if the user has already received it before, while being in a different company. (Raise your hand if you have been onboarded by Slack bot a dozen times.)

The possibilities are endless.

Let’s sum this up.

Today you mastered six different ways to turn your data into smart behavior-based campaigns.

To learn more, welcome to check out our blog, as well as our podcast show, Better Done Than Perfect.

—Jane

P.S. If you want a free BDTP shirt, please email us at support@userlist.com. We’ve set aside free shirts for the first 20 readers who respond.

Thanks again to Jane for sharing her knowledge.

What did you think?

—Corey

p.s. did you see that I launched my new course, Marketing Like A Media Company? Would love for you to check it out →​

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