Last week, I ruffled a few feathers when I said, "Your emails are a reflection of your business decisions."​

Founders were triggered.

Marketers felt seen.

The email seems to have been forwarded a few times because I have had over 50 new subscribers in the last few days. (Hello! 👋🏽 )

This week, I'm picking a fight with the rampant butchering of onboarding emails prevalent in the industry.

Everyone means well, but no one seems to be doing onboarding emails well.

Or rather, timing them well.

And as someone who challenges the status quo of the email marketing world and picks email fights with the way things are typically done in the industry, I'm duty-bound to call it out.

(If you're in ecommerce, think of onboarding emails as your welcome flow. Same principle — just different terminology.)

And as much as I hate a bad onboarding email, I'm also one of the first to admit that a lot of times, it's not your onboarding emails.

It's the disconnect between your emails and your user data.

Most SaaS teams make the same mistake:

They don't connect the users' data to their onboarding emails.

Instead, they assume everyone starts from the same place and also moves at the same pace.

So, if Day 1 asks users to set up an account, they assume that's all the user will do in the app that day.

(Even though they obviously want the user to do more.)

But motivated users don't act that way. They'll whiz through account setup and move on to exploring the app and doing other stuff.

More often than not, they reach their "aha" moment on the same day, while your onboarding emails assume they'll get there on Day 3.

(We'll talk about my issues with the "aha" moment in a future email.)

That's not onboarding.

That's half-assing your way through your email to-do list.

Good onboarding emails are dynamic.

They leverage user data to figure out what the user has (or hasn't) done.

• If the action is done, skip the email. If it isn’t, proceed as planned or send a reminder email.
• If the user is active, use in-app notifications to move them along
• If the user converts, STOP the free-to-paid onboarding emails

Email is the starting point.

After that, user data should drive when you connect, how you personalize, and what you send.

Ignore it, and your onboarding emails will feel like a reminder service instead.

→ 3 days left in your free trial!
→ Last day to upgrade!
→ Need more time?

And your user hasn't even activated their account yet 🙄

Long story short:

Connect your onboarding emails to your users' data so you can send the right email to the right person at the right time.

Because in SaaS, onboarding isn’t about sending emails.

It’s about helping users succeed before they run out of motivation, patience, or trial days.

Need help improving your onboarding emails?

You know where to find me.

— Samar