Chris Hexton, co-founder and CEO of Vero, discusses effective strategies for data-driven onboarding emails that enhance user conversion. The document outlines different types of onboarding emails such as welcome, quick win, milestone, and hail mary emails, providing examples and implementation tips for each type. Emphasizing the importance of building user engagement, the guide highlights using clear calls to action and behavioral insights to tailor email content.

1. Chris Hexton, co-founder and CEO at Vero
How to Send Data-Driven
Onboarding Emails That
Convert Every Time
January 2014

2. @thuelmadsen#KISSwebinar
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3. Chris Hexton - Vero - @chexton
Chris is the co-founder and CEO of Vero, a
behavioral marketing platform. Based in
Sydney, Australia, Chris is growing an
international team of developers, marketers and
customer success managers.

4. @chexton #KISSwebinar
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5. 1 The Key to Email Onboarding
The Welcome Email
The Quick Win Email
The Milestone Email
2 Examples You Can Replicate
3 Implementation
Table of Contents

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7. Intro to Successful
Onboarding
1

8. What is onboarding?
• The process of getting customers from “first touch” to “first
value” as quickly as possible
• A series of small conversions leading to a bigger, more
significant conversion.
• The removal of barriers to entry in your product/service.
Product vs. Marketing
• At it’s core, onboarding is a product challenge. Email helps you
communicate value. It can trigger the “light bulb” for new
users.

9. “Having a poor onboarding experience for your
customers can pretty much kill your growth … if
not your business.”
— Lincoln Murphy, Sixteen Ventures

10. The Welcome Email

11. The Purpose of the Welcome Email
• Build of the momentum of the signup
• Move users to the next step, not the final goal
• Set the tone for their experience
Example goals
• “Complete your profile…”
• “Create your first X…”
• “Import your data…”
• “Download the app…”
Welcome Emails

12. SumAll

13. Why This Email Rocks
• Simple, clear and bold
• Connecting a new platform to SumAll means they can start
collecting data and therefore create value for users
• Contrasting button, friction-free copy
• Highly focused with a single call to action
SumAll

14. Basecamp

15. Why This Emails Rocks
• The email is a simple catalyst to get new people logged in
• Basecamp is confident that the product will sell itself
• It employs social proof to make users feel like they will miss
out if they ignore the email (“You’ve joined over 1,500,000
organizations just like yours…”)
Basecamp

16. The Quick Win Email
2

17. The Purpose of the “Quick Win” Email
• Get new users engaged with your product
• Introduce them to features you know people love
• Move them from the inbox to the app as efficiently as possible
Tips for great “Quick Win” emails
• Focus on benefits, not features
• Deep link – If the CTA is to “create a new x”, link them to the
exact page
• Use data – Don’t ask people to do things they’ve already done
Quick Wins

18. Pinterest

19. Why This Email Rocks
• Very useful feature (remember, onboarding is largely a
product issue, email is just a catalyst)
• Piques interest with education, which tees up the CTA
• Includes an example and a deep link to create your own
Pinterest

20. Raven Tools

21. Why This Email Rocks
• Knowledge is power – the more users understand your
product, the more value they’ll get from it
• Getting users engaged early creates a habit of conversion –
they get used to clicking your emails and engaging with your
brand
• They make it easy – look at the copy:
• “Quick, guided training on your schedule”
• “free, live training”
• “variety of class times to accommodate you”
Raven Tools

22. The Milestone Email
3

23. The Purpose of the Milestone Email
• Reward people for good behavior
• Reinforce the value your product is delivering
• Build on the momentum by moving them to the next step
Tips for great Milestone emails
• Use upbeat, positive copy to make users feel great about using
your product
• Use micro CTA’s to deepen your relationship (refer a friend,
follow on Twitter, check out our blog, etc.)
Milestone Emails

24. Evernote

25. Why This Email Rocks
• Rewards engagement – makes the user feel good about it
• Moves users to the next step by explaining advanced features
• Arrives with context – it’s triggered as a direct result of my
behavior and comes almost immediately.
Evernote

26. Canva

27. Why This Email Rocks
• Gamification is a way turn behavior into habit
• The imagery makes it clear there are move achievements to be
unlocked (“I want the 20 designs trophy!”)
• Micro CTAs – Social media sharing cements a users’
commitment to your product
• Even more micro CTAs – Blogs and social media can inspire
and motivate users to engage more
Canva

28. How to get started with triggered onboarding emails
• Ask customers to go on a second date, not get married.
• Define success and map out the steps to get users engaged,
committed and 100% onboard
• Track data with tools like KISSmetrics – make your emails as
specific as possible based on their behavior
• Use tools like Vero for dynamic segmentation and highly
personalized emails
• Avoid time-based sequences – the chances of sending an
irrelevant email are very high
Getting Started

30. Places to learn more about onboarding
• Nir Eyal (nirandfar.com): Behavior engineering, habit-forming
products
• Lincoln Murphy (sixteenventures.com): Churn reduction,
growth strategies and increased engagement
• Vero blog (blog.getvero.com): Examples, swipe files and
inspiration
Getting Started

31. The “Hail Mary” Email
4

32. The Purpose of the “Hail Mary” Email
• Get as many trial customers to convert as possible
• It helps improve the ROI of your top-line spend
• Encourage users to try new features and/or experience your
product again.
Tips for great Milestone emails
• Focus on benefits, not features
• Give an offer or share a new experience/feature/story
• Make it EASY
Hail Mary Emails

33. Help Scout

34. Why This Email Rocks
• This email actually worked and is how Vero became a Help
Scout customer.
• It was sent 5-6 months after my initial trial expired.
• A decent offer, a simple CTA with a simple next step.
• They use social proof – see quote.
• It’s super clean.
Help Scout

35. Sprout Social

36. Why This Email Rocks
• There are clear reasons to come back: Sprout highlight new
features and/or feature I may not have seen.
• The process I have to take is three simple steps and gets me to
log back in (means they didn’t delete my account, that’s nice of
them :)
• It looks and feels ‘personal’. I could definitely hit respond and
ask questions or share concerns: great for both Sprout and
me.
Sprout Social

37. Questions?
Chris Hexton
Co-founder
Vero
@chexton
chris@getvero.com
Thue Madsen
Marketing Associate
KISSmetrics
@thuelmadsen
tmadsen@kissmetrics.com

38. THANK YOU
Chris Hexton
Vero co-founder and CEO