Key takeaways ✨
- Advanced shopping for journeys, prolonged gross sales cycles, and a complete host of stakeholders means IT and SaaS entrepreneurs can’t use the identical playbooks as different industries.
- E-mail drives development at each stage—from onboarding to renewals, re-engagement to upsells, and all the pieces in between.
- Give attention to outcomes, not opens. The metrics that matter for IT and SaaS are activation, conversions, characteristic adoption, and churn discount.
Some individuals take e mail advertising and marketing without any consideration.
It’s been round for some time and it chugs alongside within the background whereas shiny new channels or instruments pop up. However for SaaS and IT corporations, it’s the channel you could transfer from curiosity to dedication, from trial to renewal, and from characteristic announcement to adoption.
E-mail advertising and marketing for SaaS and IT corporations is a novel beast, although. Due to its many stakeholders and typically prolonged gross sales processes, you possibly can’t slap an eCommerce advertising and marketing technique on and name it a day.
This information breaks down how e mail advertising and marketing will play an ever-increasing position in IT and SaaS success and what you could do to comprehend its full potential.
Desk of contents
Why most IT and SaaS e mail methods fall quick
The ROI of e mail and its power as a lead technology channel ought to seize everybody’s consideration in an IT or SaaS enterprise. For entrepreneurs, e mail is a chance to take an owned channel and make it a high income channel. And what chief can ignore the potential promise of ROI over $36 for each $1 spent?
Whereas e mail advertising and marketing persistently outperforms different SaaS advertising and marketing channels, it’s not an computerized cash faucet. The SaaS and IT industries face a couple of distinctive challenges that may derail e mail advertising and marketing progress:
- Advanced shopping for journeys don’t appear like impulsive eCommerce gross sales. In contrast to eCommerce, SaaS offers normally don’t hinge on flash gross sales or countdown timers. An enterprise buy may contain IT management, finish customers, procurement officers, and the C-suite. Which means your e mail campaigns have to fulfill every buyer the place they’re to ship schooling, reassurance, and proof.
- Lengthy gross sales cycles make attribution tougher. E-mail advertising and marketing ROI is already exhausting to pin down, and it turns into even tougher when gross sales cycles drag out. Our analysis discovered that 21% of entrepreneurs don’t measure their e mail ROI. With dozens of touches throughout advertising and marketing emails, webinars, and demos, proving impression may be robust.
- Misaligned messaging. The CFO needs effectivity, IT needs integration, and finish customers simply need software program that’s not a ache to make use of. Too many SaaS manufacturers fall again on one-size-fits-all, feature-heavy emails that don’t converse to anybody particularly. The consequence? Inboxes filled with noise, not momentum.
Over-reliance on options. Product specs are vital, however individuals join with tales, feelings, and outcomes. Nice SaaS and IT e mail content material must steadiness options with outcomes. Lean too far into the specs and also you’ll go away individuals loud night breathing. However go too summary and company converse, and folks won’t perceive what your instrument even does.
What makes e mail advertising and marketing completely different in tech
We’re proponents of discovering e mail inspiration all over the place, like in several industries and niches. Earlier than you set methods into observe, although, you could perceive elementary variations between SaaS and IT e mail advertising and marketing versus different industries like eCommerce. When you be taught the principles, you understand how to interrupt them.
Right here’s how IT and SaaS e mail applications stand aside from different industries:
IT / SaaS e mail marketingeCommerce e mail advertising and marketingMajor objectivesEducate, nurture, convert over timeSell quick with promotions and flash offersViewersGroups or organizations that need proof factors, case research, and ROIIndividuals which will reply to urgency-led reductions and FOMOPurchaser habitsIncludes analysis, inside alignment, deliberationOften impulsive or emotionally pushed purchasesKey set off emailsTrials, demos, onboarding, product updatesAbandoned carts, promotions, re-engagementsROI visibilityBlurred by lengthy cycles and multi-channel touchpointsEasier to hint attributable to direct gross sales responseContent material toneAnswer-driven, outcome-focusedBenefit-led, visible, urgency-driven
Smarter SaaS emails
Automate e mail workflows, eradicate errors, and create campaigns that join at each stage with Litmus.
Important e mail campaigns for IT and SaaS corporations
The campaigns that win in SaaS aren’t about urgency or reductions. They’re about constructing belief, guiding habits, and maintaining prospects engaged for the lengthy haul.
Listed below are the e-mail campaigns IT and SaaS corporations generally use.
Marketing campaign TypeFunnel StageGoalOnboardingAcquisitionHelp new customers arrange shortly, see worth quick, and scale back early churn.Function adoptionActivationEncourage individuals to make use of key options to deepen engagement and forestall drop-off.Renewal remindersRetentionReinforce ROI and maintain contracts from lapsing.Product UpdatesRetentionAnnounce new options whereas highlighting worth and inspiring adoption.UpsellExpansionIntroduce prospects to new options and plans to drive extra gross sales.Re-engagementWin-BackReactivate lapsed customers and scale back churn with well timed, related nudges.Buyer educationAdvocacyProvide coaching and sources to strengthen experience and loyalty.Cross-sellExpansionIntroduce prospects to complimentary, companion expertise to generate leads for them.
1. Onboarding sequences for acquisition
Onboarding sequences are your first impression to determine worth and belief and begin constructing a relationship. Your purpose throughout these e mail campaigns is to set customers up and assist them notice worth instantly.
Begin with a transparent welcome e mail that units expectations, then information them step-by-step by means of their setup and early tasks. You need to use inspiring buyer tales or counsel ‘fast win’ duties to assist individuals really feel like they’re making progress.
Onboarding sequence instance: Bitly makes use of a guidelines to nudge customers towards their first “aha” second with out overwhelming them. They even verify the primary merchandise off the record only for opening the emails.
LitTip: Use Litmus Personalize to add progress bars that illustrate how prospects are finishing onboarding. Or, embrace ‘add to calendar’ parts to ensure prospects keep in mind once they’re scheduled to fulfill with shopper success managers.
2. Function adoption nudges for activation
Your merchandise and options are solely helpful if individuals know and use them. Well timed nudges get individuals off the sidelines and into your product by highlighting the suitable characteristic on the proper second. Should you can, set off campaigns based mostly on utilization, like options they haven’t tried but, as a substitute of a set variety of days between emails. It’s also possible to use dynamic content material to customise messaging based mostly on the particular person’s position, like setup assist for admins or productiveness suggestions for finish customers.
Function adoption instance: Canva lets customers know they’ve unused credit for an AI characteristic, and positioning it that approach makes it really feel a bit like cash left on the desk.
LitTip: You don’t have to create complicated code to ship spectacular personalised emails. Litmus’ drag-and-drop editor allows you to simply add dynamic content material blocks.
3. Renewal reminders for retention
You must view renewals as a call level for purchasers. Beginning the dialog early—30/60/90 days out—helps stop billing surprises for purchasers that might flip a relationship bitter. To benefit from renewal reminders, take into account pairing utilization stats ( like “Your group saved X hours this yr”) with ROI reminders to place renewals as an opportunity to make extra progress, not simply re-sign a contract.
Renewal reminder instance: Grammarly usually sends personalised exercise emails, however their renewal reminder is a little more simple. They do spotlight the variations between free and premium plans.
LitTip: Use Litmus Analytics to evaluation engagement on retention emails to check and excellent these very important inflection factors.
4. Product replace bulletins for retention
Competitors between SaaS corporations means prospects might anticipate innovation (or not less than enhancements based mostly on their complaints). Product announcement emails allow you to showcase what’s new and what it means for customers. Remember to spotlight outcomes they will anticipate or tips about the way to use the brand new characteristic of their day-to-day life. E-mail segmentation allows you to share essentially the most related updates as a substitute of flooding everybody’s inbox.
Product replace instance: Loom’s replace announcement introduces modifications and gives a couple of methods to be taught extra and begin utilizing them.
LitTip: Litmus Previews reassure you that replace bulletins render flawlessly throughout inboxes.
5. Upsell gives for growth
Growth is the place SaaS corporations flip wholesome accounts into energy accounts. Upsell emails ought to really feel like added worth, not a tough promote, by specializing in how premium options resolve larger issues or unlock efficiencies. Tailor gives based mostly on present utilization (like “You’ve hit your reporting restrict—improve to Professional to unlock extra insights”) and body them as pure subsequent steps. Utilizing case research or peer benchmarks can even reassure decision-makers that the funding pays off.
Upsell instance: Otter.ai shares alternative ways to make use of Professional options and provides social proof by means of buyer logos.
LitTip: Let Litmus E-mail Guardian control your emails for you. E-mail Guardian alerts you to modifications 24/7 that have an effect on how your emails show in inboxes, so you possibly can belief that revenue-driving emails, like upsells, ship uninterrupted.
6. Re-engagement flows for win-back
Inactive customers don’t at all times equal misplaced customers. Re-engagement campaigns remind prospects of what they’re lacking and may scale back churn with out heavy gross sales stress. Function product highlights, buyer success tales, or incentives like bonus options or prolonged trials to win them again. Since these subscribers are within the behavior of ignoring your emails, testing your topic traces to face out is a should.
Instance: Mailcoach reconnects with chilly subscribers with out feeling pushy or overly emotional. They state the details, reiterate the worth, and invite individuals to see what’s new.
LitTip: Let Litmus Assistant enable you to harness the facility of AI to optimize your copy. It suggests compelling topic traces and replica options in several tones.
7. Buyer schooling collection for advocacy
SaaS merchandise evolve continually, and schooling campaigns assist customers maintain tempo whereas lowering reliance on help groups. Creating quick, topic-based “mini programs” lets prospects construct experience and confidence step-by-step, turning them into potential model advocates. Combine codecs, like tutorials, webinars, and fast suggestions, to seek out what makes individuals work together together with your message.
Advocacy instance: Google shares new methods to make use of their product anchored round a milestone (again to highschool).
LitTip: Use Litmus E-mail Analytics to see which emails get essentially the most engagement, then refine and develop.
8. Cross-sell campaigns for growth
There’s a complete world of instruments and merchandise your prospects may take pleasure in, and cross-sell campaigns allow you to introduce new choices to develop accounts. Your cross-sell emails can both promote different merchandise and types beneath your mother or father firm or ship results in companion applied sciences.
Executed proper, they will maintain prospects round longer, make you a worthwhile co-marketing companion, and switch your model into the go-to hub for instruments. The important thing, as typical, is to make these campaigns as useful as they’re promotional. Use utilization knowledge to personalize suggestions, present integrations in motion, and share case research.
Cross-sell instance: Panda Doc launched a Canva integration with a video explaining the reference to a CTA to improve.
LitTip: Use Litmus Personalize to swap in product blocks based mostly on product utilization or trade.
Product-led development (PLG) calls for e mail that performs
The outdated development playbook of “simply throw extra adverts on the high of the funnel” is damaged. As Ramli John, writer of Product-Led Onboarding, put it, “It was simpler to lift cash and say, ‘Let’s simply throw extra adverts!’ or ‘Let’s plug retention and onboarding issues by simply placing extra individuals on the high of the funnel.’ And now that’s not the case.”
As a substitute of filling the highest of the funnel or hoping that an ideal product alone is sufficient, pair PLG with e mail advertising and marketing. Give it some thought: with no gross sales rep guiding each step, customers can simply stall. They join a trial, click on round, then drift away. Life will get busy, and even when they’re keen, they want reminders.
E-mail is the bridge that hyperlinks everybody in your viewers to your product. And in contrast to adverts or in-app messaging, e mail reaches everybody who issues: energy customers, passive group members, even the exec who indicators the renewal. You possibly can information all of them with tailor-made, behavioral campaigns that aren’t beholden to an algorithm.
Executed proper, e mail is a development lever for PLG corporations. It accelerates activation, sustains retention, and drives upsells with no single gross sales name.
The instruments each IT and SaaS e mail marketer wants
In IT and SaaS, each e mail you ship is an opportunity to construct belief, scale back churn, or push adoption somewhat additional. You want an ideal e mail tech stack to get the job completed, although.
Fast-reference: IT and SaaS e mail advertising and marketing stack
FunctionTop ToolsWhat It SolvesPlanning and content material creationLitmus Template Library
Figma
Notion
Trello
Asana
Airtable
Jasper
Copy.aiKeeps campaigns organized, ensures brand-consistent e mail templates, and eliminates blank-page stress with AI brainstorming.Construct, QA, and testingLitmus Builder
Litmus Previews
Litmus E-mail Guardian
ESP editors
GrammarlySpeeds up manufacturing, ensures flawless rendering throughout 100+ shoppers/gadgets, and prevents embarrassing errors earlier than ship.Approvals and sendingLitmus Proof
Slack
Groups
Litmus ChecklistCentralizes stakeholder suggestions, streamlines compliance/authorized evaluations, and automates pre-send QA checks.Submit-send reviewLitmus Analytics
ESP dashboards (HubSpot, Marketo, and so forth.)
Google Analytics 4
Tableau
LookerMoves past vainness metrics, tying marketing campaign efficiency to product outcomes like trial activations, characteristic adoption, and renewals.
Planning and content material creation
There’s a number of floor to cowl in IT and SaaS e mail advertising and marketing, like product launches, buyer schooling campaigns, renewal nudges, and have bulletins. A clear planning course of ensures nothing slips by means of the cracks.
Prime instruments:
- Litmus Template Library provides groups a head begin with reusable, brand-consistent e mail layouts.
- Collaboration instruments like Figma and Notion are a consolidated spot to get everybody on the identical web page.
- Venture administration apps (Trello, Asana, Airtable) maintain campaigns shifting—particularly when a number of groups (advertising and marketing, product, success) want visibility.
AI writing instruments like Jasper or Copy.ai can assist you brainstorm topic traces and CTA copy so that you’re not watching a clean web page.
LitTip: At all times create an e mail temporary upfront. It retains stakeholders aligned and saves hours of revisions later.
Construct, QA, and testing
As soon as your content material is prepared, it’s time to construct. You want instruments that make e mail manufacturing as simple and fast as potential with out sacrificing high quality.
Prime instruments:
- Litmus Builder cuts e mail growth time in half with E-mail service supplier (ESP) integrations and sync, centralized design property, and the choice to construct with or with out HTML.
- An e mail testing instrument like Litmus Previews allows you to check emails throughout 100+ shoppers and gadgets earlier than hitting ship. You’ll catch format breaks, picture points, and font weirdness early. E-mail QA automation saves time with out sacrificing high quality.
- Litmus Proof collects suggestions out of your total group in a single place. Maintain notes organized with useful model management.
- Litmus E-mail Guardian displays your emails 24-7 and alerts you to modifications in how your e mail renders, like if e mail shopper updates immediately make your welcome e mail template break.
- Your ESP editor (like Klaviyo, Salesforce Advertising Cloud, or Mailchimp) might have a drag-and-drop editor along with HTML code views.
- Litmus Personalize makes it easy to layer in dynamic content material blocks, like timers or personalised product rows—no heavy ESP configuration wanted.
Instruments like Grammarly assist keep tone, readability, and polish throughout all your copy.
Approvals and sending
Enterprise SaaS emails may need to move by means of compliance, product, authorized, and exec evaluations, creating bottlenecks. A streamlined approval movement is the distinction between hitting deadlines and lacking product launches.
- Litmus Proof lets stakeholders approve or give their suggestions instantly on reside e mail previews as a substitute of swapping screenshots or lengthy e mail threads.
- Workforce instruments like Slack or Groups let individuals talk on campaigns the place they already work.
A Litmus Guidelines runs automated pre-send QA: damaged hyperlinks, photos, accessibility, monitoring codes—all checked earlier than you hit ship.
Submit-send evaluation
Each ship is a studying alternative, and SaaS groups can’t cease at open fee vainness metrics.
Prime instruments:
- Litmus Analytics goes deeper: system breakdowns, learn time, and engagement by viewers section. Higher but, it connects e mail efficiency to downstream product behaviors like trial activation or characteristic adoption.
- ESP dashboards (HubSpot, Marketo, and so forth.) floor automation and income movement knowledge.
- Google Analytics 4 (or Tableau/Looker) ties e mail clicks to on-site habits, trial sign-ups, and even renewal outcomes.
E-mail technique for enterprise tech manufacturers
Enterprise e mail groups need to juggle world audiences and groups, rising product portfolios, complicated knowledge, and probably strict compliance necessities. You recognize, simply easy, low-impact stuff (as if).
Since a number of the stakes are larger, enterprise tech manufacturers should be strategic about how they strategy e mail advertising and marketing.
1. Coordinate cross-functional workflows
The larger the groups, the bigger the potential silos. With out coordination, advertising and marketing, product, and gross sales might share conflicting data or outdated emails, complicated prospects and eroding belief.
When everyone seems to be pushing in several instructions, it’s exhausting to make consolidated progress ahead, too. Right here’s the way to repair it:
- Create a group of cross-functional leaders to fulfill usually. They will get on the identical web page about campaigns, objectives, and initiatives with out dragging everybody into conferences.
- Break the “e mail is simply advertising and marketing” mindset. Tie e mail campaigns to enterprise outcomes that different groups, like gross sales, buyer success, and product, care about.
- Centralize approvals and content material in a single e mail workflow. Instruments like Litmus Proof align stakeholders, pace up suggestions, and scale back bottlenecks.
- Standardize processes and templates (like modular e mail design methods) to scale back repetitive work and pace manufacturing.
“I feel one of many issues stems from the truth that we frequently work in silos, relying on the dimensions of our group. Oftentimes, this implies we’re not tying the story collectively. Whereas we should always consider the efficiency of particular person parts, we additionally want a single quantity that displays how all of those items work collectively.“
Dave Charest
Director of Small Enterprise Success at Fixed Contact
2. Section past personas
Enterprises can have a complete host of personas on their e mail record, they usually don’t at all times inform the entire story. Enterprise e mail entrepreneurs want multi-dimensional segmentation that pulls from product, account, and behavioral knowledge. Right here’s the way to get there:
- Join your ESP or buyer knowledge platform (CDP) with CRM and product analytics so utilization knowledge drives e mail focusing on, like admins hitting license caps or execs seeing ROI benchmarks.
- Construct “composite segments” that mix attributes, like position + utilization + geography, so messages really feel tailor-made, not templated.
- Use account-based segmentation for high-value enterprise prospects, aligning e mail to the precise shopping for committee.
- Create “detrimental segments” to suppress irrelevant sends. For instance, don’t promote a characteristic somebody already makes use of closely.
- Run common section well being checks: prune useless addresses, validate knowledge sources, and re-score accounts as their habits shifts.
Actual group consequence: Alterra Mountain Firm used Litmus Personalize Professional to automate their every day Snow Report emails. By segmenting based mostly on geography and preferences, they shaved 15 hours off their workflow whereas delivering hyper-relevant updates at scale.
3. Steadiness compliance and creativity
International enterprises function beneath GDPR, CCPA, SOC 2, HIPAA—you identify it. Whereas you could stick to those guidelines, no one needs bland, legal-heavy emails (sorry, authorized group). The trick is constructing compliance into the method with out killing creativity. Right here’s how enterprise groups can strike that steadiness:
- Develop a library of modular, pre-approved content material blocks (headers, disclaimers, product boilerplates) to bake in compliance from the beginning.
- Make accessibility and privateness checks a traditional a part of your e mail testing guidelines so compliance isn’t a last-minute scramble.
- Use Litmus Proof or comparable platforms to present authorized groups reside previews as a substitute of static screenshots to hurry up approvals with out misinterpretation.
- Construct fallback content material for stricter areas (EU, APAC) so localization doesn’t derail world sends.
- Maintain creativity alive by specializing in storytelling and design inside the protected boundaries set by compliance.
2025 State of E-mail stat: 14% of entrepreneurs report compliance with knowledge privateness as a serious operational problem.
4. Elevate analytics into enterprise intelligence
Executives don’t care about open charges—they care about income, retention, and renewals.
To raise e mail right into a boardroom-level lever, you could join marketing campaign knowledge to enterprise outcomes. Which means shifting from marketing campaign metrics to lifecycle and monetary impression. Right here’s how:
- Combine Litmus Analytics with Salesforce, Tableau, or GA4 so you possibly can present precisely how e mail influences pipeline, growth, and churn discount.
- Create dashboards that tie marketing campaign exercise to renewal charges, upsell offers, or trial-to-paid conversions.
- Construct “north star” metrics for e mail that map to firm objectives, like product adoption fee or account growth, after which rally the group round them.
- Layer e mail engagement into buyer well being scoring so success groups can spot at-risk accounts.
- Share insights past advertising and marketing—product groups ought to know which options get essentially the most clicks, and gross sales ought to know which nurture paths speed up offers.
- Run A/B checks on KPIs that matter most for enterprise SaaS (like click-to-trial conversions or characteristic adoption) as a substitute of stopping at e mail topic line testing.
Actual group consequence: Epsilon saved over 1,000 hours every month by streamlining e mail creation and analytics with Litmus. These time financial savings freed the group to dig deeper into efficiency knowledge, utilizing e mail insights to show income impression and safe stronger govt buy-in.
Enterprise e mail, simplified
Energy your enterprise e mail technique with superior testing, automation, and safety to scale effortlessly.
Measure what issues: KPIs for IT and SaaS e mail successes
To show the worth of e mail, you could present how campaigns affect the milestones that drive development: adoption, retention, and income. Conventional ESP dashboards usually don’t go a lot past opens and clicks.
Litmus Analytics goes additional by serving to you join learn charges, clicks, and device-level engagement to product outcomes like adoption, renewals, and growth. As a substitute of asking, “Was our open fee good?” you’ll know which campaigns diminished churn or drove characteristic uptake.
Listed below are 4 KPIs that matter most for SaaS and the e-mail metrics that enable you to measure them:
- Activation charges
- What it means: Did onboarding emails get new customers to log in, full setup, or hit their first “aha” second?
- E-mail metrics to trace:
- Click on-to-open fee (CTOR) on onboarding CTAs
- Learn fee. Did individuals really eat the setup directions?
- Downstream product log-ins from marketing campaign hyperlinks
- Click on-to-trial conversions
- What it means: What number of nurture flows flip into trial sign-ups or demo requests?
- E-mail metrics to trace:
- Click on-through fee (CTR) on CTAs like “begin your trial” or “e-book a demo”
- Conversion monitoring by way of UTM-tagged hyperlinks
- Marketing campaign-assisted conversions in analytics instruments
- Function adoption
- What it means: Are product replace emails nudging prospects to make use of new performance?
- E-mail metrics to trace:
- CTR on “Strive it now” or feature-deep-dive hyperlinks
- Observe-up engagement with triggered walkthrough emails
- In-product utilization knowledge tied to marketing campaign opens and clicks
- Churn discount
- What it means: Are re-engagement campaigns lowering drop-offs and maintaining renewals on observe?
- E-mail metrics to trace:
- Re-engagement open-to-click ratio
- CTA conversions on renewal reminders
- Renewal/growth income attributed again to marketing campaign touchpoints
“E-mail is only one touchpoint in complicated buyer journeys, making its particular contribution troublesome to isolate. For B2B or excessive consideration purchases, an e mail’s affect might not materialize for weeks or months. Conventional metrics like opens and clicks don’t instantly correlate to income. Correct measurement requires connecting advertising and marketing actions to pipeline and income by integrating advertising and marketing, gross sales, and monetary knowledge.“
Ling Zhang
Principal Product Advertising Supervisor, Oracle CX
Let’s nail your e mail advertising and marketing technique from day one
E-mail isn’t simply one other field to verify for IT and SaaS manufacturers. It’s the channel that ties all the pieces collectively. From that first onboarding message to the renewal reminder that retains prospects round, e mail is the way you information prospects, activate customers, and construct long-term relationships. However that solely works when you’ve got greater than only a ship button. You want a technique and a toolkit designed for the complexity of SaaS.
That’s the place Litmus is available in. Consider it because the cement that holds your e mail program collectively—and makes it look polished:
- Designers and builders can use Litmus Builder to create responsive, on-brand emails that look nice all over the place.
- QA and ops groups depend on Litmus Previews and E-mail Guardian to catch errors and monitor deliverability earlier than they attain the inbox.
- Entrepreneurs use Litmus Personalize to ship behavior-based content material that’s related as a substitute of generic.
- Leaders faucet into Litmus Analytics to see how e mail influences the metrics that actually matter, like activation, retention, and growth. Additionally they love that Litmus connects to their ESP so work doesn’t get misplaced.
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Preview emails in 100+ shoppers, catch errors, and guarantee accessibility. Reduce QA time in half. Due to Litmus Take a look at.
