Cheat sheet to write your first SaaS onboarding emails

Use the Figma template to create your onboarding 🎁

Designing a high-converting onboarding flow isn’t about blasting a few welcome emails and hoping for the best.

It’s about creating a structured, personalized experience that helps your users reach their "aha!" moment faster—and convert. 💰

This guide gives you a full checklist and practical advice to build an onboarding sequence your users will love (and that drives MRR).

👉 How to use this framework

Take a few minutes to answer each question in the sections below.

Once you’ve gone through them, you’ll have a clear picture of your user’s journey, goals, and context.

With that in mind, you’ll be able to map out an onboarding email flow that’s relevant, focused, and complete—without missing any key step.

Use it as your prep doc before writing a single email. It will save you hours later.

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1. Start with your business context

1. What type of SaaS are you?
   Self-serve? Sales-assisted? Enterprise? This affects tone, depth of guidance, and pacing. PLG tools need fast onboarding. Enterprise might need layered flows.

2. Do you offer a free trial?
   Yes? Then how long is it? A 7-day trial pushes urgency. A 30-day trial allows more nurturing and education.

3. What's your domain and brand tone?
   Emails should come from a recognizable domain and match the tone of your product site. Trust starts at the inbox.

4. Is your pricing public?
   If yes, consider linking it in your later emails to drive upgrades. If no, focus your onboarding on value and qualification.

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2. Understand the product experience

1. What does the user journey look like?
   Map the core steps: sign-up → explore → take a key action → invite team → upgrade. Every email should help move the user forward.

   Take example of the Miro flow here.

2. What’s your core value proposition?
   Repeat it often in your onboarding. Remind users what problem you're solving for them.

3. Who are you talking to?
   Job title? Seniority? Use case? Tailor messaging depending on whether you're talking to a CMO, a growth marketer, or a junior dev.

4. What does success look like for the user?
   Do they want to publish a page? Send their first campaign? Invite a team? Your emails should mirror those goals.

5. Is the product intuitive or complex?
   The more complex it is, the more step-by-step guidance you need. Don’t assume they "get it."

6. Which behaviors should trigger emails?
   Use data: If they haven’t invited a teammate after 3 days, remind them. If they used a feature once, suggest the next one.

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3. Define your onboarding strategy

1. What’s your onboarding goal?
   Don’t write a single email before answering this. Is it to get them to:

   1. Create a project?

   2. Invite their team?

   3. Hit a usage milestone?

   
   Be specific.

2. What’s your conversion event?
   Define what "success" means. Paid plan? Team activated? Feature adopted? This anchors your flow.

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4. Plan your email sequence

1. How many emails will you send?
   Start with 5–7 core emails. Use time-based AND behavior-based logic. Add more based on use case if needed.

2. What’s the right tone of voice?
   Use the tone your users expect. Devs = direct. Marketers = friendly. Enterprise = clear and professional. But always: be human.

3. Will you personalize?
   Use first names, company names, job titles—if it adds relevance. Personalization is not just a greeting.

4. Are you using dynamic data?
   Usage stats, days left in trial, template recommendations… use them to make your emails timely and contextual.

5. What kind of CTAs work best?
   Avoid "learn more." Use actions: "Create your first campaign," "Invite a teammate," "Try this template."

6. Need to support multiple languages?
   If your user base is international, localizing even just your welcome email can increase engagement.

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5. Align with brand and inspiration — optional

1. Do you have brand guidelines?
   Keep tone, spacing, visuals, and CTA styling consistent with your site and app.

2. Are you matching visual style?
   Use your brand colors in buttons and headers. Avoid generic templates.

3. Got favorite examples or competitor inspiration?
   Build a swipe file. Learn from brands you admire—and aim to do better.

4. What metrics define success?
   Pick 2–3 core KPIs to track and improve:

   1. Activation rate

   2. Time-to-value

   3. Conversion to paid

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💡 Pro tip: Onboarding doesn’t end at the last email. Keep nurturing users based on behavior: advanced features, team usage, or plan upsell moments.

This cheat sheet helps you ask the right questions before you ever write an email. Nail this part, and the copy will practically write itself.

The Figma template to duplicate is just below 👇

But first, if you enjoyed this edition, a like goes a long way and is always appreciated!