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 progress at each stage—from onboarding to renewals, re-engagement to upsells, and all the pieces in between.Concentrate on outcomes, not opens. The metrics that matter for IT and SaaS are activation, conversions, function adoption, and churn discount.
Some folks take electronic mail advertising and marketing as a right.
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 firms, it’s the channel you could transfer from curiosity to dedication, from trial to renewal, and from function announcement to adoption.
E mail advertising and marketing for SaaS and IT firms is a novel beast, although. Due to its many stakeholders and typically prolonged gross sales processes, you’ll be able to’t slap an eCommerce advertising and marketing technique on and name it a day.
This information breaks down how electronic mail advertising and marketing will play an ever-increasing function in IT and SaaS success and what you could do to comprehend its full potential.
Desk of contents
Why most IT and SaaS electronic mail methods fall brief
The ROI of electronic mail and its power as a lead technology channel ought to seize everybody’s consideration in an IT or SaaS enterprise. For entrepreneurs, electronic mail is a chance to take an owned channel and make it a prime income channel. And what chief can ignore the potential promise of ROI over $36 for each $1 spent?
Whereas electronic 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 just a few distinctive challenges that may derail electronic mail advertising and marketing progress:
Advanced shopping for journeys don’t seem like impulsive eCommerce gross sales. Not like eCommerce, SaaS offers often 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. Meaning your electronic 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 laborious 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 electronic mail ROI. With dozens of touches throughout advertising and marketing emails, webinars, and demos, proving impression could be powerful.Misaligned messaging. The CFO desires effectivity, IT desires 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 communicate to anybody particularly. The outcome? Inboxes filled with noise, not momentum.
Over-reliance on options. Product specs are vital, however folks join with tales, feelings, and outcomes. Nice SaaS and IT electronic mail content material must steadiness options with outcomes. Lean too far into the specs and also you’ll depart folks loud night breathing. However go too summary and company communicate, and other people may not perceive what your instrument even does.
What makes electronic mail advertising and marketing totally different in tech
We’re proponents of discovering electronic mail inspiration all over the place, like in several industries and niches. Earlier than you place methods into follow, although, you could perceive basic variations between SaaS and IT electronic mail advertising and marketing versus different industries like eCommerce. When you study the foundations, you understand how to interrupt them.
Right here’s how IT and SaaS electronic mail packages stand aside from different industries:
IT / SaaS electronic mail marketingeCommerce electronic mail marketingPrimary goalsEducate, nurture, convert over timeSell quick with promotions and flash dealsAudienceTeams or organizations that need proof factors, case research, and ROIIndividuals that will reply to urgency-led reductions and FOMOBuyer behaviorInvolves 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 toneSolution-driven, outcome-focusedBenefit-led, visible, urgency-driven
Smarter SaaS emails
Automate electronic mail workflows, get rid of errors, and create campaigns that join at each stage with Litmus.
Discover Case Research
Important electronic mail campaigns for IT and SaaS firms
The campaigns that win in SaaS aren’t about urgency or reductions. They’re about constructing belief, guiding conduct, and maintaining prospects engaged for the lengthy haul.
Listed here are the e-mail campaigns IT and SaaS firms generally use.
Marketing campaign TypeFunnel StageGoalOnboardingAcquisitionHelp new customers arrange rapidly, see worth quick, and cut back early churn.Function adoptionActivationEncourage folks to make use of key options to deepen engagement and forestall drop-off.Renewal remindersRetentionReinforce ROI and hold 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 cut back churn with well timed, related nudges.Buyer educationAdvocacyProvide coaching and assets to strengthen experience and loyalty.Cross-sellExpansionIntroduce prospects to complimentary, associate 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 electronic mail campaigns is to set customers up and assist them understand worth immediately.
Begin with a transparent welcome electronic mail that units expectations, then information them step-by-step via their setup and early initiatives. You need to use inspiring buyer tales or recommend ‘fast win’ duties to assist folks 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 examine the primary merchandise off the checklist only for opening the emails.
LitTip: Use Litmus Personalize so as to add progress bars that illustrate how prospects are finishing onboarding. Or, embrace ‘add to calendar’ elements to ensure prospects bear in mind after they’re scheduled to fulfill with shopper success managers.
2. Function adoption nudges for activation
Your merchandise and options are solely helpful if folks know and use them. Well timed nudges get folks off the sidelines and into your product by highlighting the appropriate function 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. You can even use dynamic content material to customise messaging based mostly on the particular person’s function, like setup assist for admins or productiveness ideas for finish customers.
Function adoption instance: Canva lets customers know they’ve unused credit for an AI function, and positioning it that means makes it really feel a bit like cash left on the desk.
LitTip: You don’t must create advanced code to ship spectacular customized emails. Litmus’ drag-and-drop editor helps you to simply add dynamic content material blocks.
3. Renewal reminders for retention
It’s best to view renewals as a choice level for purchasers. Beginning the dialog early—30/60/90 days out—helps forestall billing surprises for purchasers that would flip a relationship bitter. To profit from renewal reminders, take into account pairing utilization stats ( like “Your crew saved X hours this 12 months”) with ROI reminders to place renewals as an opportunity to make extra progress, not simply re-sign a contract.
Renewal reminder instance: Grammarly often sends customized 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 important inflection factors.
4. Product replace bulletins for retention
Competitors between SaaS firms means prospects might count on 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. You’ll want to spotlight outcomes they’ll count on or recommendations on learn how to use the brand new function of their day-to-day life. E mail segmentation helps you to share probably the most related updates as a substitute of flooding everybody’s inbox.
Product replace instance: Loom’s replace announcement introduces adjustments and provides just a few methods to study extra and begin utilizing them.
LitTip: Litmus Previews reassure you that replace bulletins render flawlessly throughout inboxes.
5. Upsell provides for growth
Growth is the place SaaS firms 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 clear up larger issues or unlock efficiencies. Tailor provides 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 also can reassure decision-makers that the funding pays off.
Upsell instance: Otter.ai shares other ways to make use of Professional options and provides social proof via buyer logos.
LitTip: Let Litmus E mail Guardian keep watch over your emails for you. E mail Guardian alerts you to adjustments 24/7 that have an effect on how your emails show in inboxes, so you’ll be able to 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 might cut 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 strains 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 folks to see what’s new.
LitTip: Let Litmus Assistant allow you to harness the facility of AI to optimize your copy. It suggests compelling topic strains and duplicate options in several tones.
7. Buyer schooling collection for advocacy
SaaS merchandise evolve continually, and schooling campaigns assist customers hold tempo whereas decreasing reliance on assist groups. Creating brief, 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 ideas, to search out what makes folks work together along with your message.
Advocacy instance: Google shares new methods to make use of their product anchored round a milestone (again to high school).
LitTip: Use Litmus E mail Analytics to see which emails get probably the most engagement, then refine and broaden.
8. Cross-sell campaigns for growth
There’s a complete world of instruments and merchandise your prospects may get pleasure from, and cross-sell campaigns allow you to introduce new choices to broaden accounts. Your cross-sell emails can both promote different merchandise and types underneath your mother or father firm or ship results in associate applied sciences.
Carried out proper, they’ll hold prospects round longer, make you a worthwhile co-marketing associate, and switch your model into the go-to hub for instruments. The important thing, as standard, is to make these campaigns as useful as they’re promotional. Use utilization information 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 business.
Product-led progress (PLG) calls for electronic mail that performs
The previous progress playbook of “simply throw extra advertisements on the prime of the funnel” is damaged. As Ramli John, creator of Product-Led Onboarding, put it, “It was once simpler to boost cash and say, ‘Let’s simply throw extra advertisements!’ or ‘Let’s plug retention and onboarding issues by simply placing extra folks on the prime of the funnel.’ And now that’s not the case.”
As a substitute of filling the highest of the funnel or hoping that an important product alone is sufficient, pair PLG with electronic mail advertising and marketing. Give it some thought: and not using a 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 advertisements or in-app messaging, electronic mail reaches everybody who issues: energy customers, passive crew 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.
Carried out proper, electronic mail is a progress lever for PLG firms. It accelerates activation, sustains retention, and drives upsells and not using a single gross sales name.
The instruments each IT and SaaS electronic mail marketer wants
In IT and SaaS, each electronic mail you ship is an opportunity to construct belief, cut back churn, or push adoption somewhat additional. You want an important electronic mail tech stack to get the job accomplished, although.
Fast-reference: IT and SaaS electronic mail advertising and marketing stack
FunctionTop ToolsWhat It SolvesPlanning and content material creationLitmus Template LibraryFigmaNotionTrelloAsanaAirtableJasperCopy.aiKeeps campaigns organized, ensures brand-consistent electronic mail templates, and eliminates blank-page stress with AI brainstorming.Construct, QA, and testingLitmus BuilderLitmus PreviewsLitmus E mail GuardianESP editorsGrammarlySpeeds up manufacturing, ensures flawless rendering throughout 100+ purchasers/gadgets, and prevents embarrassing errors earlier than ship.Approvals and sendingLitmus ProofSlackTeamsLitmus ChecklistCentralizes stakeholder suggestions, streamlines compliance/authorized critiques, and automates pre-send QA checks.Put up-send reviewLitmus AnalyticsESP dashboards (HubSpot, Marketo, and so on.)Google Analytics 4TableauLookerMoves past vainness metrics, tying marketing campaign efficiency to product outcomes like trial activations, function adoption, and renewals.
Planning and content material creation
There’s lots of floor to cowl in IT and SaaS electronic mail advertising and marketing, like product launches, buyer schooling campaigns, renewal nudges, and have bulletins. A clear planning course of ensures nothing slips via the cracks.
Prime instruments:
Litmus Template Library provides groups a head begin with reusable, brand-consistent electronic mail layouts.Collaboration instruments like Figma and Notion are a consolidated spot to get everybody on the identical web page.Challenge administration apps (Trello, Asana, Airtable) hold campaigns transferring—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 strains and CTA copy so that you’re not gazing a clean web page.
LitTip: At all times create an electronic 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 electronic mail manufacturing as straightforward and fast as potential with out sacrificing high quality.
Prime instruments:
Litmus Builder cuts electronic mail improvement 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 electronic mail testing instrument like Litmus Previews helps you to check emails throughout 100+ purchasers 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 complete crew in a single place. Hold notes organized with useful model management.Litmus E mail Guardian displays your emails 24-7 and alerts you to adjustments in how your electronic mail renders, like if electronic mail shopper updates out of the blue make your welcome electronic mail template break.Your ESP editor (like Klaviyo, Salesforce Advertising and marketing 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 customized product rows—no heavy ESP configuration wanted.
Instruments like Grammarly assist preserve tone, readability, and polish throughout all your copy.
Approvals and sending
Enterprise SaaS emails might need to cross via compliance, product, authorized, and exec critiques, creating bottlenecks. A streamlined approval move is the distinction between hitting deadlines and lacking product launches.
Litmus Proof lets stakeholders approve or give their suggestions straight on dwell electronic mail previews as a substitute of swapping screenshots or lengthy electronic mail threads.Crew instruments like Slack or Groups let folks talk on campaigns the place they already work.
A Litmus Guidelines runs automated pre-send QA: damaged hyperlinks, photographs, accessibility, monitoring codes—all checked earlier than you hit ship.
Put up-send evaluation
Each ship is a studying alternative, and SaaS groups can’t cease at open charge vainness metrics.
Prime instruments:
Litmus Analytics goes deeper: gadget breakdowns, learn time, and engagement by viewers section. Higher but, it connects electronic mail efficiency to downstream product behaviors like trial activation or function adoption.
ESP dashboards (HubSpot, Marketo, and so on.) floor automation and income move information.Google Analytics 4 (or Tableau/Looker) ties electronic mail clicks to on-site conduct, trial sign-ups, and even renewal outcomes.
E mail technique for enterprise tech manufacturers
Enterprise electronic mail groups must juggle world audiences and groups, rising product portfolios, advanced information, and doubtlessly strict compliance necessities. You understand, simply easy, low-impact stuff (as if).
Since a number of the stakes are increased, enterprise tech manufacturers have to be strategic about how they method electronic 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 information or outdated emails, complicated prospects and eroding belief.
When everyone seems to be pushing in several instructions, it’s laborious to make consolidated progress ahead, too. Right here’s learn how to repair it:
Create a crew of cross-functional leaders to fulfill often. They’ll get on the identical web page about campaigns, targets, and initiatives with out dragging everybody into conferences.Break the “electronic mail is simply advertising and marketing” mindset. Tie electronic 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 electronic mail workflow. Instruments like Litmus Proof align stakeholders, velocity up suggestions, and cut back bottlenecks.Standardize processes and templates (like modular electronic mail design methods) to scale back repetitive work and velocity manufacturing.
“I believe 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 must always consider the efficiency of particular person components, 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 electronic mail checklist, and so they don’t at all times inform the entire story. Enterprise electronic mail entrepreneurs want multi-dimensional segmentation that pulls from product, account, and behavioral information. Right here’s learn how to get there:
Join your ESP or buyer information platform (CDP) with CRM and product analytics so utilization information drives electronic mail focusing on, like admins hitting license caps or execs seeing ROI benchmarks.Construct “composite segments” that mix attributes, like function + utilization + geography, so messages really feel tailor-made, not templated.Use account-based segmentation for high-value enterprise prospects, aligning electronic mail to the precise shopping for committee.Create “destructive segments” to suppress irrelevant sends. For instance, don’t promote a function somebody already makes use of closely.Run common section well being checks: prune useless addresses, validate information sources, and re-score accounts as their conduct shifts.
Actual crew outcome: Alterra Mountain Firm used Litmus Personalize Professional to automate their each 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. Stability compliance and creativity
World enterprises function underneath GDPR, CCPA, SOC 2, HIPAA—you identify it. Whereas you could stick to those guidelines, no person desires bland, legal-heavy emails (sorry, authorized crew). 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 electronic mail testing guidelines so compliance isn’t a last-minute scramble.Use Litmus Proof or comparable platforms to provide authorized groups dwell 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.Hold creativity alive by specializing in storytelling and design throughout the protected boundaries set by compliance.
2025 State of E mail stat: 14% of entrepreneurs report compliance with information 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 electronic mail right into a boardroom-level lever, you could join marketing campaign information to enterprise outcomes. Meaning shifting from marketing campaign metrics to lifecycle and monetary impression. Right here’s how:
Combine Litmus Analytics with Salesforce, Tableau, or GA4 so you’ll be able to present precisely how electronic 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 electronic mail that map to firm targets, like product adoption charge or account growth, after which rally the crew round them.Layer electronic 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 probably the most clicks, and gross sales ought to know which nurture paths speed up offers.Run A/B exams on KPIs that matter most for enterprise SaaS (like click-to-trial conversions or function adoption) as a substitute of stopping at electronic mail topic line testing.
Actual crew outcome: Epsilon saved over 1,000 hours every month by streamlining electronic mail creation and analytics with Litmus. These time financial savings freed the crew to dig deeper into efficiency information, utilizing electronic mail insights to show income impression and safe stronger government buy-in.
Enterprise electronic mail, simplified
Energy your enterprise electronic mail technique with superior testing, automation, and safety to scale effortlessly.
Up your electronic mail technique
Measure what issues: KPIs for IT and SaaS electronic mail successes
To show the worth of electronic mail, you could present how campaigns affect the milestones that drive progress: adoption, retention, and income. Conventional ESP dashboards sometimes 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 charge good?” you’ll know which campaigns diminished churn or drove function uptake.
Listed here are 4 KPIs that matter most for SaaS and the e-mail metrics that allow you to measure them:
Activation ratesWhat 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 charge (CTOR) on onboarding CTAsRead charge. Did folks truly eat the setup directions?Downstream product log-ins from marketing campaign hyperlinks Click on-to-trial conversionsWhat it means: What number of nurture flows flip into trial sign-ups or demo requests?E mail metrics to trace:Click on-through charge (CTR) on CTAs like “begin your trial” or “e-book a demo”Conversion monitoring by way of UTM-tagged linksCampaign-assisted conversions in analytics instruments Function adoptionWhat 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 linksFollow-up engagement with triggered walkthrough emailsIn-product utilization information tied to marketing campaign opens and clicks Churn reductionWhat it means: Are re-engagement campaigns decreasing drop-offs and maintaining renewals on observe?E mail metrics to trace:Re-engagement open-to-click ratioCTA conversions on renewal remindersRenewal/growth income attributed again to marketing campaign touchpoints
“E mail is only one touchpoint in advanced buyer journeys, making its particular contribution troublesome to isolate. For B2B or excessive consideration purchases, an electronic mail’s affect might not materialize for weeks or months. Conventional metrics like opens and clicks don’t straight correlate to income. Correct measurement requires connecting advertising and marketing actions to pipeline and income by integrating advertising and marketing, gross sales, and monetary information.“
Ling Zhang Principal Product Advertising and marketing Supervisor, Oracle CX
Let’s nail your electronic mail advertising and marketing technique from day one
E mail isn’t simply one other field to examine 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, electronic mail is the way you information prospects, activate customers, and construct long-term relationships. However that solely works when you have 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 electronic 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 electronic mail influences the metrics that actually matter, like activation, retention, and growth. In addition they love that Litmus connects to their ESP so work doesn’t get misplaced.
Ship with whole confidence
Preview emails in 100+ purchasers, catch errors, and guarantee accessibility. Reduce QA time in half. Due to Litmus Take a look at.
Begin electronic mail testing
