I wrote this article to help people who own or work in a SaaS based company / startup. You will learn how to create a marketing automation flow for optimizing each step of the SaaS fun

Every SaaS product is different. Not everyone can implement the exact same method that I am going to write about.

The point is to learn the core principles of the method so you can tailor this process for your own business.

I will do my best to explain it in a general style, applicable to most software-as-a-service products and businesses.





How to Define a Customer Lifecycle Funnel

Every time someone visits your website they enter in a customer journey. Customer journey can be defined as each core step that people take from visiting your website to cancelling a subscription. It can also be called a customer lifecycle.

It is very important to define how your funnel looks like so you can focus on optimizing each step one at a time. Here’s my recommendation for creating your funnel:

Step 1 - Visited your website

- Visited your website Step 2 - Signed up for your products free trial or free plan.

- Signed up for your products free trial or free plan. Step 3 - Used core product feature.

- Used core product feature. Step 4 - Became your customer

- Became your customer Step 5 - Cancelled subscription - churned.

I will explain steps 3 in next sections of guide, others are self-explanatory.

By now, you should have created a visual sketch of your funnel containing all steps that we have covered here. Here are the steps to remind you:

Once you’ve understood and sketched your funnel, let's move on to automating each step.

How to Automate Each Step of the Funnel

The ideal situation is that you have a fully automated funnel so you only need to send traffic on top and automation takes care of the rest.

This is a hypothetical situation, most of the products can’t have fully automated funnel. In this section I will explain how to get as close as you can to the perfect situation.

Each step of the funnel will be explained one by one.

Before You Begin

Before you begin creating the automation flow you should be familiar with one tool that will be used for automating most funnel steps - Intercom.

What is Intercom?

Intercom is a software that you can integrate in your app to send automated messages based on user actions. It uses two channels to communicate with your customers:

In app messages

E-mail

Depending on your needs, you can use Intercoms features for support because it also has option to chat live with customers and has a built in ticketing system for multiple users. In this guide, only automation features will be used & explained.

Intercom offers a 14 day trial so you can sign up now to test it. Make sure to read their integration guide.

Automating [Visit → Signup]

For this part of the funnel you don’t have much information about the visitors. At this point you don’t “know them”. They didn’t give you their name or e-mail, they are just a number in Google analytics for now.

What you can do, is to give them cookie. A cookie that will add them to your remarketing list so they will see your landing page ads on Facebook & Google AdWords display & search network.

Check out the guides below if you are not familiar with setting up retargeting campaigns.

Whichever guide you are following, make sure that your target audience is set to people who visited your landing page but didn’t sign up.

The KPI for this step should be cost per signup.

Automating [Signup → Core Feature Used]

This funnel step is really important because it will show you if users are actually interested in using your product. However, it doesn’t mean they already love it. It means they want to give it a chance to provide value.

How to define the core feature?

Sign up for your product’s free trial and ask yourself a question: “What is the most important feature that users should use first?”.

Here are some examples so you can get the idea of how the core feature looks like for other SaaS products:

KISSmetrics (analytics tool): Implement tracking code on a website.

(analytics tool): Implement tracking code on a website. ManageWP (Wordpress management tool): Add a website to manage.

(Wordpress management tool): Add a website to manage. Shopify (tool for creating online stores): Create an online store.

(tool for creating online stores): Create an online store. Groove (help desk software): Start forwarding support e-mails to Groove.

(help desk software): Start forwarding support e-mails to Groove. Nihongo Master (platform for learning Japanese): Complete first lesson & drill set.

Your action step for now is to define what feature you consider as core feature.

How to automate [signup → core feature used]?

Once you’ve “met” a user, it’s time to show them the first, most essential step that they should do when they signup.

Here’s a quick checklist before you start automating this funnel step:

Integrate Intercom in your app

Track signups in Intercom

Track core feature usage in Intercom

These two techniques will be used to optimize this funnel step:

In app onboarding tutorial

Email reminder message

A) Setting up in app onboarding tutorial:

Option 1 (recommended): Use Intercom to create in app welcome message to onboard your users

(recommended): Use Intercom to create in app welcome message to onboard your users Option 2: If you can invest development time, you can code onboarding tutorial yourself. I recommend using Bootstrap Tour for making this easier.

If you can invest development time, you can code onboarding tutorial yourself. I recommend using Bootstrap Tour for making this easier. Option 3: If you want to use an app that is fully dedicated to onboarding, you can use AppCues.

I recommended Intercom because it will be used for optimizing most steps of your funnel in this tutorial.

Setting up onboarding via Intercom:

After you integrate Intercom into your product you can choose to create an automated in app message right after your user sign up.

That onboarding message should present quick introduction to the core product value proposition with a clear call to action for using the core feature.

Depending on your product you can include different things in your first message:

Video explaining how to use the core feature if it’s hard to use.

Just a call to action button if feature is easy to use.

Intercom also lets your users to reply to your onboarding message. You can add an extra line after your CTA to let them know that they can request help anytime.

It’s always good to A/B test those welcome messages using Intercom A/B test feature.

Note: make sure that you track the core feature completion in Intercom because you will use it to judge the success of your onboarding messages.

B) Create a welcome email

The welcome email is similar to the in app welcome message. It should remind users what they signed up for (including some value proposition) with call to action on completing the core feature.

C) Remind your users to take action

The second step for increasing core feature completion is to remind the customers to complete it. This can also be done through Intercom. However, this time you will use email as your communication channel.

Login to Intercom and set up automated message with following criteria:

"All users who have not completed core action within 7 days"

You should adjust days depending on your product of course. For example if your free trial is 14 days, you can message users after 5 days.

The email you send should be friendly and straightforward. You should use a catchy subject line, remind users what they signed up for and add a clear CTA.

Automate [Core feature used → Customer]

After users used your core feature your main goal is to convert them to paid customers preferably before their free trial ends. This is the part you’ve probably waiting for.

If you scrolled down to this section, at least scroll up and read “Before you begin” part of this article.

Even though your main goal in this funnel step is to get a sale, you should focus on user success. More they use the product, higher chances are that they will love it and convert eventually (with little help by you).

What is user success?

Start thinking about your unique value proposition. What your customers want to achieve by using your product? How their success looks like?

It’s not feature X usage, it’s not time spent in app, it’s the purpose of your product. It’s the thing that users want to achieve by using your product.

Let’s take a look at the examples so you can get the idea of how user success looks for some other SaaS companies (it’s my opinion):

KISSmetrics: Customer found a marketing channel with very low customer acquisition cost which wasn’t in their marketing strategy before.

Customer found a marketing channel with very low customer acquisition cost which wasn’t in their marketing strategy before. ManageWP : Customer doesn’t need to hire virtual assistant to maintain 100s of Wordpress websites. They saved time & money.

: Customer doesn’t need to hire virtual assistant to maintain 100s of Wordpress websites. They saved time & money. Shopify : Customer made a first sale in their brand new online store.

: Customer made a first sale in their brand new online store. Groove: Customer reduced support response time by using simple ticket management.

Customer reduced support response time by using simple ticket management. Nihongo Master: Customer was able to speak with native Japanese speaker without having to look at a dictionary for every word.

You should turn user success into a trackable KPI. Keep on reading to find out how.

User Success Score - New KPI that you Should Start Using

For most products, tracking actual user success is very hard. Probably not possible.

How could you know that user is now able to start Japanese conversation or saved 5 hours in managing Wordpress sites? (examples from the last chapter) However, there’s something you can do.

What you can do is to create an approximation of user success which I’ll call User Success Score (USC).

To approximate USC, you will track various actions in your app and group them in a single KPI.

Your product managers probably track feature usage already to determine which features are worth adding / removing. As a growth hacker, you don’t need separate feature usage data. You need that data + other activities accumulated in a single KPI that will approximate customer’s probability of conversion.

What Data you Should Accumulate in USC?

As I’ve said previously, each product is different. Same action might mean different things in different products. This guide should give you the idea of how powerful these techniques can be. You should customize it to fit your products needs:

Here are some actions that you can track:

Feature usage

Paid feature usage during the free trial

Support tickets resolved

Sessions in your app

Time needed to complete an action

Pricing page visits

Here are some example actions that can boost USC score for other SaaS products:

KISSmetrics: Number of events tracked, reports created & number of logins.

Number of events tracked, reports created & number of logins. ManageWP : Number of succeeded backups, number of successfully updated plugins, websites added...

: Number of succeeded backups, number of successfully updated plugins, websites added... Shopify : Online store sales, store features added.

: Online store sales, store features added. Groove: Number of tickets responded, agents added.

Number of tickets responded, agents added. Nihongo Master: Number of completed lessons & drills, logins...

If your users can achieve success on few different ways you can create a group of features that should be used for each success way.

To better understand this take a look at the LinkedIn example:

User success 1 : People who are looking for a job.

: People who are looking for a job. What to track? Job searches over time, items added to a profile.

User success 2 : HR managers looking for people to hire.

: HR managers looking for people to hire. What to track? People searches over time, job postings.

How to Track USC?

Intercom will be used for tracking USC. It is important because you’ll use Intercom to react to USC in later stages of this guide.

Integrate Intercom into your product if you already haven’t. Create a list of actions that will boost USC Assign Intercom event to each feature / action. Tracking events is very similar to Google Analytics. Here’s the code example for tracking USC event:

Intercom('trackEvent', 'USC');

If you want to implement it in languages other than JavaScript, you should check event API documentation.

You might need additional coding to track actions such as [time needed to complete action].

Why is USC so important?

Answer is simple - higher USC means higher probability of [user -> customer] conversion.

In next chapters of this guide you will learn how to create automation flow to increase USC and convert more users to customers.





How to Create Automation Flow to Boost USC?

Even though your product is very user friendly, some users need additional help to discover the full potential of it. More they use the product and more value they get, chances of conversion are getting higher.

Here's how to set up automation flow for boosting USC:

A) Let users know that they can get support anytime.

Having an amazing support team is not enough if your users don't know about it. Support is very important aspect of user success.

What I recommend is putting an Intercom contact bubble at bottom right of your app including a message that they can chat with support in real time.

You can do that by logging into Intercom and navigating to “Settings gear icon in top right corner ---> Settings for your product name ---> Messaging”

B) Set up an autoresponder series

The purpose of next emails that your users should receive is to build trust and increase engagement.

Emails for increasing engagement: Explain users some advanced product features on webinars, videos or in email. Add a call to action to log in and do it.

Explain users some advanced product features on webinars, videos or in email. Add a call to action to log in and do it. Emails for building trust: Emails shouldn't only be about your product. Sometimes, you may want to send users something related to your product / niche that will help them. It can be a free ebook, training video or anything else useful.

Emails shouldn't only be about your product. Sometimes, you may want to send users something related to your product / niche that will help them. It can be a free ebook, training video or anything else useful. LeadPages Example : They have an app for creating landing pages but they regularly send users interesting tutorials, case studies etc.

: They have an app for creating landing pages but they regularly send users interesting tutorials, case studies etc.



They have sent video tutorials for Facebook advertising. That's the perfect tutorial because it’s not entirely about their product but still connected in some way. Even if you create a world class Facebook campaign you need a great landing page for it, right?

Be creative and think what value you can give away to your users that's not direct product promotion but related to it.

How to use USC to Convert Users to Customers

You’ve probably been wondering why you should put so much effort into tracking and increasing USC.

Imagine that you are able to send the right message to right customers at the right time. You can do that with Intercom & USC.

Here are some example USC targeted in-app messages that you can send:

IF [USC < 10] and [days since signup > 5]

[USC < 10] [days since signup > 5] THEN

a) [send in-app message containing product tour video]

b) [Ask if they need help]





IF [USC > 10] and [USC < 20] and [days since signup > 5]

[USC > 10] [USC < 20] [days since signup > 5] THEN

a) [send in-app message with a link to page that showcase benefits of upgrading]

b) [send a discount for monthly payments]

c) [send additional value to boost USC even more]

IF [USC > 20] and [days since signup > 5]

[USC > 20] [days since signup > 5] THEN

[send in app message announcing 24 hour discount for yearly payments]

What if you could send the same message via email to users who didn’t open their in app message within 5 days?

Other Creative USC Usage examples

IF [USC < 20] and [tagged as a customer] and [last seen > 15 days ago]

[USC < 20] [tagged as a customer] [last seen > 15 days ago] THEN

[Send “anti-churn” message]

IF [USC > 25] and [tagged as a customer] and [monthly subscription / starter plan]

[USC > 25] [tagged as a customer] [monthly subscription / starter plan] THEN

[Send message to upgrade to yearly subscription / upgrade plan (with additional incentive such as a discount or bonus feature]

You can go beyond Intercoms features and create separate USCs for different product plans and automatically recommend a plan on your pricing page.





What Do You Think?

Will you implement this?

How would you use USC for your product?

Let me know in the comments and please don't forget to click the like button & share this post.



