Last updated on July 6th, 2023

Onboarding emails didn’t work? Use the Close email drip campaign to sell.

Pardeep Kullar
Pardeep Kullar
Onboarding emails didn’t work? Use the Close email drip campaign to sell.

Some people buy. Some will never buy. Some need the product but didn’t buy. How do you convert that last group of people? Close is the sales tool built by sales professionals and their founder’s weekly emails are the near perfect conversion tool. They’re emails that link to content you want to read that also plugs the product without direct advertising.

Essential read: 10 Companies Show you their Successful Positioning Strategy

Related: Why One to One Onboarding Makes You $3,000 / Hour

Also see: Don't Guess at User Onboarding. See Real Examples of What Worked

Why do new users fail to buy even when they need your product?

A few common reasons:

  1. They don’t know and trust you yet.
  2. They have a problem but are not sure your product is the best fix.
  3. It’s not the right time and there is no urgency.
  4. Some people need multiple touch points to build up conviction.

Drip marketing campaigns work by building up trust, explaining the product from different angles the reader can understand, reminding users when the time does become right and helping them build up conviction.

They’re essential to converting the majority, who didn’t buy straight away, over time.

Who are Close and why are they good at sales?

The Close team were an outsourced sales service. If you wanted to make sales, you’d hire them to do it.

They eventually built their own product and because they’re good at selling, they’ve grown rapidly and they've recently added their own drip email feature.

Breakdown of why their drip email and blog post is so good

Below is an email from Steli from Close.

img

What’s good about the email?

  1. The subject header was ‘Sales managers, here’s how to handle a rebellious rep’ which is specific to one job title and it’s also catchy, it invites the question in our minds of ‘how would I deal with a rebellious rep?’
  2. The first line of the email is, just like the header, catchy and built to keep you reading.
  3. There’s lots of one and two line sentences so it’s great for mobile phones. No-one wants to read huge paragraphs.
  4. He uses ‘bucket brigades’ by asking a question half way through that keeps you reading. They create an opening in the mind we feel the need to fill.
  5. There’s a link at the top to encourage the impatient user to click. He repeats the link at the bottom.
  6. The font is larger than normal making it clear to read.
  7. The link is in a nice bright green which welcomes a click.

The list of catchy headlines they use

If you run drip email campaigns you’ll notice how much they drop off over time, especially after the first week.

Yet, if you have an email with a good subject header, the open rate shoots up.

Close do not do boring headlines, ever.

img

Some of the emails I’ve received from Close over the last year.

A formula for writing introductions to keep the reader’s attention

Here is the top part of the blog post linked to that email.

img

This top section gets your attention by giving you an ‘Agree’ statement.

There’s a copywriting formula called ‘APP’ for writing introductions to catch your attention in 2 seconds.

APP stands for Agree, promise, preview.

First make a statement people will Agree with, which is often a problem statement. This catches their attention and stops them leaving.

Then, Promise them that this article will show them the solution by writing a brief sentence on what the article will give them for reading it.

Finally, give them a Preview (taster) that proves you’re for real.

The Close blog starts with a simple statement that anyone running any team probably encounters at one point or another. It’s easy to agree with.

See more on the APP formula here

The blog post plugs Close without making it an advert

Click here to see the original post

img

img

They talk about their own experience which is an easier post to write and provides proof.

See the full blog post: How to deal with a rebellious rep

Using a drip campaign tool like Intercom?

What has team Upscope learned from this?

  1. Within Intercom we have the ability to send sequences of emails to specific segments, we need to make sure we capture those segments in the sign up so we can send segment specific emails but… see next point.
  2. We can use the Close example to send valuable and experience based emails on a range of subjects because some stories are universally interesting.
  3. If the contents are good then it also feels good to write that catchy title and not feel like we’re making click bait.

Related: 27 Companies show you their best onboarding emails

Also see: 25 Companies Show you their SaaS pricing Models that Worked

Pardeep Kullar
Pardeep Kullar

Pardeep overlooks growth at Upscope and loves writing about SaaS companies, customer success and customer experience.