10 SaaS marketing automation templates you need in 2023

Marketing automation in SaaS has shown constant growth over the last decade, with no indication of slowing down, and why would it? Studies show that 80% of those using marketing automation saw an improvement in lead generation, and 77% noticed more conversions. 

As a SaaS company, marketing automation allows you to achieve more output with less input. Once implemented, a comprehensive marketing automation strategy will result in revenue growth, increased engagement, and the delivery of a far better experience. 

This blog will help you on your way to these benefits. We have 10 SaaS marketing automation templates that will drive growth, engagement, and customer loyalty in 2023. 

10 SaaS marketing automation templates you need in 2023

Marketing automation for SaaS companies can come in many different forms, below are 10 Ortto templates you can use today.

SaaS onboarding template

User onboarding is considered one of the most important parts of a SaaS company’s entire customer journey. If your business has a freemium or free trial model, then onboarding is seen as the determining factor for conversion. 

This SaaS onboarding journey will help you convert product trial users into taking the next step to turn into paying customers with a combination of emails and display retargeting.

The template created uses nine possible emails that a user will receive based on whether they are inactive or active (a custom product score is used to determine this). Needless to say, every SaaS company will differ, so you can customize the email delivery outline (below) to suit your product and audience. Here are the emails used in the template:

• Day 1: Welcome email with key setup step

• Day 2: Webinar invite based on the user being "inactive" or "active"

• Day 4: Case study of successful customers

• Day 7: Account summary of progress based on being active/inactive. The inactive summary focuses on what success can look like for that user.

• Day 10: Account review based on activity/inactivity. 

• Day 12: Expiry warning with progress bar encouraging them to subscribe

• Day 13: Expiry warning for next day

• Day 14: Select a plan after expiry

• Day 16: Trial feedback on why they didn't buy

This journey goes the extra step by also including the addition and removal of users to a display retargeting audience in Google, meaning that you can show display ads throughout the trial period to remind users about your product and brand.

This is a must-have journey when onboarding users with the aim of increasing conversions.

Journey

14 day SaaS trial

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Welcome email template

Adding a welcome email as part of your onboarding or lead nurture marketing automation strategy will benefit your SaaS company greatly. Not only will it help generate more revenue for your business but will also create trust and build a stronger customer relationship.

Ortto’s Welcome SaaS / App onboarding email template is designed to welcome new users to your app or platform and also nudge them to take the actions needed so they can set up their account, fast-tracking them to achieving their ‘aha moment’. 

Your customers need to see and experience the value of your app as quickly as possible, so use this template to showcase the three most important onboarding tasks that users need to do to achieve success with your product. For example, download the mobile app, sync data sources, and share a project with the team.

Nudge for action template

Sometimes your users just need a small push in the right direction, this can be especially helpful for new customers or the launch of a new product feature. Ortto’s nudge for action email templates can help drive a desired first action in your platform, for example, create the first invoice, invite your work colleagues to join, or send your first email campaign.

Feature release email template

Keep your customers up-to-date with the work and feature milestones your team is achieving each week, month, or quarter with this template. This simple email will play a key role in keeping your customers engaged and building brand trust along the way. 

The intention of the feature release email template is to communicate new feature releases, updates & bug fixes to your SaaS platform, which is made easier with the HTML tags provided in the template.

Email template

New feature releases template

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Set up the template for the cadence of your choice and build your target audience. This can be a great email to send to new customers to highlight the work your team achieves and also to sleeping or recently churned customers, specifically if you know through tagging that one of their pain points is now fixed.

Generate reviews after an NPS survey template

An NPS survey journey is high on the SaaS marketing automation priority list because it gives you a pulse on your customers’ opinions. 

Any SaaS business needs to know how customers really feel about their company or product. Are they going to recommend your product to their friends? Or worse, are they showing signs of churn risk? This information is key to your business’s longevity. 

The NPS customer journey can be set up to automatically send a feedback survey to customers who have reached specific milestones. For example, if a customer has consistently used your product for 90 days, achieved a new high in conversions, or finished migrating data from a legacy product over to your new platform.

The next step of this journey can lead to the Generate reviews after an NPS survey template, triggered once the customer has responded to the NPS survey. If the response score is a 9 or 10, then a personalized email is sent requesting them to leave a review on the review site of your choice, for example, G2Crowd or  TrustRadius. 

Setting up an NPS journey will be beneficial to understanding your customers perceptions of your product or brand, acting on the feedback, and creating a more fine-tuned customer experience. All while building a strong online brand presence on peer-review sites. 

Journey

Generate reviews after an NPS survey

Use this template

Lead nurture template

Lead nurture journeys are designed to provide your potential customers with helpful and relevant content, that will help gradually build their trust until they are ready to convert.

When building your lead nurture workflow, include lead qualification criteria in order to generate a lead hierarchy. This will help you prioritize the leads more likely to convert, where your sales team can work their magic.  

Let’s say your lead nurture customer journey categorizes leads as highly engaged (i.e qualified) once they complete an inquiry form on your website. Using Ortto, these qualified leads are then automatically routed to the sales team according to their location via a CRM like Pipedrive or Salesforce.

If the lead doesn’t fill out an inquiry form, they can then be taken on another route of the lead nurture journey as they may not be ready to purchase just yet. This workflow will target them with relevant ad messaging, and send helpful content in email that may get them to a point of conversion.

Lead capture templates

There are plenty of lead capture widgets to choose from, for example, a gated ebook form, book a sales demo or webinar registration. 

By using marketing automation software like Ortto, a trigger can be set up that will instantly send a follow-up email to new leads who filled out any form or capture widget. 

Let’s use the book a sales demo form as an example. Once your lead submits the form, an email will automatically send informing the lead that a representative will be in touch soon. At the same time, a Slack notification will be sent to the sales team. 

The goal with a lead capture journey is to make the experience as seamless as possible, leaving the potential customer feeling confident their form will be responded to quickly.  

Trial expiration reminder email template

The ideal trial customer will sign up for the trial, love the product immediately, and convert to a paid plan. Unfortunately, the most common outcome is the trialist will need one or two reminders that their trial period is coming to an end and they need to take the next step.

This trial expiration reminder email can sit in your trial onboarding journey, or work as a stand-alone, either way, it acts as a very useful tool to highlight your products USP’s once again, ask if they need additional time or have questions regarding your software.

Once implemented, you will find this nudge will help convert more of your trialist over the line into subscribing. 

Email

Trial expiration reminder

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Recurring reminder playbook template

This recurring reminder playbook is proof that marketing automation will make your work life easier and remove those tedious tasks. Playbooks automate messages at a regular cadence in order to nudge your customers to take action across the customer lifecycle. 

This specific template sends a recurring reminder on the last Friday of the month prompting internal team leaders to submit their monthly expenses. 

Ortto’s CDP will track whether the expenses have been submitted and if not, they will enter into the playbook. The reminder email is sent 3 days after their expenses submission is due. 

Playbook

Recurring reminder

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Reports and dashboards templates

Ortto’s template directory is complete with a large assortment of different SaaS-specific report metrics and dashboards to ensure you are able to analyze key metrics, campaigns, and marketing funnels. 

Creating these dashboards will help you monitor and track any trends specifically within your email subscribers, SMS performance, website analytics, or the payment software of your choice (Stripe, Recurly, Chargebee etc.) 

Dashboard

Dashboard templates

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Final word

Marketing automation for SaaS is made easy with Ortto’s range of SaaS-specific templates on offer. If you’re looking to save time and focus on the tasks that will drive growth then it's time to start automating. Try Ortto’s templates for yourself by signing in or signing up today.

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