With SaaS companies spending six instances extra on buying new shoppers than on retaining present ones, decreasing SaaS churn charge needs to be among the many high priorities of all companies. Electronic mail advertising and marketing may be an necessary device for immediately affecting buyer retention. This text examines sensible and efficient electronic mail advertising and marketing methods for decreasing churn and growing loyal prospects.
Key takeaways
Retention is more economical than acquisition. Onboarding, electronic mail assist, loyalty applications, and automatic messaging value considerably much less per buyer in comparison with buying new prospects.
An onboarding electronic mail sequence reduces early churn. Guiding subscribers via your product’s core options step-by-step builds confidence, drives engagement, and fosters long-term loyalty.
Proactive electronic mail advertising and marketing campaigns maintain shoppers engaged. Instructional content material, product updates, bug-fix notifications, and progress studies assist preserve prospects’ curiosity and reinforce the worth of your SaaS.
Churn prediction and suggestions matter. Monitoring your prospects’ conduct, operating win-back campaigns, and amassing common suggestions via in-email surveys allow you to determine dangers early and constantly enhance your product.
What’s SaaS buyer churn?
SaaS buyer churn happens when a buyer stops utilizing an organization’s merchandise by canceling or not renewing their subscription, switching to a competitor, or just not being lively — all indicators of buyer loss.
Why SaaS buyer churn is necessary:
attracting shoppers to SaaS is dear — in keeping with 2025 knowledge, SaaS corporations spend round $702 to accumulate one buyer;
even a 5% increase in buyer retention can elevate income by 25%-95%;
churn in SaaS companies has a direct impression on buyer acquisition value and buyer lifetime worth. These metrics, in flip, have an effect on your organization’s income and long-term viability.
Metric
Worth (2024-2025)
Avg SaaS value of buyer acquisition (CAC)
≈ $536-$700 per new buyer
Avg retention value
≈ $25-$100 per retained buyer
Acquisition vs retention value ratio
5-14 instances greater prices acquisition
Revenue increase from a 5% acquire in retention
+25% to +95%
Tips on how to calculate churn charge for SaaS
To measure the variety of prospects who go away a SaaS, use the client churn charge metric, which is the share of shoppers who cancel their recurring subscriptions over a given time period.
Churn charge system
First, select the interval you wish to examine — whether or not that’s a month, a yr, or a fiscal quarter. We advocate calculating all intervals to color a full image.
Churn charge = cancelled subscriptions / complete new prospects x 100%.
(Over a given time period)
For example, this Could, 5,600 prospects bought a subscription, and three,400 of them prolonged their subscription in June. You don’t embody all of your lively prospects, nor do you embody all those that unsubscribed out of your companies in June. Merely think about all those that subscribed to your service in Could.
What’s a wholesome buyer churn charge?
Now that you understand your outcomes, you most likely wish to know if you’re doing effectively and whether or not your churn charge is inside established norms. Properly, fortunately or not, there isn’t any such factor as common or good churn in SaaS, because it depends upon your business and in your firm’s age. Younger corporations in SaaS usually have the next shopper churn charge.
Listed here are a number of numbers to function pointers.
The common income churn charge for many companies is roughly 5%; nevertheless, 3% or decrease is a powerful benchmark to goal for.
Typical churn benchmarks:
month-to-month churn: Round 1% for SaaS general, though small and mid-sized corporations might even see charges nearer to five%;
annual churn: About 1%-2% for bigger SaaS manufacturers, whereas smaller companies would possibly expertise annual churn charges of 10%-15%.
In case your buyer churn charge outcomes aren’t precisely encouraging, it’s the right time to take a better take a look at how one can strengthen your retention methods. Your electronic mail advertising and marketing campaigns are amongst your strongest instruments for this.
Why electronic mail advertising and marketing works for decreasing churn
Electronic mail is a robust communication channel that lets you ship customized messages, share helpful info, and information prospects all through their complete journey — from acquisition to subscription and the continuing use of your SaaS product. To realize this, you’ll be able to leverage each advertising and marketing and transactional emails.
Right here’s how electronic mail advertising and marketing helps enhance retention:
direct communication with subscribers: Sending newsletters, promotional updates, or unique presents retains subscribers engaged together with your model and encourages them to remain lively in your platform, decreasing churn;
behavior-based personalization: Through the use of a buyer’s title, referencing their actions or wants, and offering tailor-made suggestions, you make every shopper really feel valued, strengthening belief and loyalty;
educating, re-engaging, and profitable again at-risk prospects: Electronic mail is an efficient strategy to share product updates, spotlight new options, and supply greatest practices that assist prospects get probably the most out of your SaaS.
Now, let’s dive into the e-mail advertising and marketing methods that work greatest for decreasing churn in SaaS.
Greatest electronic mail advertising and marketing methods to scale back churn
Electronic mail advertising and marketing can affect buyer churn at completely different levels of the client lifecycle, beginning with onboarding and ending with win-back emails, that are normally geared toward prospects about to go away your SaaS.
Forestall early churn with an onboarding electronic mail sequence
It’s essential to stroll new subscribers via your product after conversion and even throughout an prolonged trial. Your purpose is to scale back friction, spotlight key options, and construct confidence. Onboarding emails ought to thus be academic, supportive, and action-oriented, resulting in significant product engagement.
Tooltips and in-app steerage created with onboarding software program can complement your electronic mail sequence, and your first electronic mail is essential: It ought to ship quick worth by serving to prospects take their first small however significant step, resembling sending their first marketing campaign, customizing a template, or activating a core function. These fast wins create momentum and drive deeper product adoption.
(Supply: EmailLove)
For instance, Stripo beforehand used a basic welcome electronic mail that launched the workforce via photographs, a transparent call-to-action, and 5 useful hyperlinks. The e-mail additionally included interactive content material, a assist heart, and demo-related sources.
(Supply: Electronic mail from Stripo)
In the present day’s strategy has shifted from common product promotion to hands-on training. The present onboarding sequence consists of six messages that information subscribers step-by-step via Stripo’s core options:
steps 1-2: Account setup and safety (e.g., two-factor authentication) adopted by a walkthrough of the platform’s interface and foremost sections;
steps 3-4: Exploring electronic mail templates and studying the template editor — beginning with fundamental customizations and steadily transferring towards superior design components;
steps 5-6: Testing emails with built-in integrations and exporting them seamlessly.
(Supply: Electronic mail from Stripo)
In contrast to the earlier model of this sequence, which pushed weblog content material and upgrades, this up to date strategy is totally pushed by training and makes use of video and textual content guides to simplify the onboarding course of. Consequently, new subscribers expertise a smoother studying curve. Furthermore, automated branching ensures every recipient receives follow-up emails tailor-made to their exercise, thus enhancing buyer engagement and retention.
Our main purpose is to assist recipients get began and learn to interact with the platform. In the event that they don’t reply, we proceed with follow-ups, that are restricted to 5 emails over two weeks. As soon as subscribers full a high quality motion — like constructing a template or exporting one — they routinely transfer to the subsequent stage.
Oleksandr Dieiev,
Electronic mail Advertising and marketing Specialist at Stripo.
Many SaaS corporations embody movies of their welcome emails to exhibit how prospects can get probably the most out of their instruments. These emails can include a single video or perhaps a full electronic mail sequence with tutorials.
(Supply: Stripo template)
To make your onboarding sequence extra partaking, think about including:
interactive checklists to information shoppers step-by-step;
embedded video tutorials to elucidate key actions visually;
dynamic progress bars to create a way of accomplishment.
Stripo’s gamification modules permit the creation of all these interactive components with out coding, making it straightforward to create an onboarding expertise that drives activation and reduces churn.
Use proactive engagement campaigns
To maintain prospects lively and scale back churn, it’s necessary to transcend onboarding and proceed partaking your prospects with related, useful content material. Proactive electronic mail campaigns assist recipients get extra worth out of your product, keep knowledgeable, and construct long-term loyalty.
Instructional newsletters with greatest practices
Ship common newsletters that share sensible ideas, use circumstances, and greatest practices. This text helps prospects uncover new methods to learn out of your product and retains them engaged over time.
(Supply: Electronic mail from MacPaw)
Product updates and launch bulletins
Notify your prospects by way of electronic mail everytime you launch a brand new function or replace. Don’t underestimate the facility of launch notes, as shoppers usually examine them. Pair your announcement with a transparent handbook or video tutorial explaining how your new performance works so prospects can begin utilizing it immediately.
(Supply: Electronic mail from Stripo)
Customized suggestions based mostly on utilization knowledge
Leverage shopper knowledge to offer customized suggestions. For instance, spotlight underused options of your product or share fast ideas to assist prospects get extra out of your platform.
Present prospects how far they’ve come. Month-to-month or annual studies summarizing their exercise — just like YouTube’s “12 months in Assessment” or Grammarly’s weekly efficiency emails — remind your recipients of the worth they’re getting out of your product. This not solely reinforces engagement but in addition strengthens model loyalty.
(Supply: Electronic mail from Duolingo)
Let your prospects know when you’ve mounted a essential concern together with your product. A fast electronic mail replace builds belief by exhibiting that you just hearken to suggestions and act on it. Additionally, make it straightforward for shoppers to report bugs via electronic mail, chat, social media, or suggestions varieties — whichever channel they like.
(Supply: Electronic mail from Stripo)
Predict churn and ship win-back emails
Proactively figuring out at-risk prospects lets you act earlier than they go away. Behavioral triggers resembling a drop in logins, diminished exercise, or incomplete initiatives can sign potential churn. Monitor key engagement metrics resembling final login date, utilization frequency, and have adoption to know when a shopper has begun to disengage out of your service.
When you’ve recognized these prospects, attain out to them with well timed, related emails. Even a easy check-in message after every week or two of inactivity can remind prospects of your worth and finally convey them again.
Re-engage inactive prospects
If a shopper hasn’t logged in for every week or two, ship them a pleasant reminder electronic mail to convey them again. You can even ask these prospects immediately why they’ve been inactive — a brief in-email survey can yield helpful suggestions for enhancing each your product and your retention technique.
Ship “We Miss You” emails
For subscribers who’ve been inactive for an extended interval, ship customized “We Miss You” emails. Embrace a quick survey, provide useful sources, or spotlight key options that these prospects won’t have explored but. This reveals that you just care about their expertise and wish to assist them succeed.
(Supply: Electronic mail from YogaDownload)
Launch win-back campaigns
If a shopper cancels their subscription, don’t surrender. Set off a win-back sequence with focused presents, function updates, or particular reductions that deal with the explanations these prospects might have left. Properly-timed campaigns can efficiently re-engage churned prospects and switch them again into loyal prospects.
(Supply: EmailLove)
Deal with involuntary churn
Involuntary churn, which is usually attributable to failed funds or technical points, may be prevented with well timed communication and user-friendly processes.
Profit from automated fee reminder emails
Ship automated reminders to prospects whose subscriptions are about to run out or whose funds have failed. Embrace clear CTAs and frictionless fee hyperlinks to make it as straightforward as attainable for purchasers to resolve their points. Use phrases resembling “Don’t lose entry” or “Renew in only one click on” to impart a way of urgency with out being pushy.
(Supply: Electronic mail from Stripo)
Make assist simply accessible
At all times present clear and easy methods for shoppers to contact your assist workforce. Add a devoted assist block or hyperlink on the finish of each electronic mail and make sure that “Contact Assist” hyperlinks are seen in your web site and inside consumer accounts. Fast entry to help can forestall frustration and scale back the probability of churn.
Stripo Modules allow you to construct reusable blocks, resembling assist hyperlinks or fee reminders, and add them throughout a number of electronic mail templates, permitting you to save lots of time and preserve consistency.
Optimize transactional emails
Transactional emails, resembling fee confirmations, password resets, and billing notifications, will not be solely useful but in addition function alternatives to construct belief and engagement. Since these emails usually have excessive open and click-through charges, think about including delicate model components, upsell alternatives, or simply accessible suggestions choices to show a routine notification right into a retention device.
Acquire buyer suggestions and run retention surveys
Understanding why prospects go away and what retains them engaged is vital to decreasing churn. Suggestions emails and micro-surveys let you acquire actionable insights, enhance your product, and strengthen buyer loyalty.
Recurrently ask for suggestions
It isn’t sufficient for SaaS enterprise to solely ask for suggestions as soon as. Construct suggestions assortment into your ongoing communication by:
including a small “Suggestions” button or kind in each electronic mail;
monitoring your Internet Promoter Rating (NPS) to measure loyalty.
You can even automate suggestions requests via drip campaigns by sending surveys after every week, quarter, or yr of product use. This helps you notice points early and reply proactively.
Perceive what your prospects really want
As buyer wants evolve, your product ought to evolve with them. Use electronic mail surveys to study what your prospects count on and like. Then, select the communication channel they’re most snug with.
When you acquire this knowledge, observe up with prospects via thank-you emails, share how you intend to behave on their suggestions, and alter the place essential. Mix these insights with market analysis and competitor evaluation to make sure your product continues to satisfy and exceed your prospects’ expectations.
(Supply: EmailLove)
Stripo lets you add suggestions varieties and questionnaires in emails. These varieties generate 5 instances extra suggestions from shoppers than common varieties you submit in your website or social media, supplying you with entry to 5 instances extra info on the best way to enhance your companies.
Wrapping up
Lowering churn in SaaS is feasible in the event you create constant, significant communication that retains prospects engaged and supported at each stage of their journey. Electronic mail advertising and marketing, which options onboarding electronic mail sequence to proactive engagement, win-back campaigns, and feedback-driven enhancements, is without doubt one of the strongest instruments to construct lasting buyer relationships.
Choose one technique, take a look at it, and optimize it based mostly in your outcomes. Over time, these incremental enhancements is not going to solely scale back churn but in addition strengthen buyer loyalty and enhance lifetime worth.
Create efficient electronic mail campaigns to scale back SaaS churn charge with Stripo