FreshBooks Onboarding Email Series Pt.2

The FreshBooks free trial is 30-days long and covers plenty of ground. The first 15 days are profiled in Part 1, and the second 15-day stretch is explored below.

Series Overview

The second half of the FreshBooks free trial onboarding email series spanned 15 days and included four onboarding emails plus two winback messages. In comparison, FreshBooks sent 10 emails in the first 15 days.

Here is the cadence for days 16–31:

And to review, here is the schedule from Part 1:

Day 19: Use Case

Subject Line: And the Award for Best Invoice Goes to…You

Sender Name: Rachel Guloien, FreshBooks

Send Time: Day 19, 8:53 AM CST

Objective/Content: Talk about more ways to make invoicing easy

CTA: Try them on an invoice

Strengths:

FreshBooks onboarding emails show a good evolution of the customer journey, even though they are just time-based. Whereas in the first half of the onboarding series FreshBooks focused on making the first invoice, they’ve now moved on to optimizing invoices. Instead of “make your first invoice” it’s “are you ready to make your next invoice your best one yet?”

They also use bold headlines in a simple but very effective way. Emails gotta be scannable.

What to learn from it:

• The information and benefits included in the onboarding emails should evolve as the trial progresses. Consider what a user needs to know to get started vs. use the product more effectively

• Make sure emails are scannable

Day 22: CTA

Subject Line: Have You Seen the Difference FreshBooks Makes?

Sender Name: FreshBooks

Send Time: Day 22, 8:51 AM CST

Objective/Content: Encourage users to select a plan

CTA: Select a Plan

Strengths:

As the end of the free trial approaches, FreshBooks is starting to draw more attention to selecting a paid plan. In this email, they outline some of the benefits of the service before asking trial users to select a plan.

Since there are still nine days left, though, they’re keeping it light and breezy. Nothing too urgent yet. Underneath the CTA button, they’ve linked additional resources. This email plants the seed of the nearing end in the mind of the user.

What to learn from it:

• Plant the seed about the end of the trial before it’s too close to the cutoff date

• Support your ask with benefits and resources

Day 24: Offer

Subject Line: Same Great Features, Even Better Price

Sender Name: FreshBooks

Send Time: Day 24, 10:04 AM CST

Objective/Content: Offer a discount for selecting a higher tiered plan

CTA: Upgrade Now

Strengths:

Similarly to monday.com, FreshBooks offers free trial users a discount with a twist. While monday offered a discount on annual plans, FreshBooks offers 30% off their two higher-tiered plans. Perhaps the hope is that a user will think “hey, why not get the beefed-up version for the same price I was going to pay for Lite” and then eventually become hooked on the bonus features and continue with the more expensive plan. FreshBooks also sweetened the deal by adding that users don’t have to pay until the trial is up (which is only a few days away).

It’s also convenient that the Plus plan is the most popular, complete with the confetti explosion. A trial user will see the discount for the pricier plans but think “I don’t need THE most expensive one. I’ll take the middle of the road/the cheaper of the more expensive.”

What to learn from it:

• Use discounts to move people towards pricier plans, either at a higher tier or for a longer commitment

Want to know when to send SaaS emails and what to say?

I’ve got 30+ free email templates in the SaaS Essential Email Series Templates guide here.