Background: A B2B SaaS provider relied heavily on email marketing to nurture leads and retain customers. Their weekly newsletter shared case studies, feature updates, and opinion pieces. Over a six-month period, email open rates dropped by half and click-throughs declined even more. Feedback was minimal, and marketing ROI fell off a cliff.
Workaround
The marketing team tried increasing frequency—sending multiple campaigns per week, experimenting with send times, and tweaking subject lines. They also ran one-off promotions to re-engage users. However, these efforts only resulted in increased unsubscribe rates and flagged emails.
- Symptom: Open and click-through rates were steadily declining. Engagement was down and complaints were up.
- Workaround applied: More frequent, more aggressive emailing.
Deeper Analysis
A review of email data showed no segmentation in the audience list. Long-time customers, new sign-ups, and trial users all received the same generic newsletter. Many emails were flagged by spam filters due to lack of authentication protocols and poor domain reputation. Feedback surveys revealed the content wasn’t relevant or timely.
- Cause: Poor audience segmentation and deliverability issues.
Root Cause
An outdated CRM with basic mailing list functionality and no clear owner of email performance KPIs. Content planning was done reactively, based on internal priorities, not audience needs.
- Root Cause: No clear owner of KPI measures, no audience need research t drive content planning and an out of date CRM with poor functionality – a perfect storm!
Solution
They moved to a modern marketing automation platform with smart segmentation and behavioural triggers. The team reworked their content calendar around user journeys and implemented proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC).
- Solution: New content calendar based on user journeys and a new modern marketing automation platform with segmentation.
Outcome
Within two months, open rates rose 45%, and user feedback became positive. New leads received tailored onboarding content, while long-term customers were offered relevant product tips and advanced usage guides. Engagement and pipeline value rebounded.
