How Intercom sends onboarding email
Plain-text emails, a focus on demos, and lots of followup
How did Intercom
get into every tool
I purchase? Magic.
Intercom is a world-class customer communication tool with a reputation for being customer-centric to the extreme. Even more, they built the tool that powers thousands of onboarding drip campaigns all over the Internet. If anyone knows how to put together a solid onboarding campaign, it would be them!
With that in mind, I started an Intercom trial to see how they approach messaging for their new users. Here is what I received when I signed up for an Intercom trial last fall.
How often Intercom sends email to new users
The first 35 days
Total: Six emails sent, two during the trial, including a welcome email
My best guess at Intercom’s onboarding strategy
Intercom sends you a welcome email on Day One and a followup email on Day Two. And then crickets. What I might assume from this is that a) those first two days are absolutely critical in the success of a trialist like me, and b) if I never open an email or use the product during the trial, they can likely predict that I’ll not convert. This latter point is assuming Intercom’s onboarding emails are smart enough to track my activity and segment me into custom messaging (or, lack of messaging). If I, an inactive person, get very few emails, then someone else, who’s active, may hear from Intercom many more times during the trial.
Despite all this, I did convert. I forgot to cancel before my trial ended. After reaching out to support (who were kind enough to correct my error), I became a churned customer … a churned customer who then received lots of email! Intercom sends email to this segment of customers on at least a weekly basis and sometimes more often if there’s a product launch or announcement.
Learnings
- Intercom only sends two emails during a customer’s trial, and those are sent on the customer’s first two days
- First thing you may notice in the design: the emails are not designed. They’re all plain-text(ish)! (I believe it’s an HTML email designed to look like plain text)
- The content of the onboarding emails is heavily focused on getting customers to view Intercom’s demo videos.
- I inadvertently let my trial finish before canceling, and I was automatically placed on a paid plan and my credit card charged (all my fault, by the way). I reached out to support as soon as I noticed, and they were very kind to refund me.
- It wasn’t until after I canceled that I started receiving the other email from Intercom (days 20 and beyond). My best guess is they have a dormant/re-engage list to help nurture leads like me who have churned in the past.
- Day 20, 27, and 34 from the above chart are all Mondays.
- The primary content of the re-engagement campaigns appear to be webinars and product announcements. I’m still getting email about attending webinars beyond this 35-day window.
3 onboarding email tips and takeaways from Intercom
- Link your onboarding emails to general hub pages (/demos, /webinars, etc) rather than specific resources
- The most critical days to send onboarding emails are the first two days (and maybe the rest of a person’s trial doesn’t matter?)
- Keep emailing people who quit your product.
Here are all the onboarding emails (and beyond) that Intercom sends
Here’s more on each email that I received from Intercom during those 35 days. Caveat: I’m sure tons has changed and will change with their onboarding emails, so your mileage may vary when you sign up and see for yourself. 😊
First email
Sent minutes after I signed up.
Subject: Welcome to Intercom
From: Ruairi from Intercom, ruairi@intercom.io
Second email
Sent the day after I signed up
Subject: Learn how to get more from Intercom in 15 minutes
From: Ruairi from Intercom, ruairi@intercom.io
Third email
Sent 20 days after I signed up
Subject: Operator: The bot for better customer support
From: Des from Intercom, des@intercom.io
Fourth email
Sent 27 days after I signed up
Subject: kevan, come to our Auto Messages webinar!
From: Phil from Intercom, phil@intercom.io
Fifth email
Sent 31 days after I signed up
Subject: kevan! Do so much more with your messaging
From: Phil from Intercom, phil@intercom.io
Sixth email
Sent 34 days after I signed up
Subject: Last chance to register for our Auto Messages webinar
From: Phil from Intercom, phil@intercom.io
Worth noting
After my Intercom subscription ended, I still receive email from Intercom. Lots. This one in particular stood out to me as a neat example of how to stay in touch with former customers to let them know what you’re doing.
The “we’re adding awesome new features” link goes to a blog post that is a couple months old.
The “we ship new changes to Intercom almost every day” links to their product changelog.
Very cool!
Your thoughts
If you have some thoughts or questions about Intercom’s onboarding flow, I’d love to hear them.
- What do you think of only sending two emails during someone’s trial?
- Do you keep emailing customers after they churn? Do you do it weekly, like Intercom?
Add a response here on Medium.
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Thank you!
Want to see more onboarding email breakdowns? Check out the rest of Season One of the series, featuring onboarding campaigns from …
👉 👉 Intercom ……. Trello ……. Extra.ai ……. Brandless ……. Fullstory ……. Wistia ……. MixMax ……. Grammarly ……. Dribbble ……. Hubspot ……. Pocket ……. Treehouse ……. CBS All Access…….
