How Pocket sends onboarding email
An email every day
I see something cool.
I put it in my Pocket.
Go find more cool things.
Pocket is one of my very favorite products. It is on my Mount Rushmore of SaaS tools I love, alongside Trello, Buffer, and MailChimp. So yes, I was more than happy — thrilled even — to get into the details of how they send email to new users. I’ve been a Pocket user for many years, so I started a brand new account just to test the first few days of email. Here is what I found after signing up for an account last fall.
How often Pocket sends email to new users
The first 35 days
Total: 38 emails sent, including the email confirmation
My best guess at Pocket’s onboarding strategy
Thankfully, they made the “guessing” part easy for me. My guess: They send an email every day!
As you’ll see below, these daily emails are “Pocket Hits” emails, which provide a daily roundup of the best stories saved on Pocket. The emails are triggers back into the product. In fact, they almost serve as an extension of the product since all the links below each article ask you to “Save to Pocket,” which ends up triggering a direct action in the app. Here’s what happens if you click on one of the links:
If you want to read the article, you have to go into Pocket. It’s like the most product-oriented newsletter ever, with Pocket at its core. It drives user behavior, it delivers value … it does so many things right, no wonder they send you one every day!
As you’ll see below, there were a couple other emails beyond the mold of Pocket Hits. These were triggered by behavior in the app, specifically when I saved an article that a ton of other people had saved.
Learnings
- Pocket sends you an email every day.
- Every day!
- The emails serve as a daily newsletter but with a very Pocket-ized experience. Each email has about seven stories in it, all with a “Save to Pocket” link instead of a “click to read”
- I unsubscribed to the emails after awhile, but I assume they will keep sending you a daily one, every day, forever
- The only product marketing emails I got were on Day One with the “Get the App” welcome email, which linked to their mobile app landing page
- Pocket uses a noreply@ address for its Pocket Hits emails and a hello@ address for others
3 onboarding email tips and takeaways from Pocket
- Don’t be afraid to send email every day
- Treat email like an extension of your product
- Be clear about your goals. Product usage is clearly a big one for Pocket
Here are all the onboarding emails (and beyond) that Pocket sends
Here’s more on each email that I received from Pocket 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. 😊
(Oh, and I’m not including all 38 of the emails below because, well, that’s a lot, and the format of the Pocket Hits email is all the same.)
Confirmation email
Sent minutes after I signed up.
Subject: Confirm your email
From: Pocket, noreply@getpocket.com
First email
Sent immediately after I confirmed my email.
Subject: Welcome to Pocket!
From: Pocket, getstarted@getpocket.com
Second email
Sent one day after I signed up.
Subject: The Courage to be Yourself. Is Health Care a Right? Betting on AI.
From: Pocket Hits, noreply@getpocket.com
Third, Fourth, Fifth, etc. email
Sent each day.
Subject: (various)
From: Pocket Hits, noreply@getpocket.com
Tenth email
Sent 10 days after I signed up.
Subject: You saved one of the most popular articles in Pocket this month!
From: Pocket, hello@getpocket.com
Worth noting
Pocket has found a way to monetize these emails by including a sponsor in each day’s send. Imagine the size of that potential audience: daily email sent to subscribed users (Pocket has 20+ million total users). That must be very appealing for advertisers!
Here’s what it looked like when Delta sponsored.
There’s also the chance to pay for “sponsored content” in the body of the email.
Very cool!
Your thoughts
If you have some thoughts or questions about Pocket’s onboarding flow, I’d love to hear them.
- What do you think of sending a daily email by default? Brilliant? Brave?
- What are your emotions about noreply@ addresses?
Add a response here on Medium.
Highlight any favorite pieces or parts.
Or clap along to help surface this story to others. 👏
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…….
