AI & Automation
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
Last month, I was reviewing analytics for a B2B SaaS client's newsletter campaign. The metrics looked decent on paper—open rates hovering around industry average, decent subscriber growth through LinkedIn lead magnets. But something felt off when I dug deeper into the engagement data.
The problem wasn't the email platform or the subject lines. It was that we were following every "best practice" in the SaaS newsletter playbook: weekly product updates, feature announcements, generic "thought leadership" content, and those cringe-worthy "From the CEO" messages that nobody actually wants to read.
Here's what I discovered after working with multiple B2B SaaS clients: most SaaS newsletters fail because they're company newsletters pretending to be customer newsletters. They're built around what the company wants to say, not what subscribers actually care about.
In this playbook, you'll learn:
Why the "company news" approach kills engagement (and what to do instead)
The content framework I developed after testing across multiple SaaS clients
How to turn your newsletter into a customer acquisition channel, not just a retention tool
Real examples from B2B SaaS newsletters that actually convert readers into trial users
The LinkedIn distribution strategy that amplifies newsletter content for lead generation
If you're struggling to create SaaS newsletter content that people actually want to read, this is based on real experiments across multiple SaaS marketing projects, not generic advice.
Industry Reality
What every SaaS founder thinks works
Walk into any SaaS marketing meeting, and you'll hear the same newsletter strategy repeated like gospel. The conventional wisdom goes something like this:
The Standard SaaS Newsletter Formula:
Product Updates: "Here's what we shipped this month"
Feature Announcements: "Introducing our new integration with..."
Company News: "We raised Series A" or "We're hiring"
Customer Spotlights: Generic case studies without real insights
Industry Thought Leadership: Recycled content about "the future of SaaS"
This approach exists because most SaaS companies treat newsletters like internal communication tools. Marketing teams default to talking about what they know best—their own product. It's easy content to create because you don't need to research or think deeply about customer problems.
The problem? Nobody subscribes to learn about your company. They subscribe to solve their problems, learn new skills, or stay informed about their industry. When you lead with product features instead of customer value, you're essentially asking people to care about your business more than their own.
Even worse, this approach creates a content treadmill. You need constant product updates to fill newsletters, which means your content calendar is tied to your development schedule, not customer needs. The result? Boring newsletters that people tolerate rather than anticipate.
What we need is a completely different approach—one that treats your newsletter as a growth channel, not a company bulletin board.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The reality of this problem hit me when I was working on a complete website revamp for a B2B SaaS client. They had all the standard marketing assets—beautiful landing pages, feature comparison charts, detailed product tours. But their newsletter was essentially a monthly "what we've been up to" update that felt more like a company all-hands meeting than valuable content.
The client came to me because their signup conversion was solid, but trial-to-paid conversion was struggling. When I analyzed their customer journey, I found a gap: people were signing up based on the marketing promise, but weren't getting enough value during the trial to stick around.
That's when I realized the newsletter could bridge this gap—but only if we completely changed the content strategy. Instead of talking about features, we needed to focus on helping users succeed with the product and solve broader business problems.
The client was hesitant at first. "But how will people know about our new features?" they asked. This revealed the core misconception: they thought newsletters were for announcing things to customers, not for building relationships and demonstrating ongoing value.
I proposed an experiment. Instead of our traditional company-focused newsletter, what if we created content that made subscribers smarter about their industry, regardless of whether they used our product? What if we shared insights from other successful customers (without making it about us), industry trends we were seeing, and tactical advice for common challenges?
The hesitation was real. This approach meant more work—we couldn't just copy-paste product updates anymore. We'd need to interview customers, research industry trends, and create genuinely helpful content. But that's exactly why most SaaS companies don't do it, and why it works when you commit to it.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Here's the content framework I developed after testing this approach across multiple B2B SaaS clients:
The 70-20-10 Newsletter Content Mix:
70% - Customer Success Content: This is content that helps subscribers succeed, regardless of whether they use your product. For a project management SaaS, this might be "How high-performing teams run weekly reviews" or "The 3 planning mistakes that kill Q4 execution." The key is sharing insights that come from working with your customers, not generic industry advice.
20% - Industry Intelligence: Share trends, data, and observations that only you can provide because of your unique position. If you work with 500+ marketing teams, you can share insights about what's working in marketing right now. If you serve e-commerce brands, you can discuss emerging trends in online retail. This positions you as an insider, not just a vendor.
10% - Product Context: When you do mention your product, frame it as "here's how we solve this problem" rather than "here's what we built." Instead of "We added a new integration with Slack," try "Why we built our Slack integration (and how it changes team communication)."
The Content Sourcing System:
The biggest challenge with this approach is generating enough quality content consistently. Here's the system I developed:
Customer Interview Pipeline: Schedule monthly 15-minute conversations with successful customers. Ask about their biggest challenges, what's working, and industry trends they're seeing. This gives you authentic insights and real stories to share.
Internal Knowledge Mining: Your customer success team, sales team, and support team interact with customers daily. Create a simple system for capturing interesting patterns, common questions, and success stories from these interactions.
Data-Driven Insights: Look at your product analytics differently. Instead of "our users do X," frame it as "successful teams do X." If you notice that teams who use a specific feature have higher retention, share that insight as industry intelligence.
The distribution amplification I learned from LinkedIn audience building was crucial. Every newsletter piece becomes LinkedIn content, podcast talking points, and sales conversation starters. This multiplies the value of your content creation effort.
Content Sourcing
Mine insights from customer interactions and product data instead of making up generic advice
Personal Touch
Write newsletters as if they're coming from a person solving real problems, not a company promoting features
Distribution System
Repurpose newsletter content across LinkedIn, sales conversations, and customer onboarding materials
Measurement Focus
Track trial activation and customer success metrics, not just open rates and click-through rates
The shift in engagement was immediate and measurable. Instead of the typical SaaS newsletter metrics (15-20% open rates, 2-3% click rates), we started seeing:
Engagement Improvements: Open rates increased to 35-40% because subject lines focused on solving problems rather than announcing features. More importantly, we started getting replies—actual conversations with subscribers about their challenges and successes.
Business Impact: The newsletter became a legitimate customer acquisition channel. Trial users who engaged with newsletter content showed 40% higher trial-to-paid conversion rates. The content also became a valuable sales asset—our sales team started forwarding specific newsletter issues to prospects as examples of ongoing value.
Content Multiplication Effect: Each newsletter issue generated 3-4 LinkedIn posts, conversation starters for customer calls, and content for sales follow-ups. This amplified the ROI of content creation significantly.
But the most surprising result was internal alignment. When the newsletter focused on customer success rather than company updates, it forced the entire team to think more deeply about customer value. Product decisions started being framed in terms of customer outcomes, not just feature completion.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
The biggest lesson: newsletters are relationship-building tools, not announcement platforms. When you shift from "here's what we did" to "here's what we learned that can help you," everything changes.
Key insights from multiple implementations:
Customer insights beat product features every time - Sharing what you learn from successful customers is infinitely more valuable than listing new features
Personal voice matters more than company voice - Newsletters should feel like they're coming from a real person who understands subscriber challenges
Distribution amplifies content value - Every newsletter should be designed to work across multiple channels, not just email
Internal knowledge is your competitive advantage - You have unique insights from working with customers that competitors can't replicate
Consistency beats perfection - Better to send helpful content regularly than perfect content sporadically
The approach doesn't work if you're not genuinely committed to customer success. You can't fake caring about subscriber value—it shows in the content quality and engagement rates. But when you authentically focus on helping subscribers succeed, the business results follow naturally.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
Focus on trial user success: Create content that helps trial users get value from your product faster. Share setup guides, best practices from successful customers, and common implementation mistakes to avoid.
Leverage customer success insights: Your CS team knows exactly what makes customers successful. Turn these insights into newsletter content that positions your SaaS as the expert guide, not just the tool.
Build email-to-trial funnels: Include specific calls-to-action that move newsletter subscribers into trial accounts with context about why they should try specific features.
For your Ecommerce store
Create customer journey content: Map newsletter content to different stages of the customer lifecycle, from awareness to post-purchase success and expansion opportunities.
Use purchase behavior insights: Share trends about what successful e-commerce brands are doing, based on data from your customer base or industry observations.
Focus on business growth: Create content that helps e-commerce owners increase revenue, reduce costs, or improve operations, with your platform as the enabler.