Your In-Depth Guide to Crafting Effective Product Launch Emails

Subject line: Ready for a new product launch?
Preview text: Here’s your email campaign plan 

Hi [First Name], 

If you’re gearing toward a new product announcement, there’s a high chance a launch email campaign is on your roadmap. From pre-launch to post-launch, email sequences are the foundation of a long and prosperous product lifecycle. 

We’re about to walk you through everything you need to know to build product launch emails that win opens, encourage engagement, and bring more users to [your product name]. 

We’ll inspire you with strategic tips, best practices, email examples, and expert advice you can apply to your next product launch. 

Read on.

Simply put, a product launch email is an announcement sent to users about a new product or a feature. Most of the time, they are straightforward. They tell people that something new has come along, make customers aware of this new feature, and get interested users to try it out.

However, product launch email can also differ based on what is being launched, and what the launch plan is. Here are some examples of the various spins you can put on the product launch email.

Pre-release emails: These are teaser emails that let your customers know that something new is coming. They’re basically teasers. 

Promotional emails: Promotional emails try to entice customers to convert or upgrade along with the release of the new product, such as a discount or a special offer. 

Launch event invitation: These are emails that invite users to a special launch event that will release the new product or feature. 

Despite the differences, the goal is the same: to get customers excited about the new launch from you, and get them to try it out. It’s all about increasing product adoption. So the question now is, how do you create a good product launch email that funnels users from the inbox to your product? 

There are many moving parts for a successful product launch email campaign —from planning and strategizing to copy and design. Each member of your team is going to be a key player in a successful launch, so make sure to outline everyone’s roles and responsibilities on time.

The key assets to prepare for your email campaign: 

• A pre-launch email sequence 

• A product launch email 

• A post-launch email sequence 

Keep in mind that your email campaign needs just as much thought as your actual product or feature release. Create a timeline, and make sure your entire team is aligned with your product launch roadmap. 

This could be the email that announces a completely new product, or it could be an announcement of a new core feature, major redesign, or another important product update.

We reached out to Gabriela Kustner, Sr. Manager of Content and Distribution at Customer.io, for her insights on how to structure an effective product launch email. 

Keep your email concise, and keep in mind that your value proposition needs to be clear and immediately understandable. 

Also, consider the timing of your launch email. You’ll want to align it with your product release date, especially if you’re going to run a cross-channel campaign.

Your launch email is likely not going to sit in isolation, so let’s take a deeper look into the structure of pre-launch and post-launch email sequences.

Sending too few emails beforehand to hype up the product can dampen the product launch. At the same time, failing to send a follow up email can crush the momentum you get on launch day.  

Here’s what Gabriela Kustner advises for crafting effective pre-launch and post-launch campaigns. 

As part of a post-launch campaign, Gabriela suggests sending behavior-based emails, as well as leveraging customer feedback.

“Use email segmentation so you’re only emailing customers who haven’t completed the desired action in the product. And don’t forget that post-launch, you want to be gathering customers’ feedback and reactions. This is one of the most important things. Create that virtuous cycle of leveraging customer feedback.” 

– Gabriela Kustner, Sr. Manager, Content & Distribution at Customer.io

Creating feedback loops will help you to regularly check a pulse on user sentiment and keep on improving both your email campaigns and the product itself for overall success.

When it comes to successful product launch emails, Dave Rodenbaugh, Founder of Recapture.io, also believes that sending one launch email won’t have the same impact as a whole sequence.

You want this whole campaign to be highly successful, but a lot can go wrong. That’s why it’s of the utmost importance to prepare upfront and avoid any mistakes.

Here’s what Gabriela Kustner suggests not to do in order to get the most out of your campaigns. 

The email is going to be a starting point while the final goal is to encourage people to go into your product and check it out for themselves. So make sure that the sender is someone your email subscribers are already familiar with—seeing a familiar name in their inbox can incentivize people to click through.

It could also be a good idea to have this email come from your CEO or founder to give it more weight. And, of course, ensure there’s a simple, one-click reply option. 

Furthermore, Gabriela points out another common mistake you need to avoid.  

Here, the importance of your value proposition enters the scene once again. Avoid making it too vague or too technical. Set clear expectations up front, especially about the core features, and then deliver on your promise.    

And last but not least, don’t overwhelm your email readers with too much information, too many visuals, or—as Gabriela emphasizes—too many CTAs.  

Once your customers are in the product, you can use various types of in-app messages to point them in the right direction and guide them through the next steps. For example, you can use Chameleon to create Tooltips for additional in-line information or in-product Launchers that link to relevant help docs and videos.

When you’ve got the structure of your campaign in place, you can start focussing on writing the email that’s going to ensure buy-in from everyone on your list. Let’s get into it.

We’ll run you through the basics of building product launch emails that convert.

If you’re already relying on email marketing to acquire and retain users, you know how important subject lines and preview text are. You need to stand out in overcrowded inboxes and grab people’s attention in a split second.

A few relevant statistics to keep in mind: 

• Over 60% of email recipients decide on opening an email going from the subject line 

• Personalized subject lines with a first name win just a 3% higher CTR

• Emails with emojis in their subject lines have a near 40% average open rates

• 40 characters make up the ideal subject line length to be inclusive of mobile users

What can we learn from these stats? First of all, subject lines matter. Keep them at 40 characters and consider adding emojis if your brand style allows. For instance, take a look at this subject line from Wistia.

The copy is short and straight to the point. This is your last chance to save your spot on something. What is it exactly? It prompts the reader to find out more, and urges them to not miss out with the ‘Last Chance’. The red light emoji emphasizes this. 

Also, users today need personalization beyond their name. This comes down to proper user segmentation.

You can use an online tool like Omnisend to test email subject lines and ensure you find the optimal one for your users before you send out your next product launch email.

First thing’s first, your announcement email needs to be concise and sugar-free. Your goal is to spark enough curiosity to win an informed click-through to your product. 

As Gabriela Kustner points out:

It can be hard to switch perspectives, but try walking in your audience’s shoes to better understand their goals and motivations as they interact with your emails.  

Lindsey Bly, Head of Marketing at Scribe, suggests spending time getting to know your target audience upfront, and how this particular product or feature solves their problems.

Another piece of advice regarding the email body content comes from Dominick Costantino, Content Creator at 7Shifts.

To show rather than just tell, consider including: 

• Relevant images and product screenshots

• Embedded videos, or links to videos with the play button ▶️

• White space to give your reader time to process information

• Clear calls-to-action

Keep everything on-brand, but don’t be afraid to adopt a slightly different tone to help differentiate the importance of this product launch. 

Earlier, we mentioned that users are wiser to personalize these days. Ensure your product launch campaign goes beyond your target audience’s first names and business names. 

Segment your audience, and provide a tailored email flow that’s specific to each segment’s needs. The way you segment and adjust emails will depend on your audience, as well as on your new product.

For example, your new users might need more information than your existing users, especially if those are your power users. Or you might want to structure the email differently for active users and those who haven’t been using your product for months. 

A few segmentation strategies to consider: 

• Active vs. inactive users

• New vs. existing users vs. power users

• Free plan customers vs. paid plan customers

• Job-to-be-done requirements vs. job role specifics

• NPS survey replies: Detractors vs. Passives vs. Promoters 

Remember, even small changes in copy can make your emails speak more clearly to your target segment and help you increase open rates and click rates. 

At the end of the day, you won’t know how your email will perform until you put it out there. So test it. You can A/B test everything, from copy to images to CTA buttons. 

Take subject lines for example. Should you take a formal tone, or an informal tone? Should you go for a straightforward approach, or try to hook the reader? Rule out uncertainties about what works and what doesn’t by looking at how your email performs depending on certain changes made. 

With metrics as your evidence, you can learn what prompts your users to open your email, and click on those buttons. Speaking of metrics, let’s talk more about that.  

From the moment you click “Send”, you can start measuring the success of your campaign. To make sure you’re tracking the right metrics, define what the success looks like and set clear goals. 

Here's valuable advice from Gabriela Kustner.

Gabriela recommends linking that final step to the conversion goal in your email campaign, and she continues to explain the importance of the metrics from intermediary steps.

Here are some questions that Gabriela suggests taking into consideration:    

• Is your open rate low? Maybe your subject line needs work.

• Is no one clicking on the CTA? It’s possible the design of your email isn't compelling enough.

• Is no one staying in the product after clicking the CTA? There may be more product work to be done. 

As she continues to explain, another way of looking at this is through the lens of business value—open rates and click rates are interesting, but they don’t create business value. 

To understand the value your users are getting from your product, you can start by asking them directly. This way, you’ll collect valuable feedback at the moment of interaction with your product. 

You can also keep an eye on your product analytics data to identify user behavior patterns and learn from the insights.

Now, we’d like to present to you 11 real life examples of product launch emails, many of them straight from our own inboxes, and describe what we love about them. 

Of all the product launch email examples, this particular announcement email wins our hearts. The team at Loom did their research and showed up. They win pride of place for using an emoji in their subject line while addressing user needs with the copy. 

What’s great about this email 

• It’s straight to the point, with ‘New in Loom.’

• The email announcement is bright cheerful, and with just the right amount of copy, whitespace, and visual content, including images, GIFs, and CTAs. 

• The entire piece is on-brand, and the visuals celebrate the feature announcement. 🎉

Next up, we’ve got Calendly and their launch of Meeting Polls. It’s a great product launch email for its simplicity and being so concise.

What’s great about this email 

• The thread of Calendly blue is a nice touch throughout

• The CTAs are clear while appealing to those that want more info or those that are ready to dive right in. 

• The copy clearly communicates the perks of the new product for the user.

Granted, this product launch announcement for the Interface Designer from Airtable is pretty text-heavy. However, it tells the reader everything they need to know in just two paragraphs. 

What’s great about this email 

• The copy is short and to the point. It introduces Interface Designer. That’s all it needs to do. 

• It clearly communicates expectations, that it’s a beta feature. 

There’s a lot going on in there, but this email about Figma Plugins is surprisingly easy to understand, even as it describes all of these separate items. That’s because the email organizes information well with a good intro paragraph and sections that group different plugins depending on the context. 

What’s great about this email 

• It divides the information into different sections, making it easier to read. 

• It provides concrete examples of what plugins users can expect, and gives them the option of checking out those separate plugins right away. 

Next, we have this brief yet impactful email from Wistia. The Subject line, We’re launching something big effectively entices readers to open the email. It’s a great opening, and from there it gets better. With a beautiful graphic the email effectively guides readers to the CTA. 

What’s great about this email 

• From the start, Wistia captures the reader’s attention with striking colors. 

• The email communicates just the right amount of information needed. 

• It creates curiosity by inviting users to find out about their ‘super exciting news’.

This Copymatic’s email is quite text heavy, but it’s also very effective in delivering just the right amount of information, while keeping things enjoyable to read. 

What’s great about this email 

• This email starts off with a bang and catches the attention of the reader with ‘1 BILLION’. A nice touch to celebrate the milestone. 

• It announces the new features, Project Folders, and then clearly shows with an image how to use it. Excellent use of a launch email to boost feature adoption. 

The Hotjar’s Trends release email is simple. It has a picture, text to explain what it is, and one button to let people learn more. 

What’s great about this email: 

• The subject line, ‘NEW! Explore and understand your metrics with Trends’, instantly catches the reader’s eye with the big and bold NEW.  

• Right off the bat, it starts with an image that describes the new feature being announced, giving the reader an idea of what it is about. 

Here is Trello’s announcement of Butler, their new automation feature. When it comes to automation, it can be tricky to explain concretely what exactly it does. What does it automate? What do you have to do? Trello sums it up nicely with the right mix of text and an image. 

What’s great about this email 

• The subject line, ‘Save time on tedious tasks’ starts by addressing a pain point and providing a solution, all within a short phrase. 

• While it’s not the exact image of the brand new feature in action, Trello still manages to effectively communicate what Butler can do with a graphic asset.

‘Do more with Typeform.’ This is an excellent example of saying only what needs to be said, but also delivering a great reading experience. It’s short, the copy is very well thought out, and it has the right mix of text and graphics. 

What’s great about this email 

• First, Typeform doesn’t waste any time. It clearly says what’s new with their latest update, and leads the reader to learn more, all within two short sentences.  

• The image gives a good view of what the new feature is. 

• If the reader wants to find out more within the email, for each unique update item there’s a simple block with an informative image and concise description. 

Here, Dropbox achieves so much in so little. Within four sentences and a CTA, Dropbox tells the user here that the beta is ready, lets them know what Paper is about, directs people to get started, and then provides a resource for people who want to know more. This is exactly the kind of efficiency you need for product launch emails. 

What’s great about this email 

• It’s simple. It tells the reader that the new product is ready to use, and that they can start using it via the CTA button. That’s it. 

• It’s personalized. The email addresses the reader by their name in the body. 

• Instead of clogging up the email with text, it directs readers to where they can get comprehensive information about Dropbox Paper. 

Lastly, we’d like to show you what we recently did for a product launch email. Behold, the HelpBar announcement. 

This email was sent out as a part of our Series A funding announcement. Funding rounds are a great way to drum up buzz, so this was the perfect opportunity to launch a new, completely free product. 

What we did right with this email

• We devised a great campaign by pairing it with big news (the funding announcement) 

• We showcased what the product is with an image 

• We told concisely what HelpBar is, how it works, how much it costs (free!), where it is at (beta), and how people can get it, all within three short paragraphs. 

That’s a wrap on building a successful product launch emails. Hopefully, you’ve found this guide useful and will consider borrowing from it for your product or feature launches. 

We’ll close out by reminding you to think beyond email and include your product as an effective channel for the launch announcements, too. Your users are already engaging with it, so running an accompanying in-product campaign can be a great way to meet them where they are.

Besides that, consider placing announcement banners on your website, adding the announcement to your social media messaging, and posting about it in relevant online communities to increase brand awareness and run a successful launch campaign.

Done well, you’ll attract more customers, build better product adoption rates, and run a product overview email sequence that will help your business go from strength to strength, inbox to inbox.

Now go out, and write your own product launch emails!