Most SaaS companies I talk to know they should be doing more with email, but they don't know where to start or what they're missing. They've set up the basics—a welcome email, maybe some payment receipts—and then stopped. Meanwhile, users churn silently, trials expire without conversion, and engagement drops off a cliff after week one.

This checklist is designed to help you see the full picture. It's organized by category, from foundational setup through advanced lifecycle campaigns. You can use it to audit what you already have, identify gaps, or plan a new email program from scratch. Each section starts with the must-haves—the things that will hurt you if you skip them—and progresses to nice-to-haves that become important as you scale.

Before diving in, here's an overview of what we'll cover:

Section	Focus	Priority	Time Investment
Setup & Infrastructure	Deliverability, authentication, reputation	Critical	Day 1-3
Transactional Emails	Account operations, payments, security	Critical	Week 1
Onboarding	Activation, first value, habit formation	Critical	Week 2-3
Lifecycle Marketing	Engagement, retention, expansion	High	Month 1-2
Campaigns	Newsletters, announcements, promotions	Medium	Ongoing
Analytics & Optimization	Measurement, iteration, improvement	High	Ongoing

The priority column reflects what I'd tackle first if I were starting from zero. Setup and transactional emails are non-negotiable—your product literally won't work without them. Onboarding directly impacts your trial-to-paid conversion. The rest builds on that foundation.

Setup & Infrastructure

Getting your email infrastructure right is like building a house on solid ground. Skip this section and everything else becomes harder. Your emails won't reach inboxes. Your reputation will suffer. And troubleshooting problems later is infinitely harder than setting things up correctly from the start.

Email Authentication (Must-Have)

SPF record configured — Tells inbox providers which servers can send on your behalf. Without it, you're an unverified sender. Check with dig TXT yourdomain.com | grep spf or use an online validator.
DKIM signing enabled — Cryptographically proves your emails haven't been tampered with. Your email provider will give you a DNS record to add.
DMARC policy published — Ties SPF and DKIM together and tells providers what to do when authentication fails. Start with p=none to monitor, then progress to p=quarantine or p=reject once you've verified everything works.
Custom sending domain — Send from mail.yourapp.com not yourapp.sendgrid.net. This builds your reputation, not your provider's.

If any of these are missing, stop reading and fix them. I'm serious. A detailed walkthrough is available in our email authentication setup guide.

Email Platform Selection (Must-Have)

Platform chosen that fits your stage — Don't overcomplicate this. If you're early, a simple tool that handles both transactional and marketing is fine. You can migrate later.
API integration possible — You'll want to send programmatic emails based on user actions. Make sure your platform supports this.
Segment/tag capabilities — You need to differentiate users by behavior, plan, lifecycle stage. Basic segmentation is table stakes.

Deliverability Hygiene (Must-Have)

Warm-up plan for new domains/IPs — If you're starting fresh, don't blast 50,000 emails on day one. Ramp up gradually over 2-4 weeks.
Bounce handling configured — Hard bounces should be automatically removed. Soft bounces should retry and eventually suppress.
Unsubscribe link in every marketing email — It's not just best practice, it's legally required in most jurisdictions.

Infrastructure Nice-to-Haves

Separate sending streams for transactional vs. marketing email — Protects your critical emails if marketing campaigns hurt reputation
Dedicated IP address — Only matters at volume (100K+ monthly emails) but gives you full control over reputation
Email validation at signup — Catches typos and fake addresses before they hurt your list quality

Transactional Emails

Transactional emails are the emails your product sends in response to user actions. They're expected, they're functional, and users will be frustrated if they don't arrive instantly. The good news: because users expect them, open rates are typically 60-80%. For more context on the distinction, see transactional vs. marketing email.

Account Operations (Must-Have)

Welcome/signup confirmation — Confirms the account was created. Should arrive within seconds, not minutes.
Email verification — If you require verified emails, this is critical path. Make it simple—one-click or copy-paste code.
Password reset — Most requested transactional email. Test it regularly to ensure it works.
Email address change confirmation — Security measure. Confirm both old and new addresses.

Payment & Billing (Must-Have if you charge money)

Payment receipt — Triggered on successful charge. Include amount, date, what was purchased.
Invoice for subscription renewals — Especially important for B2B where customers need records.
Payment failed notification — First step in your dunning sequence. Be clear about what happened and how to fix it.
Subscription change confirmation — When users upgrade, downgrade, or cancel, confirm what changed.

Security & Account (Must-Have)

New device login alert — Optional but increasingly expected for any product with sensitive data.
Two-factor authentication codes — If you support 2FA, these need to arrive fast and reliably.
Account deletion confirmation — Legally important in some jurisdictions, professionally important everywhere.

Product Operations (Context-Dependent)

Export/report ready — If users can request data exports, tell them when it's done.
Processing status updates — For products with async operations, keep users informed of progress.
Team invitation emails — If your product has team features, these need to be clear and work perfectly.
Usage limit warnings — If you have usage-based pricing or limits, warn before users hit walls.

The bar for transactional emails is reliability and speed. Users aren't evaluating your brand voice here—they're waiting for functional information. Be clear, be fast, be reliable.

Onboarding

Onboarding emails are the bridge between signup and activation. This is where you convert "signed up" into "actually using the product." Get this right and your trial conversion improves. Get it wrong and users drift away before they ever experienced your value. For a deep dive, check out how to create a SaaS onboarding email sequence.

Activation Sequence (Must-Have)

Welcome email with single clear CTA — Not a company story, not a feature list. One action that moves them toward activation. See our welcome email guide for specifics.
"Haven't completed setup" reminder — If they signed up but didn't complete whatever your setup process requires, nudge them. Usually sent 24-48 hours after signup if setup incomplete.
"You did X, now try Y" progression — Celebrate small wins and suggest next steps. These should be behavioral, not time-based.
Value demonstration email — After they've used the product, show them what they accomplished. "Last week you sent 500 emails with 45% open rate" reinforces value.

Reducing Friction (Must-Have)

Setup guide or quick-start — Link to documentation, video walkthrough, or guided setup flow. Some users need help, give it to them.
"Need help getting started?" check-in — Personal email (or appears personal) from founder or support, 2-3 days in. Ask if they're stuck. These get surprisingly high response rates.

Trial-Specific (Must-Have if you have a free trial)

Trial timeline awareness — They should know how much trial time remains without logging in.
Feature highlight during trial — Show premium features they haven't tried. Build the case for upgrading before the clock runs out.
Trial ending warning — 3-day and 1-day warnings at minimum. Be clear about what happens when trial ends. Our guide on converting free trial users covers this in depth.
Trial ended follow-up — Don't ghost them. Offer to extend, downgrade to free, or share what they'd be missing.

Onboarding Nice-to-Haves

"Power user tips" sequence for engaged users — If someone's already active, don't send basic tips. Level up the content.
Social proof email — Customer story or case study, around day 5-7, showing what success looks like.
Ask for feedback — Even if they don't convert, understanding why helps you improve onboarding.

The most common mistake in onboarding is over-emailing. Five to seven emails across a 14-day trial is usually plenty. More than that and you risk training users to ignore you. Quality over quantity—each email should have a clear purpose.

Lifecycle Marketing

Lifecycle emails maintain engagement after onboarding and drive long-term retention and expansion. This is where email shifts from "getting users started" to "keeping users happy and growing."

Engagement & Retention (High Priority)

Re-engagement sequence for dormant users — If someone hasn't logged in for 14+ days, reach out. Start with value, not guilt. See re-engagement email strategies for approaches.
Usage milestone celebrations — First project, 100th task, 1-year anniversary. Celebrate achievements to reinforce value.
Feature adoption nudges — When you see a user would benefit from a feature they haven't tried, suggest it with a specific use case.
Churn risk intervention — If your product data suggests someone's about to leave (declining usage, missed logins, support tickets), intervene proactively.

Revenue (High Priority)

Upgrade prompts based on usage — When someone's approaching plan limits, suggest upgrading before they hit walls. Context matters: this works better than time-based prompts.
Annual plan suggestion — If they've been monthly for 3-6 months and are clearly engaged, offer the annual discount.
Expansion opportunities — Seat additions for teams, higher tiers for power users, add-ons that match their use case.

Failed Payment Recovery (Must-Have if you charge)

Payment failure notification sequence — Multiple touchpoints over 7-14 days. First email is informational. Subsequent emails increase urgency. Final email warns of service interruption. Detailed walkthrough in failed payment recovery.
Card expiring warning — If you know their card expires soon, remind them to update before it fails.
Graceful downgrade — If payment truly fails, don't just cut off access immediately. Give a grace period and communicate clearly.

Win-Back (Medium Priority)

Churned user win-back sequence — Wait 30-90 days, then reach out with what's changed or offer to help with whatever made them leave. Keep expectations realistic—win-back rates are typically 5-15%.
Expired trial re-engagement — Similar to win-back. Let some time pass, then offer a reason to come back (new features, extended trial, special offer).

The key insight for lifecycle email: trigger on behavior, not just time. An email that says "we noticed you haven't tried X feature" is infinitely more relevant than "it's been 30 days since you signed up."

Campaigns

Campaign emails are the ones you send manually or schedule: newsletters, product announcements, promotional offers. They're not triggered by user behavior—they're initiated by you.

Product Updates (High Priority)

Feature announcements — When you ship something meaningful, tell people. Focus on what they can do now that they couldn't before, not the implementation details. For guidance, see how to announce new features.
Changelog digest — Weekly or monthly roundup of changes for users who want to stay current without multiple emails.
Deprecation notices — If you're removing or changing something, give adequate warning. Two weeks minimum for anything non-trivial.

Newsletter (Medium Priority)

Regular cadence established — Weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. Pick one and stick to it. Consistency matters more than frequency.
Value-focused content — Tips, insights, industry news—not just self-promotion. The newsletter should be worth opening even if they're not ready to buy more.
Preference center integration — Let users opt out of the newsletter while keeping transactional and product emails.

Promotional (Lower Priority Until Scale)

Seasonal campaigns — Black Friday, end-of-year, relevant industry events. Plan ahead; don't rush these.
Webinar/event invitations — If you run events, email is typically your best promotion channel.
Customer research requests — When you need feedback or users for interviews, email your engaged segments.

A word of caution on campaigns: they're the most visible part of email marketing but often not the highest ROI. Your behavioral emails (onboarding, lifecycle, dunning) typically convert better because they're contextual. Campaigns are important for awareness and relationship-building, but they shouldn't consume most of your email effort, especially early on.

Analytics & Optimization

You can't improve what you don't measure. But you also shouldn't measure everything—focus on metrics that connect to business outcomes. For a comprehensive breakdown, see email marketing KPIs for SaaS.

Essential Metrics (Must-Have)

Deliverability rate — What percentage of emails successfully reach recipients' servers? Should be 97%+. Below 95% indicates a serious problem.
Bounce rate — Hard bounces should trigger automatic suppression. Track the rate to catch list quality issues.
Spam complaint rate — Must stay below 0.1%. Gmail and Yahoo will throttle you above 0.3%.
Open rate — Useful as a trend indicator, though Apple Mail Privacy makes absolute numbers unreliable.
Click rate — More reliable than opens. Tells you if content is compelling enough to drive action.
Unsubscribe rate — Per-email and overall. Spikes indicate content or frequency problems.

Business Impact Metrics (High Priority)

Trial conversion rate by email engagement — Do users who engage with onboarding emails convert better than those who don't? If there's no difference, your emails aren't adding value.
Revenue attributed to email — Requires UTM tracking and connecting your email platform to your analytics/billing. Worth the setup effort.
Feature adoption from announcement emails — Did people who received the feature email actually try the feature?
Dunning recovery rate — What percentage of failed payments are recovered by your email sequence?

Operational Metrics (Nice-to-Have)

Email response time for support-related emails — How fast is your team responding to email replies?
Sequence completion rate — Do users make it through your onboarding sequence or drop off early?
A/B test results tracked systematically — Only relevant at scale, but useful for continuous improvement.

Analytics Infrastructure

UTM parameters on all email links — Without this, attribution is impossible.
Email platform connected to analytics — Whether that's Segment, Mixpanel, Amplitude, or direct integration.
Regular reporting cadence — Weekly check on health metrics. Monthly deep-dive on business metrics. Quarterly review of overall email performance.

The trap with analytics is tracking everything and acting on nothing. Pick a handful of metrics that matter most for your stage, build a dashboard, and review it regularly. Action beats measurement.

Putting It All Together: Priority Tiers

If you're looking at this checklist feeling overwhelmed, here's how I'd prioritize:

Week 1: Foundation (Non-Negotiable)

Get authentication right (SPF, DKIM, DMARC). Set up your core transactional emails (welcome, password reset, payment receipts). Verify everything is delivered reliably.

Weeks 2-3: Onboarding (Direct Revenue Impact)

Build a simple onboarding sequence. Welcome email with clear CTA. One setup reminder. One "check-in" email. Trial ending reminders. This is where you'll see the biggest impact on conversion.

Month 1-2: Lifecycle Basics (Retention Impact)

Add re-engagement for dormant users. Set up failed payment recovery (this directly recovers revenue). Consider upgrade prompts for users approaching limits.

Month 2-3: Campaigns and Optimization (Growth)

Start a newsletter if you have content worth sharing. Build product announcement templates. Set up proper analytics and attribution.

Ongoing: Iterate and Improve

Use your metrics to identify what's working and what isn't. Test improvements systematically. Add sophisticated segmentation and personalization as you scale.

This checklist is a living document—what matters changes as you grow. A bootstrapped startup needs different things than a Series B company with a dedicated email team. Start with the must-haves, add capabilities as they become relevant, and always keep measuring whether your emails are actually moving the metrics that matter.

The companies that win at SaaS email marketing don't have complicated strategies or huge teams. They have the fundamentals done right, behavioral emails that respond to what users actually do, and a clear-eyed view of what's working. This checklist helps you build that foundation.

For more on building a complete email program, see our guides on your first 30 days of email marketing and email marketing benchmarks for SaaS.