Purpose
Generate ready-to-send lifecycle email copy mapped to a SaaS product's specific user journey — onboarding, activation, retention, and win-back — with per-email subject lines, preview text, body copy, CTAs, send timing, and trigger logic. Solves the problem of lifecycle managers writing every flow from scratch and losing the thread of what each stage is actually supposed to move the user toward.
When to Use
Invoke this skill when the user asks to:
- Build an onboarding email sequence for new signups or trial users
- Create activation emails that drive users to a key product milestone or "aha" moment
- Design a retention or engagement campaign for active-but-declining users
- Build a win-back series for churned or dormant accounts
- Refresh an existing lifecycle flow that isn't converting
- Write personalized lifecycle copy for a specific user segment or plan tier
Inputs Required
Before starting, collect:
- Lifecycle stage(s): Which stage to build — onboarding, activation, retention, win-back, or all four
- Product description: 2–3 sentences on what the product does and who it's for
- Activation milestone: The single action that signals a user has gotten value (e.g., "created first automation," "invited a teammate," "connected data source")
- Target segment: Who this flow is for — plan tier, role, use case, or behavior (e.g., "free-trial marketers," "annual enterprise admins," "30-day-dormant users")
- Product tone: How the brand speaks — helpful / direct / playful / technical
- Key triggers available: What behavioral or time-based triggers the ESP/CRM can fire on (defaults to signup date, last login, and milestone completion if unspecified)
- Primary conversion goal per stage: What "success" means for this flow (e.g., trial-to-paid, feature adoption, plan upgrade, reactivation)
If tone or triggers are missing, default to a helpful-but-direct tone and standard time-plus-behavior triggers, and note the assumption.
Instructions
Build one complete email sequence per requested lifecycle stage. For every email in every sequence, produce this full block:
- Email # and internal name
- Trigger: The specific event or time delay that fires it
- Send timing: When it sends relative to the trigger
- Goal: The one action this email is meant to drive
- Subject line: Plus one A/B alternate
- Preview text: 40–90 characters, complementary to the subject (not a repeat)
- Body copy: Full, written-out copy — no placeholders, no "insert value here"
- Primary CTA: Button/link text and destination
- Personalization notes: Which merge fields or segment logic to apply
Stage 1 — Onboarding (4–5 emails)
Goal: Get the user oriented and to first meaningful action fast. Reduce time-to-first-value.
- Email 1 — Welcome (immediate): Confirm they made a good decision, set expectations, point to the single first step. No feature dump.
- Email 2 — First step nudge (Day 1): Remove friction on the one action that starts the value chain. Address the most common first-step blocker.
- Email 3 — Use-case framing (Day 2–3): Connect the product to the segment's specific job-to-be-done, not generic benefits.
- Email 4 — Social proof / quick win (Day 4–5): Show a peer segment succeeding; offer a fast, low-effort win.
- Email 5 (optional) — Human touch (Day 6): Offer help, a demo, or a resource. Plain-text feel.
Stage 2 — Activation (3–4 emails)
Goal: Drive the user to the defined activation milestone. Every email points at that milestone.
- Email 1 — Milestone spotlight (triggered on signup complete, not yet activated): Name the milestone explicitly and tie it to the outcome they signed up for.
- Email 2 — Obstacle removal (2–3 days post-signup, still not activated): Anticipate why they stalled — complexity, unclear value, or missing setup — and clear it.
- Email 3 — Proof of payoff (behavior: viewed feature but didn't complete): Show the result of completing the milestone with a concrete before/after or metric.
- Email 4 — Assisted path (final push before trial midpoint): Offer a done-with-you option (template, guided setup, quick call).
Stage 3 — Retention (3–4 emails)
Goal: Deepen usage and prevent silent disengagement among active users.
- Email 1 — Adjacent feature (behavior: consistent core usage, no secondary feature adoption): Recommend the next feature based on how they already use the product.
- Email 2 — Value recap (monthly or milestone-based): Reflect their own usage back to them — what they've accomplished or saved. Reinforces the switching cost.
- Email 3 — Declining-engagement re-engage (behavior: login frequency dropping): Notice the drop without guilt; offer a reason to come back tied to a new or unused capability.
- Email 4 (optional) — Upgrade/expand (behavior: hitting plan limits or power-usage signals): Frame the upgrade around what they're already trying to do.
Stage 4 — Win-Back (3–4 emails)
Goal: Reactivate churned or dormant users; segment out the truly lost.
- Email 1 — "We miss you" with a reason (30 days dormant): Lead with what's changed or improved since they left — not sentiment alone.
- Email 2 — Address the likely churn cause (45 days): Name the probable reason they left (price, complexity, missing feature) and answer it directly.
- Email 3 — Incentive or easy return (60 days): Offer a concrete reason to return — restored data, an extended trial, or a one-click reactivation.
- Email 4 — Break-up / feedback (75 days): Final email; ask why they left with a one-click survey and set expectation that emails will pause. Frames the door as open.
Sequence Logic Layer
After the emails, provide for each sequence:
- Entry condition: Who enters and when
- Exit condition: What removes them (e.g., activation completed, converted to paid, unsubscribed)
- Suppression rules: Who should never receive this (e.g., already-paid users out of onboarding)
- Overlap handling: What happens if a user qualifies for two sequences at once
Output Format
- Structure: One section per lifecycle stage, each containing its full email blocks in send order, followed by the Sequence Logic Layer for that stage
- Length: 1,400–2,000 words depending on number of stages requested
- Format: Structured email blocks (labeled fields) — not prose paragraphs; body copy written out in full
- Sections: Onboarding → Activation → Retention → Win-Back (only the requested stages) → Sequence Logic per stage
- Tone: Copy itself matches the specified product tone; the framing/labels are direct and operational, written for a lifecycle manager who will load this into an ESP
Quality Checklist
Before delivering output, verify:
- [ ] Every requested stage has the correct email count (Onboarding 4–5, Activation 3–4, Retention 3–4, Win-Back 3–4)
- [ ] Every email includes all fields: trigger, timing, goal, subject + alternate, preview text, full body, CTA, personalization notes
- [ ] No placeholder brackets in body copy — every email is send-ready for the given segment
- [ ] Activation emails all point at the specific milestone provided, not a generic "engage more"
- [ ] Preview text complements the subject line rather than repeating it, and stays within 40–90 characters
- [ ] Each sequence has entry, exit, suppression, and overlap logic defined
Notes
- The single highest-leverage input is the activation milestone — if it's vague, ask one clarifying question before building: "What's the one action that reliably predicts a user will stick around?"
- Win-back email 4 (the break-up) consistently generates strong reply and reactivation rates; don't cut it to keep sequences short
- Keep onboarding emails single-goal — the most common lifecycle mistake is stuffing five actions into the welcome email and diffusing the first step
- Recommend suppressing users from onboarding the moment they hit the activation milestone, rather than running the full time-based sequence
How to use this skill
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- Drag this file into a new chat, or copy and paste its contents
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