How to implement personalized email campaigns for onboarding in Custify

If you’re running customer onboarding and want new users to stick around, your emails need to feel like they’re written by a person, not a robot. This guide is for product teams, customer success folks, or anyone who wants to get real results from onboarding emails—not just tick a box. We’re digging into how to build personalized onboarding campaigns in Custify. No fluff, no vendor hype—just what works, what to skip, and how to avoid getting lost in the weeds.


Why Personalization in Onboarding Emails Actually Matters

Here’s the deal: Nobody reads generic onboarding emails. People either ignore them or, worse, hit “unsubscribe.” Personalization isn’t just adding a first name; it’s about sending the right message to the right person at the right time. Custify gives you the tools to do this—if you know how to set it up. But if you just blast out the same message to everyone, you’re not using the tool (or your users’ patience) wisely.


Step 1: Get Your Data House in Order

Before you even open Custify’s campaign builder, make sure you have useful customer data flowing in. Personalization is only as good as the data behind it.

What you’ll need: - User attributes: Name, company, role, signup date, etc. - Behavioral data: Which features they’ve used, last login, actions taken. - Lifecycle stages: Are they brand new, in trial, or paying customers?

How to do it: - Integrate your product or CRM with Custify. Use their API, native integrations, or even CSV uploads—whatever keeps the data current. - Map fields carefully. A “role” in your app should be “role” in Custify, not “type” or some mystery label.

Pro tip: Junk in = junk out. If your data is messy or out-of-date, personalization will backfire. Double-check how often your data syncs.


Step 2: Define Your Segments—Don’t Skip This

Blanket emails are the fast track to low engagement. Segmentation is where you group users by common traits or behaviors—so you can talk to them like humans.

Common onboarding segments: - New signups who haven’t completed setup - Users stuck at a key step (e.g., haven’t invited teammates) - Power users blazing through onboarding - Accounts at risk of churning (e.g., inactive for X days)

How to do it in Custify: - Use filters to build segments based on user properties and actions. - Save these segments for reuse—don’t recreate them for every campaign.

What not to do: - Avoid going wild with micro-segments. If you have 20 segments and each has 10 people, you’re making your life harder for little reward. - Don’t segment on vanity data (like “favorite color”) unless it actually changes what you say.


Step 3: Map Out Your Email Journey (Before Writing Anything)

It’s tempting to just start writing emails, but you’ll end up with a pile of disconnected messages. Don’t skip the planning.

What works: - Sketch a simple flow: What should happen after sign-up, day 1, day 3, etc.? - Decide which triggers matter: Time-based (“3 days since signup”) or behavior-based (“hasn’t added a project”).

Typical onboarding journey: 1. Welcome email: Right after signup—warm, helpful, not salesy. 2. Activation nudge: If they haven’t completed a key action. 3. Feature spotlight: Highlight value once they’re active. 4. Progress check: Personalized tip based on what they have (or haven’t) done. 5. “We miss you” re-engagement: For folks who disappear.

How to do it in Custify: - Use their Playbooks or Campaigns features to map out each step. - Set triggers for each email—don’t just rely on time delays.

Pro tip: Start simple. You can always add more steps later. Complex journeys are harder to debug and maintain.


Step 4: Write Emails Like a Human, Not a Marketer

Personalization isn’t just about {FirstName}. The best onboarding emails feel like they’re from a teammate, not a marketing department.

What to focus on: - Clarity: One main message per email. Don’t drown people in options. - Tone: Friendly and direct. Skip the sales pitch. - Personal touches: Reference what the user has (or hasn’t) done: “I noticed you haven’t added a teammate yet—need a hand?” - Useful links: Add direct links to key actions, not just a generic dashboard link.

How to personalize in Custify: - Use merge tags for names, company, or recent actions. - Conditional sections: Show or hide content based on user attributes or behaviors.

What to skip: - Don’t overdo it. Three “personalized” notes in one email feels creepy. - Don’t fake it—if you don’t have the data, leave it out.


Step 5: Build and Test Your Campaign in Custify

Now you’re ready to assemble everything inside Custify. Here’s how to stay sane:

Set up your campaign: - Choose your audience (segment). - Add your email steps and set the triggers. - Personalize content with dynamic fields.

Test, test, test: - Send test emails to yourself and teammates. Check for broken merge tags. - Preview with different user data to spot weird edge cases (“Hi , welcome!” is a bad look). - Double-check timing—nobody wants five emails in one hour.

What can go wrong: - Data mismatches: Merge tags won’t work if your data isn’t mapped right. - Overlapping campaigns: Users might get conflicting messages if they’re in multiple journeys. - Opt-outs: Make sure your emails respect unsubscribes and don’t annoy people.

Pro tip: Set up a test segment with dummy users. Run the campaign on them first.


Step 6: Launch, Monitor, and Adjust (Don’t “Set and Forget”)

A lot of onboarding projects fall apart after launch. Don’t just set it up and hope—watch what’s working.

What to monitor: - Open and click rates (but don’t obsess). - Key actions: Are users actually doing what you nudge them to do? - Drop-off points: Where do people stop engaging?

How to improve: - If an email bombs, rewrite it or try a different trigger. - If you’re not seeing results after a couple of weeks, don’t be afraid to delete or reorder steps. - Ask real users for feedback. Sometimes what makes sense to you is confusing to them.

Watch out for: - “Analysis paralysis.” You’ll never have perfect data. Ship, then iterate. - Chasing vanity metrics. High open rates mean nothing if users don’t activate.


What Actually Works (and What Doesn’t)

Works: - Clear, timely, and relevant nudges based on what users are actually doing. - Simple journeys that don’t overwhelm new users. - Asking real users for feedback and acting on it.

Doesn’t work: - Generic “Welcome to our platform!” emails with no next step. - Over-personalizing to the point of weirdness. - Setting up a monster 12-step journey and never looking at it again.

Ignore the hype about “AI-powered personalization” unless it’s solving a clear, real problem for you. Most onboarding wins come from small, thoughtful improvements, not fancy tech.


Final Thoughts: Keep It Simple, Ship, and Iterate

Don’t get lost in the weeds or try to build the “perfect” onboarding campaign on your first go. Start with a couple of well-timed, genuinely helpful emails. Watch the results, listen to your users, and tweak as you go. Custify has a lot of knobs and dials, but you don’t need to use them all at once. Focus on being useful, not clever, and you’ll get people to stick around.