Top articles of the year ??

Hey friend ??

This is a repost of our monthly newsletter.?This edition initially went out on January 16. Sign up if you don't want to miss the next one.

8 months ago, I was sitting in Costa Cafe at Sofia’s airport, writing you a different edition of this newsletter. I was on my way to see the Netherlands for the very first time.

Today, I’m sitting very close to that same table, waiting also for a flight to the Netherlands, while writing you a 2023 recap edition of the newsletter.

And you know what? Both podcast episodes from that month ended up being among our most listened episodes of 2023, and will be featured in this edition as well.

So let’s see.

What were the people of Userlist reading and listening to in 2023?

Top read blog posts of 2023??

We focused a significant amount of time last year writing about different types of email campaigns and what they should look like. All the while trying to find good examples for you to get inspired by.

It seems like our mission worked, because 3 out of 5 top read blog posts in the previous year had to do with different email campaign examples.

1. How to Write a Perfect Upgrade Email (Templates Included) Quality upgrade email campaigns are the bread and butter of PLG companies. And in the year that started with a heavy recession, it seems we were all too careful to get the best of them. Which is probably what made this blog post our absolutely most read one.
2. 10+ Best Subscription Renewal Emails (Annual Payment Reminders) + Free Template for Your SaaS If experience taught people in SaaS anything, it’s that we must not neglect retention in favor of acquisition. Not now, not any other more or less challenging time. And we’re glad you’re relying on that principle as well, making our blog post on renewal emails take 2nd place on our top read list.
3. 10+ Rebranding & Redesign Announcement Email Examples For me personally, this was one of the more fun blog posts to work on during 2023. I don’t know if you enjoy comparing the old brand styles to the new ones as much as I did, or if you had a different reason, but you definitely seemed to have enjoyed this one.
4. How We Used April Dunford’s 10-Step Method to Overhaul Positioning at Userlist This is our famous post from 2019. Fun fact: I enjoyed April Dunford ’s book long before I joined Userlist. And in my prep for the interview, I was thrilled to see the team used her approach and appreciated it as much as I did. The topic definitely came up during our interview, and we got to nerd out about it. Almost 2 years later, I’m glad I get to nerd out about it with you as well :)
5. SaaS Email Marketing Strategy: Everything You Need to Know Not a big fan of overpromising “everything you need to know” titles, but this one is indeed a very foundational and thoroughly worked out piece. No wonder it keeps coming to the top, it’s suitable to founders trying to do it all, beginners, and advanced users revising foundations, and looking for deeper resources. It really has it all.

Top podcast episodes of 2023???

You’ll notice the top BDTP conversations listened were more versatile than the top blog posts read. Unlike blog posts, where the top interests were different kinds of emails, podcast episodes you listened to the most deal with many different aspects of SaaS. But of course, email took the lead:

1. Re-engagement Emails with Tim Hart We can’t really blame you. We loved the way Tim Hart talked about re-engagement campaigns in one of Email Geeks discussions and we just had to see what else was there to learn from him. And so this conversation came to be. And it ruled our podcast for 2023.
2. Creative SEO for SaaS with Monica Lent This conversation with Monica Lent is what we call actionable and to the point. And that is the kind of content we like to stand behind. Not many things in SEO can be described as refreshing, but this conversation certainly can.
3. Uncovering Customer Insights Using JTBD with Aggelos Mouzakitis Though an established concept, 2023 was definitely the year of JTBD buzz. What triggered that reaction? Probably all the reduction in resources that caused people across the industry to absolutely have to focus on customer insights as productively as possible. And Aggelos the Growth PM took the time to explain how.
4. Software Pricing Design with Chris Mele I was so glad to see this episode in the top 5, because it was definitely a favorite of mine. Most of the content freely available regarding pricing (especially in B2B) is not really up to par. Chris shares genuine, and experience-backed tips that can serve as a steady guideline while navigating pricing changes. If you haven’t yet, definitely tune in.
5. SaaS Brand Architecture with Karrie Sanderson Staying on brand when you scale rapidly is a whole other kind of challenging then setting the foundations of a brand. Karrie Sanderson ’s extensive career helped us get unique insights into both. And I’m glad you liked it as much as we did.

Product highlights of 2023nbsp;

1. Visual workflows. This is definitely the highlight of the year. Thank you for the ocean of support both here and on Product Hunt.
2. A/B split testing. Finally, finally, finally! You can test up to 5 different journeys and see how they perform.
3. Internal notifications. This feature allows you to send internal emails to your team members within workflows. For example, you can let them know about a promising trial or a customer with high churn risk.
4. Performance reporting. Sure we had reporting before, but early in 2023 we added granular stats so you can generate detailed reports for specific time periods.
5. Subscription preferences. Instead of showing your users a simple unsubscribe page, you can display a preference center and allow them to opt out of individual topics. You don’t have to worry about building a DIY solution for this any more.

If you haven’t taken these features for a spin yet, book a call, and we can walk you through them and show you all the bits and pieces.

Until next month ??