Type of SaaS
Financial (FinTech)
Growth Levers
Customer Success and Expansion Marketing, Content Marketing
Results Window
90 days (Q1 2026), measured against a 90-day baseline (Q4 2025). Supporting trend data through 4/17/2026.
The Situation
Our client’s newsletter program was already segmented. Customers got one version, and prospects got another. The plumbing was right. But engagement was soft, and trending in the wrong direction. Newsletters ran long, buried the best information deep in the body, and used a header design that felt dated next to the rest of the product experience. Recipients were getting the emails. They weren’t finding a reason to read them to the end.
In Q4 2025, running one newsletter per month per segment, the program sent roughly 34,800 prospect newsletters and 2,900 customer newsletters across the 92-day window. Delivery held at 99.66% for prospects and 99.83% for customers. Hard bounces sat below 0.1%. But prospect click-through had slipped to 2.9%, Customer open rate had dropped 4.55% quarter-over-quarter, and the 90-day trend was flat-to-down across nearly every engagement metric. The list was healthy, the sends were delivered, and the segmentation logic was in place. The content inside the emails was the bottleneck.
Key Results
| METRIC | BEFORE | AFTER |
|---|---|---|
| Prospect newsletter click-through rate | 2.9% | 4.64% (+60.15%) |
| Customer newsletter open rate | 38.83% | 40.77% (+4.98%) |
| Prospect newsletter click rate | 0.62% | 0.74% (+19.81%) |
| Prospect unsubscribe rate | 0.54% | 0.40% (−26.96%) |
What We Did
Audited the program to find what was actually depressing engagement.
We mapped 90 days of performance across both audiences alongside delivery, bounces, and unsubscribes. Delivery held above 99.66% on every send. Hard bounces sat below 0.1%. Segmentation was already live. The drop-off was happening inside the emails. Recipients either weren't opening because the subject lines and preview text promised nothing worth the click, or they opened and didn't scroll because the most valuable information was buried below the fold. The work moved from audience infrastructure to editorial.
Shortened every newsletter and led with a knowledge resource.
We cut length across the board. Each send now opens with a new knowledge resource worth the click, something readers could engage with in the first 10 seconds. From there, each send moves into industry-specific information relevant to the audience, like compliance updates, regulatory signals, and workflow insights. Supporting content got tighter. Anything that couldn't justify its word count got dropped. The goal was a newsletter that earned the open on the first scan, not one that asked for patience.
Redesigned the header to match the current product experience.
We replaced a dated header with a modern, brand-consistent design so the newsletter read like an extension of the platform rather than a legacy marketing email. Cleaner hierarchy, better mobile rendering, and a clearer eye path to the first call to action. For an audience used to a polished product UI, the email needed to feel like it came from the same company.
Launched in January 2026 and iterated monthly against the Q4 2025 baseline.
We tracked each send. Prospect click-through climbed from 2.9% to 4.64% across three months. Prospect click rate rose 19.81%, and prospect unsubscribes dropped 26.96%. Customer open rate moved from 38.83% to 40.77%. Where a send underperformed, we adjusted the lead item, tightened the header copy, or re-sequenced the banner placement in the next issue, always changing one element at a time so every result was attributable.
What The Data Tells Us
Three numbers, read together, confirm what actually changed. Prospect click-through climbed 60.15%. Prospect unsubscribes dropped 26.96% on the same monthly cadence (one newsletter per month per segment, unchanged from the baseline), meaning the opt-out decline can’t be explained by sending less email. The audience wasn’t missing the messages. They were finally getting messages worth opening.
The customer-side data reinforces the same read. A 4.98% open rate lift in the customer segment, paired with a steep click-through gain on the prospect side, shows the principle working in both directions: when the lead item is worth the click and the design reads as current, engagement follows. The broader takeaway is that audience segmentation is table stakes. It gets the right message to the right inbox, but it can’t carry thin content or a dated experience. The editorial work inside each send is what earns the open.
Bay Leaf Digital on Customer Success and Expansion Marketing
We build customer success and expansion marketing programs for B2B SaaS companies that deepen your product value and drive your retention, without letting already-segmented channels coast on plumbing alone.