Quick Reality Check: 84% of customers now expect personalized experiences. And with 7,000+ companies using Customer.io to send 35B+ messages, there’s enough data to show what actually works. Let’s break down the real metrics from companies doing this right.
The Customer.io Playbook: How Top SaaS Companies Drive 2-3x Better Campaign Performance Through Multi-Channel Personalization
A deep dive with Jason Lyman, CMO at Customer.io
Speaker Bio
Jason Lyman leads marketing at Customer.io, where he’s helped scale the platform to power over 35 billion customer interactions for 7,000+ high-growth companies. Before Customer.io, Jason built and scaled marketing teams at several B2B SaaS companies, with a focus on customer engagement and revenue operations. His work on multi-channel personalization has been featured in various SaaS growth forums and industry publications.
5 Non-Obvious Learnings from Customer.io’s Platform Data
1. Smaller Initial User Segments Often Outperform Large Ones
While most companies try to maximize campaign reach, Notion’s data showed something counterintuitive: starting with smaller, hyper-targeted segments (500-1000 users) and iterating actually drove better results than broad campaigns. These focused groups saw 3x higher engagement rates and provided cleaner data for optimization.
“The instinct is to go big,” Jason noted. “But the companies seeing the best results are doing the opposite – starting small, getting the messaging perfect, then scaling gradually.”
2. In-App Messages Have Higher Impact During Business Hours
The assumption that in-app notifications work best “24/7” turned out to be wrong. Les Mills discovered their in-app engagement rates were 2.4x higher during business hours, even for consumer users. The hypothesis? People are in a more actionable mindset when already doing work-related tasks.
3. Geographic Time Zone Optimization Matters Less Than Behavioral Timing
Most companies obsess over sending at the “perfect” time in each user’s time zone. But the data showed that behavioral triggers (like “2 hours after last app session”) consistently outperformed time zone optimization by 40-50% on engagement metrics.
4. Feature Announcement Fatigue is Real (and Measurable)
Analysis across thousands of SaaS products revealed that after a company’s third feature announcement in a 30-day period, open rates drop by an average of 12% per additional announcement. The best performers now batch minor features into monthly roundups instead.
5. The “Second Channel” Effect
While going multi-channel is important, there’s a fascinating pattern in the data: adding a second channel (any second channel) to email campaigns provides the biggest lift – an average 70% improvement in overall engagement. Additional channels after that show diminishing returns, usually only adding 5-10% each.
“This was a big surprise for us,” Jason shared. “Companies often try to launch across all channels at once. But the data suggests you’re better off mastering just two channels really well before expanding further.”
These insights highlight why traditional “best practices” often fall short – they miss the nuanced patterns that emerge from real platform data. The companies seeing outsized results are the ones willing to challenge standard assumptions and optimize based on actual user behavior.
The TL;DR: 3 Core Patterns That Drive Results
- Deep personalization (not just {first_name})
- True multi-channel orchestration (not spray-and-pray)
- Dynamic audience targeting (not static lists)
Breaking Down Notion’s Growth Engine: From 0 to 100M Users
When you hit hypergrowth, your early lifecycle campaigns need to scale with you. Here’s how Notion crushed it:
The Hard Metrics:
- 49-51% open rates (2x industry average)
- 1-1.5% CTR on activation campaigns
- Multi-million dollar revenue impact from campaign optimization
What They Did Differently:
- Persona-Based Personalization
- Built unique campaign paths per user persona
- Customized value props by segment
- Geographic localization at scale
- Channel Orchestra:tion
- Moved from email-only to email + in-app
- Triggered communications based on actual feature usage
- Synchronized messaging across touchpoints
The Les Mills Retention Machine: How They Saved 8,000 At-Risk Accounts
The Numbers That Matter:
- 53% conversion rate on churn prevention campaigns
- Majority of saved accounts upgraded to annual plans
- Multi-channel approach across email, in-app, and push
The Secret Sauce:
- Behavioral Targeting
- Used activity patterns to predict churn risk
- Personalized offers based on customer LTV
- Adapted messaging based on usage history
- Channel Optimization
- Tested channel mix per segment
- Synchronized timing across touchpoints
- Used push notifications for time-sensitive offers
The 500k Downloads Case Study: Activation at Scale
Key Metrics:
- 15% lift in activity levels
- 10% boost in conversion rates
- Significant reduction in time-to-value
The Playbook:
- Localization + Personalization
- Prioritized local offers across EU markets
- Customized “aha moment” paths
- Adapted experience based on user sophistication
- Channel Evolution
- Moved from email-only to SMS + email + in-app
- Saw immediate lift in awareness metrics
- Better conversion through synchronized messaging
The 5 Tactical Takeaways
- Stop Thinking Single-Channel: The data shows multi-channel orchestration drives 2-3x better results than email-only campaigns.
- Personalization = Revenue: Companies seeing the biggest gains are going way beyond basic mail merge fields.
- Behavioral > Static: Dynamic audience targeting based on actual usage patterns consistently outperforms static lists.
- Test Channel Mix: Different segments respond better to different channel combinations. Test and measure.
- Think Globally, Act Locally: Geographic personalization isn’t optional anymore – it’s table stakes for scaling SaaS.
What’s Next?
The bar for B2B SaaS engagement is rising fast. The companies winning are the ones treating their campaigns like products – constantly iterating, measuring, and optimizing across channels.
The good news? The playbook is clear. Start with one piece (like moving from static to behavioral targeting), measure the impact, and build from there. The metrics from companies like Notion and Les Mills show the upside is worth the effort.
And remember – your first multi-channel campaign won’t be perfect. But that’s okay. Start small, measure everything, and scale what works. The data shows that’s how the fastest-growing SaaS companies are doing it.
