Transforming OneSignal's underperforming email product into an enterprise-grade platform capable of competing with Mailchimp and Klaviyo in the $27.88B email marketing space.
Companies with strong Omnichannel strategies retain an average of 89% of their customers in comparison to 33% of companies with weak Omnichannel Customer Engagement.
– Aberdeen Group
When I joined OneSignal in 2021, the email product had been in market since 2018 but faced critical growth challenges. While OneSignal dominated push notifications with 11 billion of daily push messages, the email product remained underutilized and lacked the sophisticated features needed to compete with established players like Mailchimp, Klaviyo, and SendGrid.
The market opportunity was substantial. The email marketing platform market was experiencing 16.5% CAGR growth, and 73% of retail shoppers had become omnichannel users. Companies with strong omnichannel strategies were seeing 9.5% annual revenue growth compared to 3.4% for single-channel approaches.
The product gaps were significant:
My mandate was clear: transform the email product from a basic add-on into a revenue-driving, enterprise-grade solution that would establish OneSignal as a true omnichannel platform.
Rather than incrementally improving existing features, I prioritized enterprise-blocking capabilities that would unlock high-value deals. SSO implementation alone enabled conversations with NFL, MLB, and other Fortune 500 companies.
Parallel to enterprise features, we redesigned the pricing model and onboarding experience to capture SMB market share. The new usage-based pricing with transparent tiers drove immediate adoption.
Every email enhancement was designed to strengthen OneSignal's omnichannel value proposition. Features like cross-channel suppression and unified analytics became key differentiators.
Using more than one messaging channel to engage users increases average engagement by 35.8%.
– The State of Customer Engagement Report 2024, OneSignal
Key milestones in transforming OneSignal's email platform
Built multivariate testing supporting up to 10 variants with automated winner selection based on statistical significance.
Developed dual-editor experience: drag-and-drop for marketers, full HTML/CSS for developers, with a Real-time preview with responsive design testing.
Created a OneSignal Email setup, to ensure ease of setup for first time users, whilst also allowing users to bring their own email provider to reduce switching costs for enterprise migrations.
Auth for all SSO providers, supporting any SAML or OIDC identity provider with a single integration.
Introduced usage-based pricing for email, along with self-serve upgrade paths reducing sales friction.
Enhanced email user experience with improved design and functionality.
Core features that transformed OneSignal's email platform into an enterprise-grade solution
Test subject lines, content, or timing to find what resonates and converts.
Boost opens and clicks by automatically sending at the ideal time for each user, based on previous behavior.
Track opens, clicks, and conversions to make smarter, data-driven decisions.
Discover the latest insights into customer engagement trends, including the impact of Email on user retention and engagement rates across applications.
This comprehensive report examines how innovative engagement tools like Email are driving measurable business results for companies worldwide.
Download Report (PDF)
Key findings and strategic approaches from scaling OneSignal's email platform
Joining OneSignal's email product in 2021 meant entering during a critical growth phase. The foundation existed, but the product needed sophisticated enhancements to capture enterprise market share. This "scaling from foundation" challenge required different strategies than 0→1 development.
Successfully serving both self-serve SMB and enterprise required careful architecture decisions. Building flexible systems that could handle both simple use cases and complex requirements proved essential for market expansion.
Leading four teams (Core Messaging, Email, Monetization, Analytics) required clear communication protocols and shared success metrics. Weekly leadership syncs and quarterly OKR alignment kept teams coordinated despite different technical domains.
Building a team of 6 PMs required systematic onboarding and development programs. Creating reusable frameworks and documentation enabled faster ramp-up and consistent quality across the team.
Balancing engineering resources, sales requirements, and customer needs required sophisticated prioritization. Developing clear frameworks for feature evaluation and ROI analysis proved essential for maintaining trust across departments.
Investing in email deliverability, monitoring, and developer experience before user-facing features created a foundation for sustainable growth. This prevented technical debt accumulation during rapid scaling.
Implementing comprehensive analytics and experimentation frameworks enabled confident product decisions. Every major feature was validated through customer research, A/B testing, or pilot programs.
Maintaining OneSignal's reputation for developer-friendly tools required careful API design and documentation. The email SDK's simplicity became a competitive advantage in technical evaluations.
Feedback from clients and industry leaders who've experienced OneSignal's Email platform firsthand
Interactive, easy-to-use, clear documentation. These 3 elements sum-up our experience with OneSignal. It's a very effective way to communicate with your client-base whichever channel option you desire (Push notification, In-app message, SMS, Email)
Utilizing notifications, email, in-apps, and SMS helps build trust between us and our customers, as we're able to keep them up-to-date on key events and activities
With SendGrid, building an email template was very difficult to customize and required learning HTML code. From a UI/UX perspective, OneSignal was very user-friendly to marketers.
I specialize in scaling email platforms, building unified messaging strategies, and creating enterprise-grade omnichannel experiences. Let's discuss how I can help transform your communication stack.
