请问HN：PLG公司如何自行实现激活恢复？你的方法是什么？
与一个PLG组织进行了交流，他们在营销自动化工具中拼凑出了一种激活鼓励机制（这比我在其他地方见过或经历过的要复杂得多）。
**运作方式：**
- 增长工程师向营销平台发送激活事件
- 当用户未完成下一步时，复杂的条件自动化触发
- 根据用户的实际状态发送针对性的“嘿，你没有完成X”的消息
**面临的难题：**
- 竞态条件：用户完成了操作，但事件迟到 = 无关的电子邮件
- 代理归因：无法判断电子邮件是否真正推动了激活或在漏斗中前进（使用点击作为代理）
- 维护地狱：复杂的自动化和工程依赖（或代码库访问）
尽管面临这些问题，这种方式仍然比我通常看到的要复杂得多。考虑到他们在一个不完美的内部解决方案上投入的时间和精力，我很好奇其他人是如何解决这个问题的。
根据我的观察，有三种方法：
**选项1：通用滴灌营销活动**
- 什么：无论用户行为如何，发送预定的电子邮件
- 示例：第1天“欢迎！” → 第3天“查看功能！” → 第30天“我们想念你”
- 优点：易于设置，无需工程支持
- 缺点：不个性化，忽视用户状态，可能无效
（我个人几乎会自动删除这些出现在我收件箱里的邮件）
**选项2：DIY行为邮件（像这家公司一样）**
- 什么：跟踪用户状态并触发针对性的恢复消息
- 示例：如果在N小时后完成了X但没有完成Y → 发送Y的帮助
- 优点：个性化用户旅程，完全控制
- 缺点：需要工程资源，无法衡量是否推动了激活，可能因时机问题导致错误邮件
**选项3：Appcues/Pendo（或其他？）行为邮件**
- 什么：跟踪用户状态并触发针对性的恢复消息（与选项2相同）
- 示例：如果在N小时后完成了X但没有完成Y → 发送Y的帮助 → 跟踪用户是否完成Y
- 优点：个性化用户旅程，将电子邮件归因于激活，无需工程支持
- 缺点：至少每月300美元用于支付应用内指南工具套件的费用，以获取访问权限（Appcues）或购买行为邮件的选项（Pendo）
（我还认为应用内指南是更大设计问题的标志，需要通过引导教程来掩盖这些问题（我相信存在一些边缘案例））
**我想更好地理解：**
对于通用滴灌用户：
- 你知道这不起作用，还是只是没有优先考虑更好的方法？
- 你能否判断自己对激活率有影响？
- 你的激活率是多少？
对于DIY构建者：
- 这花费了多少工程/营销小时？
- 你使用什么指标来衡量成功（代理指标？）？
- 如果存在独立的行为邮件，你会愿意为此付费吗？
对于Appcues/Pendo（或其他？）用户：
- 你是在使用完整平台，还是只想要行为邮件？
- 归因数据是否值得捆绑的成本？
- 你看到的激活提升是多少？
这家公司每月约有3万注册用户（不考虑季节性），激活率为26%。这意味着有2.2万人接受了精心针对但难以评估的恢复尝试。他们选择了选项2，因为选项3需要购买他们不想要的功能。
在电子商务中，不发送购物车放弃邮件是不可思议的。为什么B2B SaaS在用户流失恢复方面没有类似的解决方案，而不需要捆绑的负担？
你的方法是什么？你真的能衡量它是否有效吗？
查看原文
Spoke to a PLG org that hacked together activation encouragement in their marketing automation tool (still more sophisticated than I've seen/experienced elsewhere).<p>How it works:
- Growth eng emits activation events to marketing platform
- Complex if/then automations trigger when users don't complete next step
- Sends targeted "hey, you didn't complete X" messages based on actual user state<p>The headaches:
- Race conditions: User completes action but event arrives late = irrelevant email
- Proxied attribution: Can't tell if emails actually drive activation or advancing in the funnel (using clicks as proxy)
- Maintenance hell: Complex automations and engineering dependencies (or repo access)<p>Again, despite the headaches, this is more sophisticated than what I usually see. Given the time/effort they are putting into an imperfect in-house solution, I am curious how others are solving the problem.<p>From what I can tell, there are three approaches:<p>Option 1: Generic drip campaigns
- What: Send pre-scheduled emails regardless of user behavior
- Example: Day 1 "Welcome!" -> Day 3 "Check out features!" -> Day 30 "We miss you"
- Pros: Easy to setup, no eng required
- Cons: Not personalized, ignores user state, probably ineffective
(I personally pretty much auto-delete these as they show up in my inbox)<p>Option 2: DIY behavioral emails (like this company)
- What: Track user state and trigger targeted recovery messages
- Example: If did X but not Y after N hours -> send help for Y
- Pros: Personalized to user journey, full control
- Cons: Requires eng resources, can't measure if it drives activation, can lead to incorrect email due to timing issues<p>Option 3: Appcues/Pendo/(others?) behavioral emails
- What: Track user state and trigger targeted recovery messages (same as #2)
- Example: If did X but not Y after N hours → send help for Y → tracks if user completes Y
- Pros: Personalized to user journey, attributes email to activation, no eng needed
- Cons: At least $300/month to pay for an in-app guides tool suite to either get access (appcues) or have the option to buy behavioral emails (pendo)
(I also think in-app guides are a sign of larger design problems that you need to mask with guided tutorials (I'm sure some edge cases exist))<p>What I'm trying to better understand:<p>For generic drip users:
- Do you know it doesn't work, or just haven't prioritized better?
- Can you tell if you have an impact on the activation rate?
- What is your activation rate?<p>For DIY builders:
- How many eng/marketing hours went into this?
- What metrics do you use to measure success (proxies?)?
- Would you pay for standalone behavioral emails if they existed?<p>For Appcues/Pendo/(others?) users:
- Are you using the full platform or just want behavioral emails?
- Is the attribution data worth the bundled cost?
- What activation lift are you seeing?<p>This specific company has ~30k signups/month (excluding seasonality) with 26% activation. That's 22k people getting carefully targeted, but difficult to evaluate recovery attempts. They built Option 2 because Option 3 requires buying features they don't want.<p>In e-commerce, not having cart abandonment emails would be insane. Why doesn't B2B SaaS have the same for dropout recovery without the bundled baggage?<p>What's your approach? And can you actually measure if it works?