At Perplexity AI, I ran a fun little experiment that turned into one of our most effective ways to get people searching again. We created a bi-weekly newsletter for users who’d finished onboarding but hadn’t yet made a mobile query. The goal? Give them a reason to jump back in and try Perplexity for real.
The Challenge
The tricky thing about search engines is you can explain the product all day long… but people have to actually type something in before they “get it.” We wanted to nudge these users toward that first query without feeling pushy or spammy.
Our Approach
We started small:
- Handpicked Audience: Focused on English-speaking users with zero mobile queries post-onboarding.
- Bi-Weekly Digest: Sent twice a week—enough to stay on their radar but not enough to annoy them.
- Early Pilot: Tested with a small group first. Engagement looked good, unsubscribe rate stayed low, so we kept going.
Then we got curious and started A/B testing:
- More Links vs. Fewer Links: Tried one version with 5 links and another with 3. Turns out, more links meant more clicks—consistently.
- Single Topic vs. Multi-Topic Subject Lines: One clear topic in the subject line beat a three-topic list every time for opens.
- With Images vs. Without: People liked the visuals. Emails with images outperformed plain-text ones week after week.
The Results
- Record-High CTR for a bi-weekly newsletter—better than anything we’d seen before.
- Super Low Unsubscribes, so we knew people weren’t annoyed.
- Clear Playbook for Growth: We walked away knowing exactly what works—more links, one clear subject, and a little visual flair.
The Takeaway
What started as a small “let’s see what happens” test became a proven re-engagement tool. This newsletter not only got people clicking—it helped them take that all-important first step in discovering what Perplexity can do.
