📈 How Miro could 10x engagement rates

📈 How Miro could 10x their email engagement rates

Miro's current email strategy perfectly demonstrates what I hear many product leaders complaining about: poor open rates and zero user re-engagement.

Before showing you how notification retention loops and curiosity gaps solve this...

Q: What's the #1 problem with Miro's current email?

Take a minute to think about what's missing here. Got it? Scroll down...

There are multiple issues here.

But the main ones are (1) generic/non-personalised copy and (2) zero personal curiosity triggers.

Miro sends "Plan your next brainstorm" to every new user, regardless of whether anyone else is actually using their boards. More critically, Miro should never be suggesting someone creates a board as their first step - it's way too big of an ask and commitment.

You should be getting them to do the easiest action possible which would be voting on something, reacting to a comment, or replying to a comment that person is tagged in. Once a user has a sense of progression and commitment they are much more willing to engage in the platform.

Their emails focus on features instead of specific social activity. Most importantly, when you see "Build a new board," your brain immediately asks: "Why should I care right now?"

This creates massive psychological resistance:

• "What exactly happened that requires my attention?"

• "Is this just another generic product update email?"

• "Nothing urgent is happening in my workspace"

The result? Users ignore notifications because there's no compelling, personal reason to re-engage with the platform.

I've worked with companies that send north of 1.5 billion CRM messages per year, and there is no CRM strategy with higher ROI than "Your friend played their turn; come back to the game."

Q: So how could Miro dramatically improve their email engagement?

Try to imagine a better approach. The solution is below...

They're missing notification retention loops and curiosity gaps.

Instead of generic project suggestions, successful products like Loom create anticipation through real collaboration triggers. Loom's retention emails are triggered by actual user activity: "Someone viewed your video" drives massive re-engagement because it leverages genuine social proof and curiosity about who watched.

What does this look like for Miro?

Change #1: Collaboration-Triggered Emails

Replace "Plan your next brainstorm" with: "Sarah just added 3 new ideas to your Marketing Strategy board"

This immediately tells users that real activity happened with their actual work and creates curiosity about what ideas were added. The notification retention loop works because User A's activity brings User B back to the platform, who then creates activity that brings more users back.

Change #2: Multi-Layered Curiosity Gaps

Instead of showing everything upfront, create information gaps that drive clicks:

Subject line: "You've been tagged in Marketing Strategy board 🏷️" Header copy: "Sarah tagged you and left a comment"

This curiosity gap mechanism is so powerful because people intuitively want to close information gaps, especially when it involves their work being discussed by colleagues.

Change #3: Self-Initiated Signup Triggers

Currently, Miro shows signup prompts immediately when non-members view boards. Instead, only trigger signup when they try to take an action like commenting or tagging someone.

Self-initiated triggers work because users are more likely to interact with prompts they set up for themselves - you instinctively want to be consistent with previous actions. When someone actively tries to contribute, they're psychologically primed to complete the signup process because it feels like removing a barrier to something they already decided to do.

The Psychology: Notification Loops vs. Manufactured Engagement

Notification retention loops work because they satisfy three psychological principles simultaneously:

• Social Proof: "Other people are actively using this"

• Curiosity Gap: "What exactly did they say about my work?"

• Reciprocity: "Someone contributed to a board, I should respond"

The Results?

This approach transforms generic "use our tool" messaging into "respond to your colleague's input about your actual work." Users click because they need to know what was said about their ideas, not because they're curious about collaboration software.