Are We Tracking adoption plays a pivotal role in ensuring the success of any digital product. When users engage with new or existing features, they are more likely to extract value, stay loyal, and become advocates for the brand. One of the most powerful channels for influencing user behavior and encouraging feature exploration is email. But simply sending email updates isn’t enough. To truly optimize the user journey, we must ask: Are we tracking feature adoption in our email journeys?
If the answer is no, we risk missing vital insights into what drives engagement, which features users care about, and how email efforts contribute to product usage.
Why Email Are We Tracking Matter in Feature Adoption
Email journeys are not just tools for onboarding or promotions—they’re strategic communication channels that guide users through a image manipulation service product experience. For example, a photo editing app might use email to introduce users to advanced tools like background removal, AI filters, or batch editing.
These emails typically fall into several categories:
Onboarding sequences – Introducing basic features.
Educational emails – Providing tutorials or use cases.
Re-engagement campaigns – Nudging inactive users to try underused features.
Product update announcements – Highlighting new tools or improvements.
Each of these campaigns presents an opportunity to track whether users actually use the features mentioned after receiving an email.
How to Track Feature Adoption Through Email
Tracking feature adoption involves connecting your email platform with product analytics tools. Here’s how it typically works:
1. UTM Parameters and Deep Links
When sending an email about a using photo editing to highlight a property’s best features specific feature, include links that are tagged with unique UTM parameters or use deep links. This allows you to trace a user’s journey from the email click to in-product behavior.
For example:
Email link: https://photoeditor.com/app?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=feature_filter
If the user clicks this link and then uses the filter tool, that action can be tied to the email campaign.
2. Product Analytics Integration
Tools like Mixpanel, Amplitude, or Heap bahrain lists can track in-app behavior. When these tools are integrated with your email CRM (like Braze, Customer.io, or HubSpot), you can build funnels showing:
Email opened → link clicked → feature used
Email unopened → feature not adopted
This helps quantify the impact of each campaign.
3. Behavior-Based Segmentation
Using behavioral data, you can create smart segments of users who have or haven’t tried a feature after an email. Then, you can send follow-ups accordingly:
“We noticed you haven’t tried our new AI filter—here’s a quick guide.”
“You used batch editing—what did you think? Share your feedback!”
This kind of segmentation deepens engagement and creates more personalized journeys.
Benefits of Tracking Feature Adoption in Email Journeys
Improve Email ROI
If you’re investing time and resources into crafting feature-focused emails, it’s essential to know whether those emails are driving meaningful engagement. Tracking helps you understand which features resonate and which ones need clearer value propositions.
Optimize Product Marketing
Are users adopting the features you promote? If not, is it due to poor timing, confusing messaging, or low perceived value? These insights guide better product positioning in future campaigns.
Drive Retention and Activation
Users who adopt key features early are far more likely to retain long-term. Email can be a critical driver of this behavior, and tracking helps identify the most effective nudges.
Close the Loop with Product Teams
Sharing data on email-driven adoption can help product managers understand how features are received and how marketing efforts are supporting product goals.
Potential Challenges and How to Overcome Them
If email and product analytics are managed by separate teams or systems, tracking may be inconsistent or incomplete. Integrations or middleware tools (like Segment or Zapier) can help unify data sources.
Privacy Concerns
Tracking user behavior must comply with privacy laws like GDPR or CCPA. Be transparent in your privacy policy and offer opt-outs for behavioral tracking.
Attribution Complexity
Sometimes users will receive an email but access the feature days later via a different channel. Multi-touch attribution models can help clarify these journeys but may require more advanced analytics setups.
Conclusion: It’s Time to Start Tracking
If you’re not tracking feature adoption from your email journeys, you’re operating with a blind spot. In today’s data-driven environment, knowing what works is essential for building better experiences and increasing feature usage. By connecting your email platform with product analytics, using tagged links, and leveraging behavior-based segmentation, you can create smarter, more effective campaigns that drive measurable results.