Case Study — Forage Mail
13+ Verified Trial Sign-Ups From a Community-Led Product Showcase
Forage Mail is an AI-powered inbox assistant for professionals, founders, and executives. It needed to prove real user adoption in a crowded AI-productivity market.
Richie Bonilla · CEO, Forage Mail
Company Summary
Forage Mail (SaaS, AI Email Assistant)
Forage Mail is an AI-powered inbox assistant for professionals, founders, and executives to declutter email, summarize newsletters, and automate inbox workflows. It helps users save time, reduce overwhelm, and focus on what matters.
In 2025, Forage Mail engaged the MIA Product Showcase to validate adoption, build brand credibility, and generate trial conversions. The campaign combined media distribution (MIA Newsletter, Substack, LinkedIn) with creator amplification and community channels (WhatsApp, social media) to test market resonance and measure trial-to-paid intent.
Engagement Summary
Challenge:
Forage Mail needed to stand out in a crowded AI productivity market by proving real user adoption, building credibility, and capturing early trial sign-ups among professionals, marketers, and business leaders.
Solution:
I executed a multi-channel Product Showcase campaign that blended trusted media with creator-led storytelling: a long-form feature in the MIA Newsletter and Substack, a LinkedIn newsletter narrative ("How I Automated My Way Out of 8,000 Unread Emails"), a LinkedIn carousel and multi-platform social promo, and distribution via the MIA WhatsApp community for peer-to-peer amplification.
Results:
The campaign delivered 1,689 newsletter recipients, 1,000+ feature views, 36-41% open rates (2x SaaS benchmarks of roughly 21%), 3.4-4.3% CTR, and 13+ verified trial sign-ups, with community feedback confirming adoption and intent to upgrade after trials.
"James helped us validate Forage Mail with the right audience at the right time. The MIA showcase not only drove trial sign-ups but gave us authentic feedback from founders, marketers, and executives who genuinely needed our solution. His ability to combine media reach with community trust made the campaign a success and set us up for scale."
Richie Bonilla
CEO, Forage Mail
Summary Impact
The Product Showcase gave Forage Mail real, attributable proof of adoption in a market crowded with AI productivity claims. The engagement delivered:
- 1,689 newsletter recipients reached, 1,000+ feature views
- 36-41% open rates, roughly 2x typical SaaS newsletter benchmarks
- 3.4-4.3% click-through rate, above the SaaS average
- 13+ verified trial sign-ups directly attributable to the showcase
- Direct community feedback confirming real adoption and intent to upgrade
This gave Forage Mail credible, third-party-validated proof of demand to carry into its next growth push.
Let's build something meaningful together.
I'm open to full-time or in-house engagements, where you need continuous strategic work or someone to own a function long-term. If you need more specific execution-based GTM services, I've got a few offers here: marketinginaction.xyz/services.