

Ask HN: How often do you e-mail your users? - MrMike

How often do you e-mail your users?<p><pre><code>  1) With a general newsletter announcing new features
  2) With updates specifically for a particular user
</code></pre>
Trying to gauge how often is too often. We're pushing out new features at such a rapid pace that we can fill newsworthy content into a weekly email, but we don't want to piss people off.<p>On top of that, we would love to send notifications &#38; reminders to let particular users know when something that we think would be of high interest to them happens on their account.<p>But, combined, users would be getting an email from us every day or two, which is overwhelming (and annoying... mostly annoying) for most people.
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channelmeter
We try to email our users once a quarter. Unless there is something very
specific to the user, like a feature they're paying for, it's not worth
spamming your users' inbox. If you're releasing a new feature every week, have
a section on your site dedicated to new releases. Twitter/FB is also great for
announcing releases.

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codeslush
Can you offer them some sort of choice in the matter? A daily/weekly/monthly
digest? I suspect different users will have different preferences and this
should be something easy enough to implement as part of the signup process.

FWIW - I would be annoyed with anything more than a weekly update in most
cases. However, in some cases, I would be very happy with a daily update.
Without knowledge of your app/use case, it's hard to give a more solid
opinion.

~~~
MrMike
Trying to keep the discussion more general, versus specific to our
company/product.

In terms of giving them a choice, yes, that's definitely something we've got
on the roadmap, but I'm wondering if there are best practices/frequency to
abide by in the mean time.

~~~
codeslush
Fair enough. I don't know "best practices" from a company perspective. I know
from a consumer perspective that the frequency of updates is very relevant to
the TYPE of application/service/...

Examples: 1\. Facebook/LinkedIn: Send me an update every day if you want. We
can even restrict those updates to "new features" -- e.g. Today, LinkedIn
released updated mobile apps -- I read about them on TechCrunch. I would have
been happy to get that as an email.

2\. TaskRabbit/Box - you can stop sending me emails, or send them once a
quarter or get them to me some other way (like when I visit your site or
launch your app). I don't rely on the service enough, or use it enough, to
need regular updates.

3\. Banking - You got some new features for me - let me know weekly or
monthly. Same goes for Rewards/Miles/CreditCard, etc...

4\. ANY account/service in which I'm active and you have a feature that you
somehow KNOW I'm going to want/need - Notify me immediately. I don't know how
this could be found offensive if it's something that is very relevant.

ALL of the above are MY preferences. For any given example, I'm certain that
different types of users will have different preferences. That's why I
suggested giving the customer the option, with sensible defaults.

