

How We Got Users To Give Feedback Via Email - cmadan
http://blog.clinchpad.com/post/73504307577/how-we-got-users-to-give-feedback-via-email

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ankitoberoi
Interesting. Another reason why text only emails are better is they make it to
Gmail's primary tab and get more attention.

However, I disagree with the only two more emails part. Email is a very strong
tool, often underestimated.

Depending upon the stage in the lifecycle, you can send emails to: 1) Convert
trial signups to Activated users. 2) Re-activating users. 3) Convert activated
users to paying customers. 4) Upselling paying customers. 5) Improving
retention.

It goes without saying all emails should depend on what the customer has done
with your app so far. For example, if I'm losing an activated user, the script
can check which important sections of my app have not been visited and send an
email informing about what he missed and why it's important - you get the
point.

So, it is best to collect extensive data about how your customers use your app
and fire customized emails accordingly.

I normally don't send more than 2 emails a week for the first one month and
then this number decreases. I'm wondering what others do here.

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Silhouette
_I normally don 't send more than 2 emails a week for the first one month and
then this number decreases. I'm wondering what others do here._

FWIW, I'd have killfiled you long before you reached that one month mark if
you were sending that many e-mails just because I signed up for something
(other than intentionally joining a high traffic mailing list, obviously).

Given that basically everyone is going to send mail when someone first signs
up and for subsequent events like charging a renewal, I think you have to be
careful how many more things you send out unsolicited. Some use of lifecycle
e-mails is reasonable, for example if you're offering a free trial and want to
remind someone after a few days. Depending on what you're offering and who
your market are, maybe the acceptable limit goes up or down quite a bit. But
some of the things I've seen advocated on HN, even by otherwise reputable
people, are way over the line into spamming IMHO.

I use a simple benchmark: if someone in my family signed up and got whatever
mails I was thinking of sending out, would they mind? If so, I probably don't
want to send it.

~~~
ankitoberoi
Actually, two emails a month is the upper limit, which we use for actively
engaged new signups. With 2 emails a week in this category, we were able to
get about 4 times more engagement and time spent on the app than single email
a week.

Also, we measure when people use the emails we sent and it's generally of no
use to send more emails, after two consecutive emails not being clicked on -
so one can stop there.

I don't see why one should not send two or even more emails, when the user
wants them. Users have understood our product better and it helped achieve
what we define as activation, much faster.

On the other hand, If you were a normal trial signup who just registered and
never actually used the product, we'd email you thrice in the first month
(including the first email) and then once every 3/6 months. We're also
thinking of sending some informative blog posts once in a while. This system
isn't old enough yet to give significant data about the effectiveness of the
mailers sent after the first month.

~~~
Silhouette
Thanks for clarifying, and for sharing some interesting data points. Again
FWIW, what you've described there seems a lot more reasonable to me than the
raw 2/week rate without as much context did.

I think the key thing that didn't come across before, at least as I read your
previous post, was the "when the user wants them" qualifier. If you're sending
material that is useful for genuine users and carefully timed for when it's
likely to be of interest to them, that's great.

The ones that wind me up are the businesses that have your e-mail address
because you tried their site for ten minutes or made a one-off purchase from
their on-line store and then think they're welcome to send you their latest
"special offers" every few days for the next several weeks with a bit of
trivial customisation based on what you tried/bought before.

~~~
ankitoberoi
I agree and I think everyone would - we've all seen such businesses and no
likes getting spammed.

Although I wonder if it makes sense financially to do that. It would be great
to see if someone has data on this. I'm not really sure if one can actually
improve conversions or whatever they want to improve by sending emails that
way.

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dclara
Congratulations! Your post received quite a few upvotes.

Thanks you for your sharing.

