

Ask HN: Useful articles on how to structure mail announcements for SaaS apps - swombat

Hi everyone,<p>I'm looking for good resources on how to structure email announcements for an SaaS app (specifically, b2b, with plenty of web-unsavvy users behind Microsoft Exchange servers).<p>I know about litmusapp.com for testing the emails, and I'm looking more for the high-level advice that answers the following questions:<p>* How often should you send announcements to your user base?<p>* What sort of stuff should you announce?<p>* What are great ways to structure the contents of the announcements so that they're actually read?<p>* What are things to avoid?<p>* How to present the contents of the announcement so it's actually read and perhaps actioned (e.g. when offering a time-limited discount)<p>* Any good examples of great announcement emails to get inspiration from?<p>Etc... (so, business-y articles rather than technical ones).<p>Thanks for your help.
======
jorangreef
Announce something only if it's done. Don't announce if it's "coming soon".
Respect the client's reading preferences. Send as plain text not HTML. Brand
== interface. Limit yourself to 5 sentences. Brevity is the essence of wit.
When in doubt, edit. Make sure it's personalized, e.g. "Dear John". Leave out
"Kind regards", "Best regards", "Yours sincerely", etc. Sign off with your
full name. Ask yourself "what does everyone else do?" and make sure you don't
do that.

~~~
swombat
Interesting. Have you got any screenshots of good examples handy?

------
MicahWedemeyer
In case it isn't obvious, I would recommend using a bulk email service (I use
Mailchimp) rather than DIY.

I did DIY for a while myself and it was a harrowing experience. I was always
worried that my script would get caught in an infinite loop or expose
everyone's email address somehow. It's much easier and I feel safer using a
bulk service. Plus, they add analytics, easy image insertion, etc, etc, etc.

Finally, most bulk services will have hotwo or tutorial articles answering
most of these questions. They know that we don't really know what we're doing,
so they try to do a little handholding.

~~~
aschobel
We switched to SendGrid a few months ago and love it.

<http://sendgrid.com/>

They do subscription tracking, click tracking, bounce, etc.

Super easy API, you set an X-SMTPAPI header and it reads the config from
there.

------
DirtyAndy
Try signing up to a few services and get some ideas from what they send out -
I've been doing this of late.

I think Huddle.net sends clean emails where it is clear to see their point
etc, and they don't email that often which I think is important with b2b type
apps. I'd recommend taking a look at how they structure their communications.

Good Data is another I signed up to, at times they send too frequently (if you
launch 5 things over 2 weeks please don't send me 5 emails) and their emails
are too wordy etc - but really good to have those emails as a case of what not
to do.

------
rmah
I'd suggest a frequency of no more than once per week.

Once per month for a regular newsletter-type mailing might be appropriate,
with occasional emails for special announcements.

That's my position and I'm sticking to it!

~~~
swombat
I'm talking about announcements rather than newsletter types.

Also, this only answers one (tiny) sliver of my question.

