

Ask YC: The art of invitation design? - prateekdayal

I am very interested in learning more about the art of invitations. I am talking of users inviting other users to try out a web service. I am particularly impressed with linkedin. The invitations from linkedin work quite effectively. Invitations from other social networking services are mostly ignored. Is it something about the subject line that can make it or break it.<p>Any thoughts on it?
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melvinram
I'm curious... Where does your assertion that "invitations from linkedin work
quite effectively" come from? Is this an assumption or something that has been
proven?

Subject line most definitely has a lot to getting any email read, regardless
of whether it's an invitation to use a service or attend a webinar or an
event.

When it comes to users inviting users, LinkedIn keeps the standard template
message very short. First time you get this invite, you're not sure if it was
a template or hand written by whoever is inviting you.

The relationship with the inviter is also critical. My guess is responding to
emails from people you have had a business relationship might seem more
urgent/important than responding to a personal email.

Just some thoughts.

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morbidkk
Lets say if it spreads from single member to friends with bubble effect; then
having name of the member(preferably genuine name otherwise userid/handle) in
subject line can help in long way. e.g. morbidkk wants to keep up with you on
Twitter

I personally dont even read invitation mails from strangers.

1) so avoid generic subject line. - A friend invites you to xyz 2) Also check
shelfari invite mail; which is very impressive as it just introuduces
everything what can be done on shelfari in small but concise mail.

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fdschoeneman
The single most important thing is to get the inviting party's name in the
subject line. A personal note from the inviting party is golden, rather than a
form mail. If you have to do a form mail, keep it brutally short.

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bigtoga
Some email companies allow you to do A/B testing on-the-fly. For a list of
10,000 users, they'll send out 100 of subject line "A" and 100 of subject line
"B". They'll pause, wait to see what the reaction is, and then send the
remaining 9800 emails using whichever was shown to be the most popular. I
don't know if that helps you but it's how companies with budgets/time do it.

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epi0Bauqu
This is how you do it, but don't send 100 and then a 100, use a much bigger
sample size to make sure you are climbing up the hill correctly. In other
words, do A/B testing in a highly statistically significant manner until you
find what works for _your service._ You can grab things from other sites like
Linked In to try to climb up the hill faster.

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babul
As LinkedIn is a professionals networking site, people probably take
invitations recieved more seriously.

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fdschoeneman
I disagree. For a long time I used to get confused by LinkedIn and Plaxo --
and Plaxo sort of spams people, so the category of professional networking
sites (excuse me i'm getting this category wrong) isn't particularly reliable
to me.

Personally, that LinkedIn is a professional site doesn't make me take it more
seriously.

