M Jackson Wilkinson
User Experience Lead, Posterous
In our industry, we’re doing stuff for the benefit of the user. Strive to make noise only when it improves the silence for our user. bac’n - it’s the spam you sort of want to get. it’s the one you’ve signed up for and now they’re sending you emails. you want them but maybe not right now. How have we gotten here?
It started with shipment notices. Sometimes you don’t even read the message. You just see shipped and say, “cool.”
Then it moved to direct messages and facebook messages.
Simple interactions:
- Notify the user
- Read the subject line
- Open the email
- Find the notification email
- Click a link in the email
- Login to the website
- Confirm private info
The success rate of these emails start to grow.
People start to visit your website.
So you start sending more.
And then the engagement starts to fall.
CNN, Twitter are breaking new outlets but we’re missing out on what is relevant. Email Silence Tips:
- Don’t forget the important stuff. Facebook sends notifications when your friend comments on a photo but doesn’t tell you which photo.
- Don’t beat around the bush. Posterous (old) emails had four different links in activation email. People abandoned the emails and didn’t click. Posterous (new) emails have one action - one button and even an arrow pointing to it!
- Nail your metadata.
- App or company name in the From line
- Keep the From line to 20-25 characters
- Specific subject lines
- Effective messages are designed messages.
- Careful with the promos.
