> Even if you follow all the best practices around emails, genuinely want to help them, and spend a long time writing a personalized email, people still don’t respond. How do you write a personalized email for a new user?
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To Get More Replies, Say Less (2017)
11–20 of 127 posts
Re: To Get More Replies, Say Less (2017)
#12It wasn’t just the length of the email body they changed in the 3rd variant... they also changed the subject line from “Welcome to Netlify” to “Question...”, but that change wasn’t mentioned as a potential contributor to the good result.
I’m betting that change resulted in a big increase in open rate. I’m conditioned to ignore “Welcome to AcmeCo”-style emails.
Re: To Get More Replies, Say Less (2017)
#13Maybe if you made it a two word email and removed the signature it would get 16x the engagement. Or if you had an empty email and put the question in the subject you’d get 32x engagement. Attention spans these days are terrible.
Hey that's actually an interesting idea. :) I'm not working with Netlify at the moment but they should try it.
Re: To Get More Replies, Say Less (2017)
#14It wasn’t just the length of the email body they changed in the 3rd variant... they also changed the subject line from “Welcome to Netlify” to “Question...”, but that change wasn’t mentioned as a potential contributor to the good result. I’m betting that change resulted in a big increase in open rate. I’m conditioned to ignore “Welcome to AcmeCo”-style emails.
I think so too. The second test had the same subject line in both emails, though, and the body length was the only variant.
Re: To Get More Replies, Say Less (2017)
#15I've noticed this too in emails to coworkers. If the email is long enough, they just skip it to "read it later". This is quite frustrating, because sometimes you just _have_ to communicate some more words.
Re: To Get More Replies, Say Less (2017)
#16> Even if you follow all the best practices around emails, genuinely want to help them, and spend a long time writing a personalized email, people still don’t respond. How do you write a personalized email for a new user?
Hi, ${user_name}! How do you like our product? We are working hard on ${first_clicked_link}. BTW, ${user_browser} rules!
That last part is just creepy.
"Your location (${location}) is near mountain X, we should go hiking one day."
Re: To Get More Replies, Say Less (2017)
#17The shorter the email the more believable it becomes that it was specifically written by a human directed at you, not a mass-used template. If you feel like you get an automatic email, you're not going to respond, because you don't want to talk to a computer. If, on the other hand, you can suspend your disbelief and entertain the fiction that someone named "Valerie" at E-Corp personally contacted you, you are infinitely more likely to respond.
Edit: "Welcome to ${service name}" is also a poor subject line if you expect an answer, because the subject line literally says "this is an automated email to let you know that your click on the register button has been indeed processed correctly. You probably have to click on the big colorful button in the body of this email to activate your account."
Re: To Get More Replies, Say Less (2017)
#18Will this work for freelancing proposal? Will this work for about/cover letter/bio?
In my experience, clear and concise writing is usually better. My own consulting agreements are fit on just 1–2 pages.
Re: To Get More Replies, Say Less (2017)
#19I also wonder how much of this is that shorter emails look more like a real person. I have to deal with enough spam and try-my-product emails that I delete emails at the first sent of "sales".
I would be more inclined to the shorter email which looks more like a person actually typed it.
Re: To Get More Replies, Say Less (2017)
#20Will this work for freelancing proposal? Will this work for about/cover letter/bio?
IMO, a brief, thoughtful note is one of the highest-value things that a candidate can do.
Hiring for a small startup, I am looking for connection. So when I review job applications, I will always read a three-sentence cover letter that is tailored to my company, but never read a page-long cover letter that is obviously copy-pasted. So if someone wanted to get a job at Kevala, it would behoove them to spend 5 minutes reading our website.