Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Lessons learned from onboarding emails with no HTML styling

blog.palabra.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 178 posts

Re: Lessons learned from onboarding emails with no HTML styling

#31

Post by pau_alcala »

hjanssen wrote: post #9

To add to the points others have made: If I see an email with a name in the title I don't recognize, I instantly think it is spam. Please do not do this, it neither helps with your credibility nor does it help to build a "connection". I want to know where this email is coming from, and if I have signed up at Spotify, I expect to recieve my emails from Spotify, not Tom whoever at Spotify.

Interesting point there. Does the same happen to you with smaller or earlier companies? I wouldn't trust Tom from Spotify is a real person, but some companies have founders sending and replying to those emails themselves. A good practice I saw from another onboarding sequence was Apollo.io's first email. It was from a person who told me they would be my point of contact if I needed anything from the company. I know it's automated, but I personally though it was much better than receiving something from support@apollo or onboarding@apollo. It makes it easier for me to reach out if I have something to say

Re: Lessons learned from onboarding emails with no HTML styling

#32

Post by greenshackle2 »

thomasedwards wrote: post #3

The problem with everyone doing some of these tips is that I now just ignore all emails that appear to be from people instead because I don’t ever believe it’s from a real person, so unless I’m expecting an email from someone I won’t open these anymore and I just skim the subject. Not sure if people outside of the web community do this too, but probably only a matter of time if not.

I see it as part of the arms race where people find channels or signals for communications they actually care about, then marketers discover they can get more engagement using them, and vomit their noise all over it.

The problem is that the "personal e-mail" signal can be faked cheaply as they have discovered.

I kind of wish e-mail worked such that anyone who isn't in my contact list has to pay me to send me an e-mail. I'm not sure what the right amount is, maybe $1.

EDIT: It's also a kind of tragedy of the commons. If you're the first marketer to fake the signal it will work very well. Once everyone does it, congratulations, you've ruined it for everyone, including people who are not faking it.

Re: Lessons learned from onboarding emails with no HTML styling

#33

Post by pier25 »

leephillips wrote: post #4

I disagree with the premise of the article: “Every SaaS company must start their onboarding sequences with a welcome message that is sent when a user joins the platform. This is a must by now, since everyone who signs up will expect some sort of confirmation of their transaction.” These emails invariably waste my time. They repeat what the website already told me when I signed up. If I sign up for your SaaS, I expect…

I agree. I hate those messages. All the info to use a tool should be in the tool itself. Period.

"UI is like a joke, if you have to explain it, it doesn't work"

Re: Lessons learned from onboarding emails with no HTML styling

#35

Post by ghostbrainalpha »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #25

I run a SAAS and still personally (non-automated) send a welcome /check-in/onboard email to every single signup. I've sent a 1000+ in the last year. I try to make them really personalized. Like if your website is acmewidgets.com - I'll put "Acme Widget Help?" as the subject. My own takeaways: 1. Plain Text for sure 2. Super short - my standard sort of email is now about 3 sentences. 3. Ask a question - in my case the…

It's interesting, I read your comment and thought your non-automated emails sounded like a time waster for you and the recipient.

Then I saw that you have a Security SAAS and instantly felt different. I would love knowing there was a human I could connect with easily at your company. Definitely a smart move on your part.

Re: Lessons learned from onboarding emails with no HTML styling

#36

Post by sp332 »

pau_alcala wrote: post #27
sp332 wrote: post #2

Good points in here, but I disagree about using a person's name as the From address. If I'm getting an email from Notion, I want it to show up as "From: Notion" in my inbox, not "From: Ivan". I have several companies that do this and I never know who the email is from, which adds some cognitive friction I don't need when triaging my inbox. You can put your name in the subject line if you want.

this is an interesting point. I think the email address matters if you expect people to answer. In the superhuman example, I know the CEO isn't sending me those emails, but I'm more likely to reply if I have a question. Palabra's onboarding emails come from my personal email address and many people reply with questions directly to me, which really helped us get immediate feedback

Since the article is specifically about onboarding, it might not be that bad. But chances are, I'm going to forget your name about 5 minutes after this introduction, so getting future emails with your name will just confuse me.

Re: Lessons learned from onboarding emails with no HTML styling

#37

Post by coder543 »

leephillips wrote: post #13
marcosdumay wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hum... As an example of what the article calls "everyone", I do expect that email. I will not read it, just mark it read and archive. It is not the contents that are important, what is important is that your email is set correctly, and receiving the service's emails without problems. So, any future issue can be solved over email.

You have a point there. But haven't they already sent you the confirmation email?

The welcome email in this context is the confirmation email.

Re: Lessons learned from onboarding emails with no HTML styling

#38

Post by Veuxdo »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #25

I run a SAAS and still personally (non-automated) send a welcome /check-in/onboard email to every single signup. I've sent a 1000+ in the last year. I try to make them really personalized. Like if your website is acmewidgets.com - I'll put "Acme Widget Help?" as the subject. My own takeaways: 1. Plain Text for sure 2. Super short - my standard sort of email is now about 3 sentences. 3. Ask a question - in my case the…

30% is really, really high for responses to an onboarding email. Manually sending out each one seems like a ton of work, though. I hope you have high customer LTV.

Re: Lessons learned from onboarding emails with no HTML styling

#39

Post by coldpie »

tux3 wrote: post #19
detritus wrote: post #14

Perhaps I'm showing my age here, but what the heck is 'onboarding'?

It's the introduction you give new people. Welcome them "on board".

"New potential customers," I guess. I'm familiar with onboarding as a term for what you do to new hires and was quite confused by this article until I figured out it's about marketing emails.

Re: Lessons learned from onboarding emails with no HTML styling

#40

Post by me_smith »

hjanssen wrote: post #9

To add to the points others have made: If I see an email with a name in the title I don't recognize, I instantly think it is spam. Please do not do this, it neither helps with your credibility nor does it help to build a "connection". I want to know where this email is coming from, and if I have signed up at Spotify, I expect to recieve my emails from Spotify, not Tom whoever at Spotify.

The first time I got an email from "Ivan" or the "Tom" from so and so company, I opened and read it. However, a couple lines in, I realized it was an automated email and it went straight to the trash. I don't understand how it helps make a better connection when you aren't really connecting with a real person.

Maybe I am getting old and I am not the target audience for these types of strategies but it really turns me off. I feel it takes away the value from actual email.

Post reply on HN