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Lessons learned from onboarding emails with no HTML styling

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Re: Lessons learned from onboarding emails with no HTML styling

#91

Post by crocodiletears »

bonoboTP wrote: post #54

I really hate these cheesy lines that are "excellent" according to the article, like: - "You had enough fluff marketing content and so did we. So the absofreakinlutely BEST thing you could do right now..." - "Writing this from my couch at home, hoping to find you safe and well at yours. It's been a busy summer! I wanted to share more about out 2.9 release..." No, just no. Leave me alone, we aren't friends, you did no…

As American, unless it's in-person, and contextually appropriate, I always get real pod-people vibes when I get messages like this from my employer.

I recently picked up a book written in this style. It's been nails on a chalkboard for me.

I think the big issue is that it attempts to conform to the structure of a casual conversation, while eschewing established norms for casually written textual content.

I know what a comment on the internet looks like, or an IM chat, and that's roughly what a casual email should look like.

Writing a 'proper' email, and peppering in smarmy sidebars just feels sleazy, reduces the information density of the text, and makes me cringe enough to put whatever I'm reading on the backburner.

Re: Lessons learned from onboarding emails with no HTML styling

#92

Post by bee_rider »

encom wrote: post #81
eatingCake wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Perhaps American culture is more receptive to this As an American I don't think people like corporations feigning social intimacy either.

But it happens all the time (according to my tiny sample size). A tong time ago, I was in an American coffee shop (probably Starbucks, I guess), and they asked for my name. I found that very strange and weird. You would neither be able to spell or pronouce it, so let's just go with James. This trend is beginning in Denmark as well, and I don't like it. It'd be easier for everyone if you just assign me a number and an…

There are lots of people in the US who dislike this kind of stuff, but overall, it must be the case that more people like it (or at least are neutral). Otherwise the companies wouldn't bother with it, right?

Personally I don't like it, although I've never seen asking for your name lumped in with the false politeness. It is pretty widespread over here. People are more likely to pick up on hearing their name, rather than a number, right? Nobody can spell my weird name, but they just put a phonetically similar more common one on the cup and I've learned to listen for that.

Store greeters are a pretty strange trend.

Re: Lessons learned from onboarding emails with no HTML styling

#93

Post by erikstrottmann »

machello13 wrote: post #82
encom wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it happens all the time (according to my tiny sample size). A tong time ago, I was in an American coffee shop (probably Starbucks, I guess), and they asked for my name. I found that very strange and weird. You would neither be able to spell or pronouce it, so let's just go with James. This trend is beginning in Denmark as well, and I don't like it. It'd be easier for everyone if you just assign me a number and an…

> But it happens all the time Doesn't mean people like it. I think there's also a difference between a low-level employee being friendly personally to me because it's their job and also it's just polite, vs some marketing employee being "friendly" to the 500k people on their mailing list. It's also always worth noting, is the case with many countries, the US is very diverse. People in NYC probably think very differen…

Boise’s in Idaho!

Re: Lessons learned from onboarding emails with no HTML styling

#94

Post by underdown »

derenge wrote: post #49
underdown wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Emojis in subject line reliably increase open rate in my experience. Also others report the same: https://www.outreach.io/blog/will-emojis-increase-reply-rate... Maybe SO emails go over the top though

How much did they increase your open rate? The linked report actually indicates a decrease in replies. Combined across all seven test variations, we saw a 42% decline in reply rate when the subject line featured emojis.

Tbh I've never optimized for reply rate so this could have been true for me as well. Generally selling dtc. Open rate and sales increased reliably 10-15%. Haven't done any comparable email marketing in two years so things may have changed since then and obviously my anecdata may not be true for you.

Re: Lessons learned from onboarding emails with no HTML styling

#95

Post by bee_rider »

jandrese wrote: post #88
encom wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it happens all the time (according to my tiny sample size). A tong time ago, I was in an American coffee shop (probably Starbucks, I guess), and they asked for my name. I found that very strange and weird. You would neither be able to spell or pronouce it, so let's just go with James. This trend is beginning in Denmark as well, and I don't like it. It'd be easier for everyone if you just assign me a number and an…

Coffee shops ask for your name so they can write it on the cup to make sure you get the right order at the pickup counter. It's a quality control measure. I guess they could ask you to think up a random number instead, but some people would find that mildly offputting I think .

Some places will just give you an order number, which usually increases sequentially, and has the side-benefit that you have a vague measure of how far your order is from being completed. Although, having the person's name is also nice, because people tend to be good at recognizing when their name is called.

Re: Lessons learned from onboarding emails with no HTML styling

#96

Post by GordonS »

diarrhea wrote: post #50
petercooper wrote: post #41

These emails are minimally styled HTML emails rather than "plain text" (in the original email text/plain sense). If there are links using normal text (rather than just autolinked URLs) or a logo, it's HTML – so deliverability or privacy arguments based around being "plain text" don't entirely hold up. Now, do I think there are accessibility and privacy benefits to be had by sending truly plain text email? Absolutely.…

In an ideal world, I would like to write plain Markdown and send an email off like that, with conversion to HTML happening in the background. A suitable Thunderbird addon for this [1] seems abandoned. Formatting HTML is a real struggle for me in Thunderbird's WYSIWYG editor. On the other hand, using plain-text lacks in readability (lists, short links instead of full URLs, headers, quotes, ...). [1]: https://addons.th…

I wish this became a standard - plain text is great, but sometimes you do want style and formatting, and HTML mail is beyond horrible to get working across clients (yes, I know there are a few well known templates, but still).

I think the problem is that HTML and CSS are now so big, and people use such a range of device sizes, that writing clients to display things accurately and consistently is very hard. Markdown sounds perfect to fill the gap between HTML and plain text.

Re: Lessons learned from onboarding emails with no HTML styling

#97

Post by [deleted] »

erikstrottmann wrote: post #93
machello13 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But it happens all the time Doesn't mean people like it. I think there's also a difference between a low-level employee being friendly personally to me because it's their job and also it's just polite, vs some marketing employee being "friendly" to the 500k people on their mailing list. It's also always worth noting, is the case with many countries, the US is very diverse. People in NYC probably think very differen…

Boise’s in Idaho!

[deleted]

Re: Lessons learned from onboarding emails with no HTML styling

#98

Post by rovr138 »

jandrese wrote: post #88
encom wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it happens all the time (according to my tiny sample size). A tong time ago, I was in an American coffee shop (probably Starbucks, I guess), and they asked for my name. I found that very strange and weird. You would neither be able to spell or pronouce it, so let's just go with James. This trend is beginning in Denmark as well, and I don't like it. It'd be easier for everyone if you just assign me a number and an…

Coffee shops ask for your name so they can write it on the cup to make sure you get the right order at the pickup counter. It's a quality control measure. I guess they could ask you to think up a random number instead, but some people would find that mildly offputting I think .

Perfect,your order is #56

You don't have to ask for a number, just give them one.

Re: Lessons learned from onboarding emails with no HTML styling

#99

Post by content_sesh »

GordonS wrote: post #90
bonoboTP wrote: post #54

I really hate these cheesy lines that are "excellent" according to the article, like: - "You had enough fluff marketing content and so did we. So the absofreakinlutely BEST thing you could do right now..." - "Writing this from my couch at home, hoping to find you safe and well at yours. It's been a busy summer! I wanted to share more about out 2.9 release..." No, just no. Leave me alone, we aren't friends, you did no…

I just assumed this was an American thing; as a Brit, I find it so cringey it almost hurts, and I'm embarrassed on their behalf. I wonder actually, if anyone here customises their emails based on the mark's home region?

It's not uniquely American, its bog-standard "startup trying to establish a parasocial relationship".

Re: Lessons learned from onboarding emails with no HTML styling

#100

Post by content_sesh »

purerandomness wrote: post #78
bonoboTP wrote: post #54

I really hate these cheesy lines that are "excellent" according to the article, like: - "You had enough fluff marketing content and so did we. So the absofreakinlutely BEST thing you could do right now..." - "Writing this from my couch at home, hoping to find you safe and well at yours. It's been a busy summer! I wanted to share more about out 2.9 release..." No, just no. Leave me alone, we aren't friends, you did no…

Could you give a counter example of a well written, successful mass mail in your eyes that you loved to read?

The last mass email I received that was successful (got me to do something) I didn't actually read. The subject line was something like "50% off sale through the weekend" which was literally the only information I needed.
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