Rule #1 for beta invites: remind me what you do
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Re: Rule #1 for beta invites: remind me what you do
#2Not just beta invites.
I often get emails along the lines of: "Annoucement! Spluttr adds 25% more foo to free plans!" or similar.
Now I probably signed up to Spluttr 6 months ago, took a quick look and decided I wasn't interested as I needed 25% more foo.
In the intervening months, you've lived, breathed and sweated Spluttr whilst I've signed up for another 20 services and forgotten what most of them are for.
Remind me in every email.
Re: Rule #1 for beta invites: remind me what you do
#3Yes, this is a big deal. I won't go searching to find out what you do when you announce a new feature. I will however read it in the email.
Going a step further, if you haven't seen me in a while (say a year), send me an email reminding me I have an account with you, and summarize what you've done in that time. Remind me of my username too. This is kind of a big deal, because I sign up for everything (can't have username dilution :) ). Just because I don't use your site now, doesn't mean I won't after your new features, so as long as it doesn't turn into spam, I like the reminder.
Amusing anecdote: I signed up for Reddit within a year of it's launch, but really start using my account there until 2.5 years or so ago when I decided to re-evaluate it. I had completely forgotten about my earlier signup and was real bummed when I learned of my username being taken. Fortunately I was smart enough to do my "It's probably me and I've just forgotten" ritual where I try all my password variants and sure enough either I really got lucky and the old sophacles had one of my passwords, or it really was me. I probably would have been actively redditing 2 years prior if there had been a not-to-spammy email reminder once in a while.
Re: Rule #1 for beta invites: remind me what you do
#4Not just beta invites and email promotions, but also emails to advisors and early investors. It's more than just a reminder of what the heck you do, it's also handing them language to talk about your business to other people.
For beta users, advisors and early investors - these people are going to be your advocates. You need to give them the tools to advocate for you, and a well crafted 3 sentence elevator pitch that describes your business is a huge help.
Re: Rule #1 for beta invites: remind me what you do
#5And rule #2: don't ask me to spam with friends for an earlier invite.
Re: Rule #1 for beta invites: remind me what you do
#6And rule #2: don't ask me to spam with friends for an earlier invite.
I don't understand why you'd think this is annoying. They're asking you to spread the word if it's a service you're interested in, and in return they'll give you a higher place in line. Seems very reasonable to me.
Re: Rule #1 for beta invites: remind me what you do
#7Also, make sure you put it on your front page. A lot of times I see a link to someone saying "look at my cool project" on HN, and it takes me a long time to figure out what the project is actually supposed to do.
Also, make sure you explain it clearly. Once I went to a site that had pictures of food all over it and it said "like AirBNB but for food". I could not remember at the time what AirBNB was.
Re: Rule #1 for beta invites: remind me what you do
#8And rule #2: don't ask me to spam with friends for an earlier invite.
I don't understand why you'd think this is annoying. They're asking you to spread the word if it's a service you're interested in, and in return they'll give you a higher place in line. Seems very reasonable to me.
For me it is annoying because I have to advertise something that I don't know anything about and does not really exist yet.
Re: Rule #1 for beta invites: remind me what you do
#9And rule #2: don't ask me to spam with friends for an earlier invite.
I don't understand why you'd think this is annoying. They're asking you to spread the word if it's a service you're interested in, and in return they'll give you a higher place in line. Seems very reasonable to me.
My own personal feeling is that anything that asks (or even demands, like iheartradio) me to spam my friends, I will immediately discard that company or product from my memory. I don't want to see my friends randomly spamming me about services they haven't even gotten to try; why would I want to spam my friends about something that I have no idea how good it is?
Re: Rule #1 for beta invites: remind me what you do
#10And rule #2: don't ask me to spam with friends for an earlier invite.
I don't understand why you'd think this is annoying. They're asking you to spread the word if it's a service you're interested in, and in return they'll give you a higher place in line. Seems very reasonable to me.
But the problem is that you haven't even been able to try it yet, so you're "blind recommending". It's a bit pyramid scheme-y, really- you bring yourself closer to a potential pay-off by involving other people that trust you.
That might be fine if I'm forwarding it to other people in the HN-type crowd, but I often tell my less tech-inclined friends about cool services I've started using. But I would never recommend something to my friends without being able to try it myself and work out if it is recommendation-worthy.