It’s the founding CEO’s job to personally email the first 1000 users • Hacker News Board

Re: It’s the founding CEO’s job to personally email the first 1000 users

#31

Post by eslachance » Tue, Oct 25, 2011, 2:56 PM UTC

freejack wrote: post #14

eslachance wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But, again, what do you say in an email that is personalized? Do you switch sentences around at random, change "hi" for "hey", forget a comma, replace a dot by an exclamation mark? Responding to "it's a waste of my time to write the same email a thousand times" with "you should reply to each email personally" is moving the goalpost. The OP is about sending a first welcome email to every user that signs up, not about…

In theory, I think your approach is fine, but in practice, there will always be opportunity to personalize. If you are really motivated, you can google the person and see if something interesting comes up, or you might already know the person tangentially from a conference, or there was an issue with the order that your team had to fix (a great opportunity to reconnect with a potentially unhappy customer). etc. Sure,…

I think I'm starting to see the value, especially reading other comments here. Seeing an email that I recognize may be a great opportunity for a personal hello. I think perhaps one proposed solution would work best - having a list of new users that haven't received the welcome email, see their information, and then decide to send the regular message or edit it before sending. I think that's the way I may be heading, it sounds balanced and right.

Re: It’s the founding CEO’s job to personally email the first 1000 users

#32

Post by brackin » Tue, Oct 25, 2011, 3:11 PM UTC

This is a great idea, my problem is we're approaching 30,000 so its far too late. But this is something i'll try. I recommend using Toutapp as you can start with a basic template and customise for the user situation. It just speeds the process of emailing lots of people up.

Re: It’s the founding CEO’s job to personally email the first 1000 users

#33

Post by joeblossom » Tue, Oct 25, 2011, 3:13 PM UTC

singer wrote: post #29

cbr wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"more convenient than tracking down an uninstall link within the email" Perhaps you should make your unsubscribe links easier to find?

The link is extremely easy to find. It's the only link that appears at the bottom of my emails. Checking the box in my Gmail inbox and clicking the "Spam" button is much easier than opening the email and hunting down the unsubscribe link.

This may be a stupid question, but are you sure your unsubscribe functionality is working? After "Successfully unsubscribing" to Appsumo (trust me, I saw the picture of the founder when I was done) about 6 times, I was still receiving emails from them, and therefore marked them as spam. I also will mark the companies that don't have an easy unsubscribe all method as spam. (IE, you didn't give me the option to opt-in/out when I signed up, and send me a whole bunch of emails which I have to log in to your app to turn off)

Re: It’s the founding CEO’s job to personally email the first 1000 users

#34

Post by OpenTrader » Tue, Oct 25, 2011, 3:27 PM UTC

robfitz wrote: post #30

OpenTrader wrote: post #23

Definitely agree with the advice. One objection that people often have is that "why should I do something that's not ultimately scalable and that I'll have to stop doing anyway?". But what they're missing is that when you're first starting a company that's when the fragile young plant needs the greatest care and nurture. In my opinion you should actually go out of your way to do things that you KNOW won't be possible…

Beautifully articulated. Couldn't agree more.

Thanks. And also thank you for writing a spot-on post!

Re: It’s the founding CEO’s job to personally email the first 1000 users

#35

Post by chadgeidel » Tue, Oct 25, 2011, 3:47 PM UTC

singer wrote: post #21

fabiandesimone wrote: post #15

I've done this since day one in my startup (I'm in day 112). Not being a hacker I have to be really careful where to put my dev money, so any automation I might want to do I have to figure out ways to do it without involving the devs (that money goes to the service I'm building) I have a combination of processes: 1. User must fill out a form with their name and email in order to get the download link. For this I use…

Do you have any trouble with people reporting your drip emails as spam? I found that some people are reporting emails instead of clicking the unsubscribe link. Unfortunately, many email clients make that button more convenient than tracking down an uninstall link within the email.

You know what would be neat? When you click the "spam" button in Gmail (or other clients with similar functionality) and there's an "unsubscribe" link in the email then Gmail could suggest visiting the link with some kind of a notification and buttons labeled "unsubscribe" or "no, this is spam".

I suppose that could be abused however.

Re: It’s the founding CEO’s job to personally email the first 1000 users

#36

Post by weaponofchoice » Tue, Oct 25, 2011, 3:49 PM UTC

singer wrote: post #29

cbr wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"more convenient than tracking down an uninstall link within the email" Perhaps you should make your unsubscribe links easier to find?

The link is extremely easy to find. It's the only link that appears at the bottom of my emails. Checking the box in my Gmail inbox and clicking the "Spam" button is much easier than opening the email and hunting down the unsubscribe link.

"It's the only link that appears at the bottom of my emails."

Personally, I've noticed an increasing affinity for the 'tag as spam' button.

It takes a certain amount of effort to scroll down, and find the unsubscribe (I'm not even sure if it's there), vs. having my inbox cleaned up by just clicking the darn 'tag as spam' button -- dead easy. Also, there's the uncertainty about how daunting the unsubscribe experience might be. These days, quite many startups get their users to go through tedious surveys before they can unsubscribe completely. This results in a sticky association that's hard to undo: 'unsubscribe' is a hassle.

Are there ways around this?

How about a large button above the fold that says 'Don't mail me.', 'Junk!' or similar. Something that indicates they'll have their intended results: less of this sorta mail, and a cleaner inbox. On the other hand, this might result in more unsubscribes.

Re: It’s the founding CEO’s job to personally email the first 1000 users

#37

Post by MicahWedemeyer » Tue, Oct 25, 2011, 3:53 PM UTC

I wrote a little about this here: http://peachshake.com/2011/01/02/engagement-secret-the-autom...

I do it fully automated, but take steps to make it look handmade. I've found it to be incredibly effective, with probably a 30% response rate.

Doing it by hand might be a little nicer, but everything is a balancing act. If I can get 80% of the benefit by automating it, I'm happy with that.

Re: It’s the founding CEO’s job to personally email the first 1000 users

#38

Post by singer » Tue, Oct 25, 2011, 4:03 PM UTC

joeblossom wrote: post #33

singer wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The link is extremely easy to find. It's the only link that appears at the bottom of my emails. Checking the box in my Gmail inbox and clicking the "Spam" button is much easier than opening the email and hunting down the unsubscribe link.

This may be a stupid question, but are you sure your unsubscribe functionality is working? After "Successfully unsubscribing" to Appsumo (trust me, I saw the picture of the founder when I was done) about 6 times, I was still receiving emails from them, and therefore marked them as spam. I also will mark the companies that don't have an easy unsubscribe all method as spam. (IE, you didn't give me the option to opt-in/…

Yes, the unsubcribe link does work. I think the problem is that people are not interested in purchasing the product, so they mark the "your trial is ending" email as spam because it's easy to do. I don't think most people understand the negative impact of marking emails as spam. They simply want to take the path of least resistance.

Re: It’s the founding CEO’s job to personally email the first 1000 users

#39

Post by callmeed » Tue, Oct 25, 2011, 4:03 PM UTC

I'll go further and say that it's the CEO's job to personally CALL as many of the first 100 users as possible (if your startup is not aimed at developers/geeks).

I've been doing what this post recommends for Cilantro. We've hit 100 signups since launching the MVP 2 months ago.

A few random things I've noticed and done in addition to what's in this post:

- My response rate is lower than I thought (below 20%). My hunch is that this partly due to a very busy user base and partly due to language barriers.

- I tried using Tout to do this but in the end, I didn't see any benefit over GMail's canned responses.

- I actually called about 1 out of 3 new users (I ask for their phone number at signup). The response rate is WAY higher and the feedback I receive is much more valuable.

Re: It’s the founding CEO’s job to personally email the first 1000 users

#40

Post by jroseattle » Tue, Oct 25, 2011, 4:05 PM UTC

This is excellent advice.

With every startup I've been involved with, the first iteration of our product was not the last, nor was it perfect. I see this more so as a means of ensuring your product doesn't get between you and the customer. Most startups simply do not value customer service as part of the opening strategy.

Side rant: I blame Google for the perception that you can automate your entire business, without any human interaction. (Ever try to get support from a Google rep for an application?) Even Apple, who offers products that "just work", offers very good customer support.