If you're going to do this (and a _lot_ of startups seem to do this now), then it's critical to actually respond to people when they react to your email.<p>I've had a number of startups (OrderAhead, Instacart) email me shortly after I've signed up with a 'personalized' message. I've had issues or questions so I've followed up with them straight away - only to get no reply.<p>That, in a nutshell, is a perfect way to destroy retention. If you're going to do stuff like this, it's critical to follow through. My opinion of a company is strongly tied to how well and how quickly they respond to customer feedback.
One popular startup has been emailing me every couple days since I signed up a week or two ago, asking me if I'm having trouble getting started and suggesting some simple ways to start using their service today. That's great, but I have already started using it successfully.<p>Every time I get a new email I start to draft a "please don't bug me about this any more" reply, but I decide not to send it because I don't want to get on the radar of their sales staff. The only email I hate worse than spam is email from salespeople.
I guess I don't fit the template because I definitely find automated email, <i>especially automated email that masquerades as a personal email,</i> to be a big turn-off as far as first impressions go. When I register for something I don't mind an immediate confirmation email with an activation link, but just give me the help/support email address and if I need it I'll use it. THEN you get your chance to impress me with your responsiveness.
Having now spent a lot of time sending and analyzing email campaigns/triggered emails (I'm one of the co-founders of Klaviyo), we keep seeing that email is one of the best ways to turn analysis into action - not least because it gives you a complete feedback loop.<p>For example, say an Ecommerce store realizes most people only make 1 purchase and don't come back. With email, you can target exactly those people, but you also can quickly see if it worked (because you know who you sent it to, you can see if they actually made a purchase).<p>Retention is definitely really important, but I think what's at root here is that email is an ideal way to interact with users in a more targeted and personal way outside of when they proactively visit your website. The same feedback loop idea should (and will) apply to push notifications, texts, in-app messaging, etc as time goes on.
Sometimes I think startups make an effort to re-invent everything. If you want a successful email program then you have to go and <i>copy</i> the mailings (as in made of paper) you get from charities. Those are the best to study and follow. Pay attention to the language, the composition of the offer, the colors each page has (due to the purpose of each page), the layout, and how most include a little gift to get you to open it.<p>Now, the other day I noticed a little detail in the emails I would get from Firefly (Dan Shipper's startup). The <i>from</i> line said "Team". I emailed Dan and told him to change it to someone's name. He promptly did. But why? People relate to other people. Little details like these are what nudge people towards opening emails. Be very, very conscious about details. That's how you get engagement. The details.<p>Oh, and answer the damn emails. I hate replying with a question, only to be ignored because some idiot forgot to forward the mail to the general inbox.
For a recent application I developed, I used a series of 3 automated emails post sign-up. The first was sent right after signing up, with a "personalized" welcome that came directly from my email address. The second came 5 days into the trial period with suggested activities to try within the application, again from my email address. The third was sent 15 days into the trial and included links to the help and support site, along with links to tutorial videos for advanced activities. The third email was sent from our support team email address. Each message included the option to stop receiving general inquiry emails.
What do you guys all use for email management between a small 2 person team (founder co-founder)? I've seen that one person has already mentioned <a href="https://www.helpscout.net/" rel="nofollow">https://www.helpscout.net/</a><p>I've been using Assistly/Desk <a href="http://www.desk.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.desk.com</a> , but find that it's actually a bit overpowering, and adds a lot of support meta-junk to each email that just makes it looks like we're trying to be an enormous company, when in fact, we don't get that many emails, but at the same time, we want to handle each email efficiently and promptly.
This is a really powerful tool, and we use it too with generally good results. Getting feedback is hard, and it's a good way to accomplish this, whilst making users feel good about the company and product.<p>That said, I do start wondering if this becomes the norm, people will see through this. I already 'feel it' when those emails arrive from the founder, or katie from <insert company here>. It's almost obvious now that these are just automated emails, and it makes it feel much less genuine. A bit like when you know how a magic trick works, it's no longer magic...