I want to send <i>interested</i> users email updates about my progress with the app they're signing up to use. I see three choices (fill me in if I'm missing any):<p>1. Simply add users to the list when they sign up with their email address. Easiest and most effective, but assumes that a signup = permission to send email. Not totally comfortable with this; should I be?<p>2. Add a checkbox to the signup process that users can check if they want email updates. Nice middle ground, requiring some back-end integration but ensuring I have permission to email. But it won't catch anyone who's already signed up.<p>3. Add a blog-style pop-up, smartbar, or otherwise prodding UI element to gather signups. Easy for me, but annoying for users who just want to use the app and may already be signed up. But it does catch people who are already signed up for the app and aren't on the list.<p>All thoughts welcome.
While I would love to say 'just be reasonable' you should take some care here as you could be breaking the law by emailing people without permission. While laws differ by country you are best doing 3 things;<p>1) Include a check box saying you will mail people when they give you their email via sign-up. It's generally considered OK to pre-check this these days.<p>2) Distinguish promotional vs service emails you send. Its generally OK to send service emails without pre-consent e.g. new terms and conditions but you need permission to send promotional emails e.g. New refer a friend program.<p>3) Include an easy to find stop contacting me link on every communication. Don't try to hide this or make it difficult to use e.g. login in to update preferences. If people start marking you as spam this could hurt your ability to communicate with users once ISPs view your mail as lower quality.<p>Additionally I would avoid doing pop-up/notification style prodding. Any app that does this to me gets removed quick smart. Perhaps do this one time to update your current base but if you do this with any regularity any short term gains will likely come at a long term price.
Generally you're going to want to adhere to the CAN-SPAM laws.<p>I believe the general consensus is that you can email users for anything directly related to their account or the use of the service they signed up for. If you want to email them marketing-style information (more like a newsletter than an account-alert) you should use what's called a "double opt-in". Namely:<p>* User acknowledges on the site that they want to receive updates (they check an extra box, they submit a special newsletter signup form, whatever)<p>* You send them an newsletter-signup confirmation. They must click the confirmation link you sent them to be added to the mailing list.<p>* From then on every newsletter you send needs an easy unsubscribe link, etc.<p>Email service providers like mailchip, sendgrid, etc make managing this process very easy.<p>More details on best practices here:
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003#The_mechanics_of_CAN-SPAM" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003#The_mechan...</a>
I think you are overthinking this. If a user signed up and gave them your email for the purpose of trying your app, then that's the strongest indication that it's ok to email them.<p>Just don't be annoying. Don't send them daily updates with nothing interesting to say. Make sure they can always opt out. If you treat your (future) users with respect, everything will be fine.
In my site (<a href="http://alephz.com" rel="nofollow">http://alephz.com</a>) I separate subscribers and just people with an email for password reset and important notices.<p>I am totally honest with user that subscribe and let them know that they will receive a daily update on new content in the site. It works pretty well, actually. A Relatively good amount of users sign up, and I get almost no unsubscribers.
Collect emails in something like aweber. If they give you their email it is ok to email them. You have an unsubscribe link at the bottom of emails, so if they don't want them they can just click that.