Can you spot the email?

Jul 26, 2011 | Business

We’re trying to improve our communication with Moraware users, prospects, and even within our company. One of the ways that we reach people is by sending email newsletters with tips and news.

Here’s an hourly chart of traffic on our help site over the course of a few days. Can you spot when I sent the email newsletter?

So, there’s obviously an impact of sending out emails. That day we got about 3 times our normal traffic on the help pages, and that week was about double the average. But it’s not enough.

I’ve gotten specific requests from customers for more information, best practices, and how to use new features… and those same folks haven’t looked at the newsletters.

I’m guilty of the same thing – I get regular emails from other companies that I care about, but if I happen to be busy I mark it to “read later“. Now I’ve got over a thousand of those emails. So how do we make this better? I’ve got some ideas, all with pro’s and cons.

  • Real mailings, not just electronic. Pro: will sit on your desk for a while. Con: costs money for unknown effectiveness
  • More frequent email. Pro: more chance you get it when you’ve got time. Con: takes more effort, we don’t want to be spammers
  • Special offers, contests. Pro: probably increases engagement. Con: gimmicky, and might just attract folks who want free stuff.
  • More targeted emails. Pro: More relevance is more interesting. Con: More work, harder to manage (?)

Making sure we’re helping our customers and talking to our prospects is incredibly important to our business. My goal is to make sure we’re reaching every person who wants to hear from us, with the right information, at the right time… and the more we can automate the process, the better. I’ll keep you posted.

Want to know more? At Moraware, we make software for countertop fabrication shops. JobTracker is scheduling software that helps you eliminate the time you waste looking for job folders. RemnantSwap is a free place to buy and sell granite slab remnants with fabricators near you.