Ask HN: What to do with pre-launch emails? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What to do with pre-launch emails?

21 pointslachyg23 comments

So I've had my pre-launch site up over at http://collectivejam.com/ for 3 or 4 days now, and have collected around 300 emails. It's steadily increasing, which is great.

The thing is, I've only got one email planned, and that's the launch email. I'm not sure when I should email the list, with updates, with questions, with requests for developers, etc?

The only other thing I've been doing is emailing people who's email or site I recognise.

What do you think? What sort of emails should I send out?

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If I had signed up, personally I would want an email when you go live (usable beta level). I don't want a confirmation, I don't want to know that you are 37.5% done, I don't want to know what your dog had for breakfast.

When you send me an email that you have gone live, either a link to continue to be on your mailing list or a link to request to be off would be good.

I'll make an unsubscribe link pretty prominent, thanks!

Two other things on unsubscribing. One as an spam detector I use a different variation on email address for every site I ever sign up to, so "reply to unsubscribe" sucks (I note that you said a link, which I like).

I have been stupid enough to push a unsubscribe link by mistake. I prefer that it automatically unsubscribes me rather than having to push a button to confirm, but it is not a bad thing to also have a Whoops I made a mistake button.

To me "notify" signifies a "one off" email saying "hey, we're live".

I think the "click here to continue to be on the list" is more polite than "click here to unsubscribe" in this case.

What would be better still would be to spell out the situation under the input box. e.g. "We'll only send you one email when we're live" or "We'll spam you everyday until you tell your friends" or something in between. Just be upfront about it so people's expectations are accurate.

Invite them to an online poll inquiring about their hiring needs and frustrations. This will be a great way to validate that you're thinking right and to see how these quality leads themselves are describing the problems you are thinking about

If you really want to crush it, reach out and make friends with some of the people on your list. From the material you collected in the polls, you can get in touch with each of them and ask for specifics, tell them how you are adressing the problems they are describing and so on.

At this scale, don't think only of automatic emails. You are probably very eager to get to the stage when your email list is so huge that automated emails is the only way to go. But at this point, it isn't. Use that to your advantage.

Whatever you do. Make sure you invite people to tweet about the signup page after they submit. That way it will spread virally.

Great idea man, just done that!

Strangely, even though your pre-launch copy is an absolute and obvious lie (it can't be the top choice, it hasn't even launched yet) I still feel attracted to sign-up. So, um, well played. I guess it's a sign of how bad the tech recruitment market is that people are keen to throw themselves at vapourware. Anyway, good luck!

Well, someone told me it was his top choice, so I took his word for it ;-)! But thanks, I did about 8 iterations on that copy.

I have to say that copy put me off as well--and I didn't sign up. :)

I don't think it put the above commenter off, as he signed up. Is it the top choice that put you off, or was it that you weren't actually interested in what it is we have to offer?

I'm a freelance developer so I assume I potentially factor into your audience in some way. I also encounter people who need developers so am a potential source of referrals.

To me "the top choice for entrepreneurs, designers and businesses to hire world-class coding talent" is an grandiose, empty and (certainly this early) probably untrue statement. I don't like to deal with people that make statements like that so it makes a negative first impression on me.

It also makes me ask the questions:

* "top" Compared to what? In what way?

* How do I know the coders are "world-class"? Is there vetting? Guarantees?

Possible replacement:

"CollectiveJam helps entrepreneurs, designers and businesses to hire coding talent."

I don't know enough about your product to be able to say what a reasonable and accurate claim is. :) If I knew more I could probably extend that above to say "...by something something somethinging the something."

Then again--I'm not a copywriter. :)

The thing is, your replacement doesn't instill excitement or curiosity, it's a bit 'boring' if you know what I mean? But you're right, the coders are vetted, and there are guarantees! So I guess it's saying something.

Yeah, I agree it lacks a certain punch. But then again if that's the problem when you take the hyperbole out of the copy there's a bigger problem. :)

I quess a semi-personalised email asking for feedback on the service for each subscriber could make them more positively inclined towards it, plus, if you time it right, it could work as a reminder for people that have used your site in the beginning but then forgot about it.

How did you manage to get exposure in order to collect so many emails in such a short period of time? Ads or something else?

1. I tweeted about it. 2. I got everyone I knew that would tweet about it, to tweet about it. 3. I got on CSSMania, which converted at about 40% 4. I got on and am getting on a few more CSS Galleries (and designers are my target market!) 5. I got a lot of attention in a HN thread.

Thanks for the tips here.. 300+ sign ups is a lot for a relative new site. I will give these a shot! I guess having a decent design help.. I'm launching my site ( www.tradesalerts.com ) in a few days too. So far, I got just 1 signup. :P

If you are concerned about 'pissing' people off don't do it.

If you want to reward them for signing up you can try a couple of things:

1. Thank them by letting them on before you go live. Let them know that you will go live later on but that you wanted to give them early access.

2. Let them know that they can have early access if they want to help beta test it.

3. Let them know pre-launch that you are offering free accounts via an affiliate/recommendation program. Dropbox does this well.

One email to guide my users how to use the application through a video, or maybe a step by step guide, you are planning on a step by step guide, see dropbox. I think they did a good job to help new users on board.

How have you spread the word about your site?

1. I tweeted about it.

2. I got everyone I knew that would tweet about it, to tweet about it.

3. I got on CSSMania, which converted at about 40%

4. I got on and am getting on a few more CSS Galleries (and designers are my target market!)

5. I got a lot of attention in a HN thread.

P.S. Where is the formatting guide on HN?

You should be confirming those email addresses immediately (double opt in), what you don't want are most of those emails not reaching the inbox, because someone typed their gmail address wrong. Start getting your sender score up.

I've hand checked most of them, and it's about 98% at the moment.

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