Hi. This is a great startup lessons learned this week. Several months ago, we started sending an email to new users 18 hours after they sign up. Gives ’em a little time to get into the app & kick the tires, but while they are still fresh.
It goes like this: the subject line is “A Quick Question” and the message is a simple text email from me:
This simple email gets a 20%+ response rate and provides great feedback!
So this simple email gets a reply from more than 1/5th of the folks who sign up. As I mentioned a few weeks back, I can’t keep up with looking at all our new users like I could before we launched. So what are the benefits of this type of initial outreach? Here’s what I’ve learned:
- First, the note seems to be appreciated (at least by 20%). I think that’s positive as it helps start forming more of a personal vs. company-only bond.
- We get timely feedback where folks are finding us; that helps us with our marketing efforts.
- Often our users will also share other great information - either a question, a feature suggestion or some candid criticism. It’s all good and we feed it right back to our product and support teams. We’re all about providing immediate gratification, so this rapid feedback loop helps us figure out if we are delivering on that promise.
- And, here’s a ‘case in point’ example of how this simple question can start a dialog that builds the potential for bigger opportunities. Here’s a recent email discussion I had with Bill, who I later discovered runs a great SMB-focused agency. From Bill:
And the dialog begins
- Great! Bill knows the competition, and allowed me to start a dialog. You don’t have to bother reading my reply below, I just provided him our competitive differences:
Here’s my response to his question regarding how we compare to Cyfe
I thought that might be the end of it, although I did plan to follow-up. But Bill was impressed that I took the time to answer him, which led him to jump in and set up some dashboards. That’s an important first step. And he continued wanting more info, this time about managing multiple clients within his account:
Now he feels more confident in Dasheroo, and wonders how to better manage his client accounts.
So surprise! We do have a type of user permissions called ‘Organizations’ which allows agencies to keep each client in a private silo. It’s somewhat hidden in the navigation, so I let him know where to find it, and he was jazzed:
Bill then went on to ask me to connect on LinkedIn, and offered to open up his excellent network to me:
This dialog started with a simple question, led to a happy user, and now a referring customer!
Excellent. We now have not just a happy user, but Bill plans on adding multiple clients and users into his account (which we love). Plus, now he’ll refer us, or help us get connected, to others in his network!
This back and forth probably took a grand total of 10 minutes. And that’s only because I’m a slow typer. So you may think you can’t take the time to respond back to each and every user. And maybe you don’t. But here’s what I’ve learned from this initiative - make it easy for users to begin a dialog and at the very least take the time to respond to people that seem genuinely interested. Sure you could ship it off to ‘support’, but as long as you can, answer these emails personally. It’ll keep your head in the game, fosters loyalty and can lead to some very valuable relationships!
Shout out to my bud and awesome marketer Ted Rubin, who created the concept of Return On Relationship; this is an excellent example of that in action.
