Stop Assuming I Know You!

At least once or twice a week, I get some email that's smartly crafted, personable, and I have absolutely not a single clue why I'm receiving the email or the company that sent it. It typically goes something like this:

From: [Product]
Subject: [Product] Version 2 Released!

Hello [Product] User!

We've been hard at work that last few months redesigning [product]. We haven't seen you in a while and there have been some changes, so we thought you'd like to give us a second chance. We've redesigned [product] so that it's { faster, cooler, prettier } and would love for you to give it a try again.

After you try out [product], we'd love your feedback! Click the feedback link.

Cheers,
[Founder name], Founder [Product]

Since no one seems to ever name their products based on what they actually do, I have no clue who you are. Do you know how many emails I get in a day? Week? Month? Since I signed up for your service? On top of that, I have 59 more unread emails in my inbox right now so the chances of me pausing to figure out what it was that your application was supposed to do is near impossible.

What about crafting a message that tells me who you are?

From: [Product]
Subject: We Listened to Your Feedback, Announcing Version 2 of [Product]

Hello [Product] User!

You may not remember us, but we remember you! You checked out [Product] a while ago. We developed [Product] to make [something slow] faster, [something difficult] easier, and [something cool] even better. After we launched, we received specific feedback:

1. It wasn't fast – So we did { a, b, c } to speed it up.
2. It wasn't easy – So we did { d, e, f } to make it simple.
3. It wasn't cool – So we added { g, h, i } to enhance it.

Initial feedback has been really strong on the product's latest version, and we'd really appreciate you giving us a second chance. In fact, if you don't mind, we'd love you to respond directly to our team on [date] where they'll be available at [someplace]. If you'd like to see a demonstration of the new version, you can see the 2 minute video [here].

[screenshot 1] [screenshot 2] [screenshot 3]

Your feedback was instrumental in these improvements, and we'd love additional feedback with the new version. To sweeten the offer, we're giving all our folks who give us feedback [ a nice gift ].

Thank-you,
[Founder name], Founder [Product]

I hope you can see the difference! You can be both personable and personalized in an email that you send and still remind the reader of who you are and why they should respond to your offer. Even within a professional newsletter published on a great email marketing platform, you can add a nice note in the header or footer of the email reminding the email recipient how they know you.