Emailing End User, Not Purchasing Dept

2 points by APCarr 9 years ago | 2 comments

Suppose you sell a B2B software, and you want to send emails to help the end user understand how to get the most of out it - how to ensure the right person is getting the emails?

Many companies will be using a purchasing dept or at least someone higher up will be paying. Does that mean they, instead of the end user, will be getting detailed instructions that they're not interested in?

I presume this issue is tackled in an existing neat and elegant manner? If so, could someone tell me what it is, as this is bugging me... :)

greenyoda 9 years ago |

You're making the assumption that email is the right medium for this kind of information. But people are busy, their in-boxes are already too full, and they have too much important email to read without being interrupted by unimportant stuff.

As one of those busy people (I'm a senior developer), I would not want to receive those kinds of emails from a vendor of a product I'm using. Receiving that information as emails means that I have to do the work of saving the emails that I find useful, and also that I get interrupted by the emails that I don't find useful. I'd much prefer for the vendor set up a well-organized web site that has FAQs, tutorials, etc. that I could search or bookmark. Make it easy to find that information from the main "help" page of your product. Also, create a blog on your web site for product news. If it's useful, I'll subscribe to it in my RSS reader and read it when I have some spare time. (Make it a real blog. Don't assume that I want to follow your company on Twitter or Facebook, where there are all kinds of ads and other junk competing for my attention.)

APCarr 9 years ago | |

Great reply, thanks! :)