The BufferApp Welcome Email

119 points by yakshay 13 years ago | 16 comments

We at Auctionful.com joined BufferApp today. I was quite struck by how simple and personal the welcome email was.

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Subject: Joel from Buffer - Amazing to have you on board!

Hi,

I’m guessing it's not every day that you sign up for a new service. That's why I want to make sure everything is in place for you to feel welcome and at home. On the slightest whim, please drop us a line hello@bufferapp.com or Tweet us @bufferapp.

I hope you have already got the gist of using Buffer. If there is just one single tip for getting the most out of it, I'd say try the browser extension. I think you'll love it. It’s a terrific way to amaze your friends and followers with awesome content you find on the web. Whenever you find something you want to share, click the Buffer icon in your browser. That’s it.

One last thing I want to say is that the whole team are always around, almost 24/7, to reply to your emails. In fact, you can just hit reply to this email or any others you receive from us. Whether you need help, have ideas or just want to say "hello", we'll get back to you within a few hours.

- Joel and the Buffer Team

P.S. In case you also want to connect with me personally, just Tweet me anytime @joelgascoigne

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My notes

1. From the founder

2. Open with a personal note.

3. Reassure them that you are super responsive, and that this is a beginning of a conversation.

4. Product one liner

5. One tip.

6. A way personal to connect with the founder.

7. No images, all text - made it very readable.

8. Also note the usages of - Amazing, Terrific, Love it used in the context of the product.

Very solid. While these points may sound simple/obvious, a lot of services fumble here.

patio11 13 years ago |

That's well done.

You can split the product intro email and the personal intro from the CEO email, by the way. Stagger the CEO email by a bit and deliver it as text only, and many users will perceive it as if the CEO had just mailed them personally.

e.g.

Hiya,

I saw you signed up for the free trial the other day. My name is Patrick and I'm the founder of the company. Drop me an email any time if you have a question or need anything.

I know one guy who puts "Sent from my iPhone" on it but that strikes me as being more aggressive than I'd care to do. (If you don't like the "I saw you signed up for" verbiage then a) email this email to yourself, rather than to them, and b) copy/paste the text into a new email to the email address called out at the top. Then everything is literally true again.

scraplab 13 years ago | |

> Then everything is literally true again.

And yet completely fake.

francesca 13 years ago |

Joel and his team are awesome. They make a great product and make great decisions when it comes to their customer support. They also do great emails for buffer updates

--------------------------------------- Hi,

I hope all is going well with you! I'm super excited to share the news about a big new Buffer feature. You'll now be able to track analytics in real time for each of your social media posts to know exactly how much impact they have had.

The following analytics are in your account now:

For your Tweets: number of clicks, retweets, mentions, favorites and reach. For your Facebook posts: number of clicks, likes, comments, shares and reach. For your LinkedIn posts: number of clicks, likes, comments and shares. Check out this blog post to get more juicy details about how the new Buffer analytics work.

It'd be awesome get any thoughts you have on the new real-time analytics feature or how you use Buffer in general. Just hit reply to let us know.

- Joel and the Buffer Team

P.S. The whole Buffer team (check out this picture of us! :)) is sitting here and we are waiting eagerly to hear about your thoughts and ideas. We'll be around to answer all your emails for the next few hours. Drop us a line!

---

My notes:

- from the team - they are sticking around after sending the email to answer requests - New feature description is short and sweet

zakshay 13 years ago | |

There is certainly a theme to their emails.

Critics of this style say that lengthy emails are bad, and that their length does not convey extra information.

I would like point out that there is a email writing style for office use and a different one for customers.

neebz 13 years ago |

I had a similar email when I joined InVision but unfortunately it gave a very creepy feeling.

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Subject: Your insights?

Hi again,

I think you signed up a couple weeks ago now...

How has your team been liking InVision so far? Any new ideas on ways we can make our product even better?

Write me back, I would love to hear from you...

P.S. Did you know about the UX Toolkits section? You can download a bunch of totally FREE high quality UI widgets and stencils -- and we're adding new ones all the time. Check it out: https://projects.invisionapp.com/resources/

Thanks! -- Clark Valberg

duiker101 13 years ago | |

Apart from the "shameless plug" at the bottom it seems an ok mail to me.

hopeless 13 years ago | | |

Actually, it's terrible and nothing like the Buffer email. This one is impersonal and it's all me, me, me... all about the project and the company, not the customer. And "I think you signed up a couple weeks ago now..." sounds bizarrely vague. I mean, do they know I'm a customer or not? Have they paid any attention to me? Apparently not. And then they expect feedback about their product. This could've been phrased much better so the focus was on improving the customer's experience or resolving their problems.

@neebz: I understand why you didn't like that email, although I wouldn't equate it with the Buffer one

jamesdeer 13 years ago |

I enjoy hacking email copy so I rewrote this for fun trying to make it a little easier to take in:

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Hi John,

I'm Joel, the founder of Buffer. Thanks so much for signing up.

It's probably not every day you sign up to something new so I want you to know that my team and I are here to make you happy, 24/7.

You should try out our awesome browser extension. It'll help you share amazing content to your friends and followers twice as fast.

Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions!

Have an awesome day.

Cheers! Joel

P.S. You can catch me sharing interesting content on Twitter, @joelgascoigne and the team and I usually respond to emails within a few hours.

zakshay 13 years ago | |

While its shorter, I think its very bullet pointy - if you know what I mean. The original text reads more fluidly as if it was a conversation. Even though its longer, it has a sense of personality - making it more readable.

Reebz 13 years ago | | |

I agree. Over condensed copy can easily come off as insensitive and pushy. I feel this is pushing me to try that browser extension.

People should not be afraid of long copy, just make sure your hook is sweet enough to get people on board for a meaningful ride.

swastik 13 years ago | | |

I agree, too. Sometimes, while trying to remove the superfluous elements, we kill the essence of the e-mail copy. The original one is fairly good.

inspiredworlds 13 years ago |

I really like how the message they put on the end of the email about how they will stick around and answer any customer emails. I actually took up their offer and emailed them back to let them know I like the product but it wasn't solving enough of a pain point for me to upgrade it. They got back to me immediately and said they'd keep working hard to solve that pain point for me.

I'm actually considering doing something similar in my next email newsletter, cause that's awesome customer service.

wjamesg 13 years ago |

Agreed, keeping it simple. It'd be cool if more services resorted to well-crafted text-only emails. Never going to happen, heh.

muratmutlu 13 years ago |

I signed up for Buffer but never got around to using it but I do remember this email and thinking how good it was

timjahn 13 years ago |

Joel and his team are AMAZING at this kind of stuff. My favorite is how at the end of every email blast they send, they put a PS at the bottom that says feel free to hit reply, they're standing by for the next few hours to answer all replies to that email.

srik 13 years ago |

The once from Mixergy, Im afraid I might have deleted mine, but it was unique and offered a lot of customised value.