Last week I sent an email to remind 17 people they had registered for a seminar. Due to a glitch in the email system, the note was actually sent to 1100 people. ( And this time I know for sure it was not user error)
The result, was good and bad… More than 350 people responded. Many were confused because they didn’t remember signing up, some were apologetic, and some like my son and Father-in-Law were simply amused. ( My son is in the Navy, on his way to Thailand, and my Father-in-Law lives in Dallas)
So the bad … I needed to send 350 notes of explanation to friends, clients, colleagues, and prospects. This took up most of the day on Wednesday, even with the help of my staff.
The good … I had a chance to make personal connections with more than 350 people with lots of good conversations as a result. I have quite a few laughs, lots of sympathy, and made plans for a lunch date with an old friend who will be here in Indy for just one day later this month.
And best of all, five people showed up for the Seminar on Thursday who had not registered. They came because of the email! Now I am not going to suggest that this was a good marketing strategy, but it made me wonder what was it about that email that generated such a high response. (A 31% Response Rate for email is extremely high )
I found some answers in a post on Groundswell – In it the author talks about how to get people you don’t know to respond to your email. He suggests you keep the message short, to the point, personal and real. When I reread my email, I realized I had done just that, and the results were, overwhelming.
I lost a whole day answering email, so I won’t be doing that on purpose anytime soon, but I am going to apply some of the lessons, and make my mass emails more personal, and see if it changes the results!
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