Sometimes another company does something I find appealing, though I’m not entirely sure how effective the method is when used elsewhere.
Today’s example is that I recently decided to try a DNA test via 23andMe to learn more about my roots, and I received the following a few days after I signed up:
I thought there were a lot of nice touches in this message. The photo at the top (I believe in the value of putting a face to the name, and particularly a face to the company), the use of my name, the gratitude, the founding story, the sense of community, and the signature. There isn’t one element that stands out above the rest, but as a whole, it felt good to receive.
I know this is a template email sent to anyone who signs up for 23andMe. And beyond simply feeling good to read, I don’t think this letter will impact my relationship with the company–I’ve already paid for the DNA test, and I’m just waiting for the results.
But it was nice. Nice is good. So is this method worth replicating?
A while ago I learned about the power of the order confirmation email from Dan Hallagan at Kayenta Publishing. Dan inspired me to update the Stonemaier order confirmation message to something that’s in the same realm as the 23andMe message:
As you can see, it’s missing a photo, and it doesn’t talk about the Stonemaier story; however, I think that might only make sense for order confirmations for our Champion program. Looking outside Stonemaier Games, my thinking is this type of message works well for subscriptions or memberships (not one-time orders).
What do you think? Does this type of message appeal to you, and in which situations? I’m curious to hear your thoughts.
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22 Comments on “Is This “Note from the CEO” Approach Worth Replicating?”
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A company I’ve bought from a few times is A Quarter Of, an online sweet shop here in the UK (apparently they do deliver to Canada, but not the US due to the added bureaucracy and fees). They have a series of about half a dozen emails that they send to new customers, telling stories about the company’s early days and how they had their breakthrough.
On my first order, they were a nice touch; when I got the entire set again following my most recent order (maybe my 6th or so?), it felt less special, and put me off a bit. I don’t know if it was a glitch, or due to a deliberate cool-down or cleanup – there was a fairly significant gap between that last order and my previous one, so it might have been a deliberate choice somewhere to either clear that flag or treat returning customers as new – though my other account details were still present, including previous orders.
Anyway, if you’re going to do a special email, I’d suggest distinguishing between first-time and returning recipients, because what’s an interesting story the first time is a lot less special the second time…
Overall I like this email. It sets clear expectations, invites me to join a community, and gives me a clear avenue of support for the future.
While others do raise a valid point about images using data, I would personally like to see the SM logo and maybe a different font style. If I was a new customer this would look a little too generic, like maybe the company is less legitimate. I wouldn’t care for a photo of Joe, but I would like to see his title or department.
I agree that a history of SM would feel weird in an order confirmation email, but you could easily provide a link with a “if you’d like to know more about us” kind of message.
I appreciate direct emails concerning the issue Im having, and I think SM does a great job at this. If Joe gets an email he responds back, Im not sure if his picture is necessary, and if the customer has to pay for data a picture will take more data, so you are costing some of your customers even more money. Since I think one of SM’s values in inclusivity, making your customers pay more may be against your value. Pictures before people buy and a way to share and highlight what your team does and their goals and mission may be cool, but after you get the customer, helping them as much as possible may be the direction you want to go. The book “Youtillity” by Jay Baer will offer more insight into being even more incredibly useful to potential customers. Your youtube page is incredibly useful for designers.
I definitely didn’t think about the data aspect, and I would not want customers to pay simply to receive an email.
A lot of us in the top 1% forget about what life is like in the lower 99%, 23andme caters to the top percent of the top 1%, but SM probably wants to be more accessible. If it wants to be accessible to the entire human race, it will need to work to hear from those who dont want to even give their oppinion or those who cant. You can probably have different strategies for different customers, for us, we believe we can give everyone a place to have value and belong, so even if homeless persons come in, we can treat them. Maybe a part of SM strategy to bring joy to all who play SM games would be a way for people to play who cant afford to even purchase their games or read the rules 🤷♂️. Think about what could happen if anything were possible 😉.
I like the photo addition, and I’d also update the email to include a link to Discord. Would it be very challenging for 2 versions–one for first-time customers, and one for returning customers? If I was a Stonemaier regular, I wouldn’t want to see the Stonemaier Story every time.
It might be possible to include the code to differentiate between first-time and multi-order customers. As for Discord, currently we’re focusing on people who follow Stonemaier Games on a regular basis (the link is in our ambassador, Champion, and normal monthly e-newsletters).
I actually don’t think that this is needed in a champion confirmation email as much. We already know who you are, actively support the company on a regular basis, and probably know the history. But if you can segment it so that a first time non-champion order gets a bit of a longer email with your photo and a little bit of your mission statement I think that could help turn those folks into champions in the future.
We’re looking into it, David, and I think we can do that!
I also loved the email I received from Dan Hallagan after ordering Obsession. What made Dan’s email so evocative is that it was more than a status update — it was an invitation to communicate. With Dan, you know that the email came from him, not marketing team. In fact, you can reply to it and know that he’ll not only receive it, he will probably respond. I doubt that the 23andMe email is like this.
It’s a little detail, but little details can make the difference in how people perceive your company, ESPECIALLY after their first purchase from you.
Whether you’re including links to things not easily found on your website, to specials you’re running in the store, or to well-trod social media space; or if you just want to express your appreciation for their purchase, the extra note is always a nice thing. Some companies have even included a hand-written note or card in the box with an order, and somehow, that makes me feel like they value my business, that they see my one little order as important.
I would not want this in my inbox.
It’s the sort of thing which belongs on the “About Us” section of a website.
Michael: Do you want order confirmations in your inbox? I’m just curious if it’s the content of this message that you don’t want in your inbox, or if it’s the extra message you don’t want.
Yes, I would want order confirmation, but I would prefer it to be just that.
I don’t need company history or how the product I ordered came to be. That’s the sort of thing I might want to know before I place an order.
And the photo would annoy me in such an email. If I am “blinking” to collect email using expensive mobile data I want my email to be lightweight, low graphic stuff. It doesn’t have to be plain text, but simple logos will usually have all the effect you need.
I’m happy to look at photos on the web when I have WiFi. Those sending me files cannot know what sort of connection I will have when I collect the email.
I know this is levels beyond what you were thinking this morning, but what I’d personally do with your sample message is get more granular and split it into two different sequences of 2-3 emails that send out over a week or two.
One sequence for a new customer who’s never bought from Stonemaier before, with the emails being: 1) (a day or two after they order) thank you/shipping timelines/FB groups for the games; 2) (3-7 days later) welcome to Stonemaier/about the company/company social media pages; 3) (target this one for when the game should be getting there) any how to play resources/the missing or damaged parts link/Facebook groups again.
For your returning customers, similar to the above but you can skip email 2 or replace it with a pitch for Champions, if they’re not a member, or a thank you for being a Champion if they are.
If you really want to get crazy with it, set up a 4th email in both sequences targeted to send about a month after their game ships, inviting people to review on BGG or to share any content they’ve made about the game with you on social media.
Lioness: Thanks for this idea, and fortunately Shopify is set up really well to do this–there are a bunch of different types of automated emails we can send at different times (currently I think we only send two of them–order confirmation and shipment confirmation).
I have two places that I regularly receive “notes from the CEO” from. One is a clothing company where every time you make a purchase you get a thank you email from the CEO. The other is an organization that I make monthly donations to and every month I receive a thank you email from the CEO. Both of them have signatures and their respective story, neither have a photo. I think the first time I received these emails I thought it was a nice touch, but now it has lost all meaning for me. I know it’s a form letter, automatically sent off based on something, and it always says the same thing. So I see them pop up in my inbox and I don’t even open them anymore, they go straight to the trash. Depending on how often they are going out to the same person, I think it is a balance of being a nice touch vs being annoying to receive.
Allyson: That’s a great point about how often you get the messages; I agree that they tend to lose their meaning after the first.
I think we all like to feel special and important, even if we know it is a canned response. I think the 23andMe does this by making you feel like you have joined in with a cool company with really awesome goals. In essence it is sort of a “you just supported something really awesome! Let me tell you about it!” type of email, and I agree that it feels good! Even the signature word of “Onward” feels exciting as if they are saying “let’s keep doing more cool stuff together!”
I think if you wanted to capture this in your email you would want to make your supporters feel like they are part of your mission “Our goal is to bring joy to tabletops around the world! We do this by x, y, z, and you are supporting that! Thank you!”
I love knowing we have Joe’s contact info and he will actively pursue helping us with any problems we have. That feels really great and comforting.
Links to get involved are really great too!
Another thing that I would find impressive, is if around the time my game arrived I received an email focused more on learning to play. Maybe along the lines of “You’re about to experience Euphoria like never before! Here is an infographic to help you turn Ignorance into Bliss as you learn the rules, as well as some links to some great rules explanations!” The more cheesy puns the better in my opinion, haha!
I hope that is helpful, and thanks for always pursuing excellence!
Onward!
“I think if you wanted to capture this in your email you would want to make your supporters feel like they are part of your mission “Our goal is to bring joy to tabletops around the world! We do this by x, y, z, and you are supporting that! Thank you!””
I really like that, Skiler–share a quick glimpse of our goal, and be sincere about wanting to achieve that goal for every order.
We actually did try to make the notification super specific, but it involves so many different iterations of the notification email. Dan’s able to do it because he just has Obsession. :)
I also always love it when the order confirmation includes ways to prepare, like an instruction manual/video. Alternatively, it could add an affirmation* that you made the right choice, by adding game specific informafion like how sustainable it is and what its rating is on BGG.
CoolBlue is a Dutch company that’s super strong in the CRM department, and sends great emails and things. e.g. the shipment confirmation has a link to a pdf with silly instructions on how to make your own confetti to great the postman with. And every time a customer service employee helped you pick out a product, they send an actual hand-written, personalised card with a tiny note along the lines “You wanted a bag that’s cool, but not flashy, and I think we nailed it together. Enjoy! ~ Boris”. They’re so cool that I talk about them each time I need a good example, like now, so good job, CoolBlue! 😅
I do think it’s important to many people (and even a legal issue in Europe), that transactional emails are about their transaction. E.g. an order confirmation would be upgraded with “these next steps will be undertaken now, on our end, to get your game to you (and this is how long it will probably take)”, like a shipping confirmation preferably has a tracking link. At the same time, I don’t want suggestions like “other customers also bought” or a voucher, at this point, as it’s too late to add them to my order. In Germany there’s even a law that states, you may only offer this type of non-transaction-specific content to customers who specifically opted into your commercial newsletter.
*On that note, here’s a sidenote: we’ve A/B Tested (at work) the “Good choice!” type of affirmation when the customer put something in their cart, and saw a significant cart success rate uplift. It’s not a new experiment, as we simply got inspired by another shop, but we confirmed it nonetheless 🙃
I love that CoolBlue example! And I like the idea of affirming a choice when something is added to a cart. Thanks for your comment!