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Look at it from a business perspective: What do you gain from having an e-mail: - usually nothing, unless you send your users spam. What do you lose from hav
by mixmax 19y ago
Look at it from a business perspective:
What do you gain from having an e-mail:
- usually nothing, unless you send your users spam.
What do you lose from having an e-mail:
- around 10% of your potential customers. (the number probably varies wildly from site to site)
- People who lose their password can't get into their account, unless they choose to provide an optional e-mail adress.
To me that is a pretty clear choice.
- deleted 19y ago[deleted]
- ivankirigin 19y agoConfirmation emails might be useless, but notifications of new features are not spam.
- nilobject 19y agoI generally get annoyed at sites that keep emailing me about new features. I always unsubscribe or opt-out at sign in, but some people don't offer that feature.
- kirubakaran 19y agoYup. If they don't let up, I mark those emails as "spam" in my Gmail. I guess that counts against them. They should have a "Don't mail me bro" checkbox. I don't always agree with their definition of "spam".
- mixmax 19y agoYes you're right - this was just off the top of my head... There might of course also be other valid reasons for wanting an e-mail adresse.
- powerflex 19y agoYeah, for example uniquely identifying users.
- mixmax 19y agoYou can do that with a username....
- powerflex 19y agoTrue however then users have to think followed by get frustrated dreaming up a name. They already know their email address. And unless they already signed up its probably not taken.
- mixmax 19y agoI think the frustration of entering your email, checking you inbox and following a confirmation link is a lot more than the frustration of dreaming up a name - which you have to do anyway unless you use your email as a login. I think that the metrics support this view as well.
- dbreunig 19y agoExactly. The business metric of email lists will keep them from going extinct.
- joshwa 19y agoThe other legitimate use of email is for actual features that use email-- internal messaging, invitations, notifications, reminders, etc. All your users have it-- have you thought about when your users might like to be notified about new activity relating to them? (opt-in, of course)
- mixmax 19y agoYou're absolutely right - this is a good reason for having a users e-mail. There are probably many others as well. You just shouldn't request an obligatory email adress, or even worse a confirmation by email, unless you really have to. It tends to scare a lot of users away.
- huhtenberg 19y agoAn ability of directly communicating with your users has a very positive effect on a valuation of the company. One thing is when you have N million User IDs, and another - N millions emails. Also if you are running a service with termed licensing, an email communication is how you drive the license renewal process. This sort of communication does not qualify as spam, because it is more of a service reminder rather than an unsolicited commercial offering.
- mixmax 19y agoI see your point, and of course you are right that it drives your valuation upwards if you can engage in a genuine conversation with your customers. I was referring more to the sign-up stage though, where you tend to lose a lot of potential customers with obligatory confirmation e-mails. But if you can get the conversation going after the critical sign-up step, you should by all means do so.