Re:WTF Am I Looking At? How Not to Send a Mail
by newscracker on Monday October 24, 2016 @10:22AM
(#12779011)
On this note, I read the article and thought maybe I should feel like "WTF Am I Looking At? How Not to Write an Article".
The title of the paragraph that says "The Problem" says this:
> Do I need a new account? “Get a New Account” is the the only obvious button I’m prompted to click. Yet, when I click it nothing becomes any clearer.
That is not a clear enough problem statement for some random person on the Internet to understand what the author is even talking about at first read! Instead of a long winded article (which Medium as a platform seems to attract), where the problem is explained in terms of the solution, and which still didn't seem clear by the end, the problem could've been explained better initially.
Edit: The article about "Tappers and listeners" that was linked to was great!
Re:WTF Am I Looking At? How Not to Send a Mail
by batbkw on Monday October 24, 2016 @10:17AM
(#12778956)
i did think about that when writing the headline and post. i hope you don't feel bait-and-switched. it seemed to me that in context of web the e was not necessary. next time i'll consider putting back the e.
Re:WTF Am I Looking At? How Not to Send a Mail
by reacharavindh on Monday October 24, 2016 @10:36AM
(#12779142)
No, the title rang a bell because I was recently concerned about sending my Passport over mail to an embassy for VISA. So I wanted to know if there was something crazy about mail :-)
The post interesting nevertheless. I've had my share of similar email experiences as well.
Re:WTF Am I Looking At? How Not to Send a Mail
by FriendlyBeard on Monday October 24, 2016 @10:24AM
(#12779035)
I work in higher education, which means there are a lot of {terrible} emails sent out daily. Recently I've started educating the senders on how to be more effective, as well as not just copy and paste event listings from our website to Mail Chimp.
It's a challenge teaching people how to be more effective in their emails communications.
The title of the paragraph that says "The Problem" says this:
> Do I need a new account? “Get a New Account” is the the only obvious button I’m prompted to click. Yet, when I click it nothing becomes any clearer.
That is not a clear enough problem statement for some random person on the Internet to understand what the author is even talking about at first read! Instead of a long winded article (which Medium as a platform seems to attract), where the problem is explained in terms of the solution, and which still didn't seem clear by the end, the problem could've been explained better initially.
Edit: The article about "Tappers and listeners" that was linked to was great!
The post interesting nevertheless. I've had my share of similar email experiences as well.
If you really "get into their head" you'll find what they really want is no unsolicited email at all.
It's a challenge teaching people how to be more effective in their emails communications.
Perfect advise. And if that's not possible: Ask someone in your target audience to give you feedback.
You don't need A/B tests, fancy markup or the newest marketing patterns if the gist of your message is misunderstood.
Ideally, the gist of the message should be in the subject line.