1st Impressions

[Tower - Justin]

My colleague Adrian mentioned to me that he wanted to revise Tower’s welcome-email, (That automated email you receive upon having your new affiliate account validated) pretty standard stuff.

Yes, they are automated. (In case you couldn’t already tell ) We always send a tailored follow-up email shortly after to ensure that…’personal’ touch, but the automated one is always a bit more generalized.

Anyways…I thought (& still think) he has stumbled upon a great opportunity here (As usual ), so I decided to make this post to hopefully get some quality feedback before anything is put into production.



Here is my thought-process:

I look at a welcome email as…’1st contact’
Sure, usually before signing up as an affiliate with any particular program…I would presume the majority of us tend to do our homework, but that welcome email is the actual 1st-encouter you have with the program as a bona-fide member.

Now, I borrow a quote from the late William Hazlitt – “First impressions are often the truest…” which has been modified to such modern-day equivalents as: “You never get a second chance to make a first impression” & “First impressions are the longest lasting” (Origins unknown to me)

I am a big-fan of quotes; I believe them to be time and again…The most efficient way of getting the point across, & a likely contributor as to why the person’s words were cited to begin with.



In a nutshell:

* We want this welcome-email to thoroughly kick-ass.

* We don’t like to waste peoples time (Please excuse the hypocrisy which is the unnecessary length of this post)

* We want to minimize the number of questions affiliates have to ask (not that we don’t love to hear from you, just want to maximize time-management by minimizing questions that could have been avoided…So we can put more effort elsewhere) I hope I worded that correctly




The following points are a list of some of the things that a welcome-email could, potentially include:


• Username
• Password
• Welcome message/Closing statement
• Name/contact info of Manager
• Link to your members-area
• Commission-structure reminder
• Tracker examples ( generic trackers for players/sub-affiliates)
• Tracker directions (how to create/implement your own)
• Marketing tools available to you
• Directions on how to view/understand your stats
• Promotions/Offers/Events (to aid in marketing) what attracts players?
• Selling points (competitive advantages)
• Examples (pictures of banners) of banners accompanied by tracking-codes
• Payment information
• & of course…anything else you can think of



My question to you:

I you were to receive a flawless welcome-email…What would it consist of? Also, is there a point where this email could be considered too long/bulky? We don’t want to overload people with information & potentially lose their interest either…in pursuit of a happy-medium I suppose.



In Closing:

I ask you all not because I want you to do the dirty-work, but rather because your opinions matter to us. In the end, you are the end-users…& your input is what makes the difference.

One last quote, I promise - Jerry Maguire -“Help me…Help you”





P.S. – Yes, I will be mass-posting this across many forums. I know that some of you do not approve of this method…& I can imagine why. All I ask is that you try & relate to the purpose of doing so; I want to gather as much feedback as possible, that is all.

[Unknown Webmaster]

Stuff I don't like
I really don't like it when my password is included in the welcome emails. It force me to either delete the email or change my password.
(this is kind of a big deal to me)

Stuff I like
I would really appreciate getting a link to one or more short video(s) that show how to do the following:

1. Create a tracker.
2. Test if the tracker is working.
3. Create a link to the front page.
4. Create a direct download link.
5. Create a link to the promotions page (or any other page I should choose).

I would also like a link to a page with some high quality graphics I can use on my sites, especially your logos.

-----

These things could probably be lumped together on a "getting started" page or something like that, so it doesn't take up too much space in the welcome email.