MindComet

Our Mobile Addiction

In a recent study conducted by Bright Hand, it was concluded that the majority of people with mobile email-retrieving devices (Blackberrys, iPhones, etc) are “addicted to email”, naturally.  The average user checks their email regularly: 5 times a day, while the majority checks their email every time they receive a new message.  Some are even so obsessed with their mobile device, that they sleep next to it, just in case an important email arrives in the middle of the night.

To further prove the obsession, 83% check their email while on vacation, 53% in the bathroom and 12% while at church.  Ridiculous.

You can read the entire report here.

Thanks to Dylan at theemailwars for bringing this survey to light.

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Posted by MindComet on Aug. 16, 2007

Where’s the Call to Click Through?

I received an email today from RedEnvelope, a great place for unique gifts. I was a bit discouraged and confused by their message. Their subject line read, “Last Chance - First Glance”. The reason Im confused is because I hadnt seen any other previous messages come through so how could this be my last chance? So I opened the email and its for their summer sale. Do they have that robust of a tracking system in place where they know I havent visited in a while, and even if they did, the subject line has still discouraged me in that I should be receiving more frequent email updates on their sales opposed to having to visit the site to find out. Lastly, here is how the message read:

So you would think the RedEnvelope in red would be the clickable links yet its the “summer sale” text that is clickable.  Maybe they are trying to keep this sale a secret.  As for the first glance, its about launching their new website.  At least they are giving me proper notice on their site launch so Im not completely surprised next time I visit, Ill give them that.

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Posted by MindComet on Aug. 14, 2007

MooseJaw’s Got it Goin’ On

I have to utilize this blog post to rant and rave about MooseJaw’s email communication.  Let me begin by telling you about my overall enjoyment of online shopping, convenience being my number one favorite and ease of accessibility being the second, shopping 24/7 – now we are talking!  I shop online for furniture, clothing, movie and music tickets and gifts of all sorts.  My most recent purchase happen to be from MooseJaw.  I’m headed on an Alaskan cruise in just over a month and need some additional gear considering I live in FL and it hardly ever gets below 30 degrees, well besides in our office.  So while doing my shopping, I signed up for their newsletter and here is what the message read:

Hey kelly -
Thanks for signing up to get emails from Moosejaw. When you get an email from Moosejaw you should print the email legal size and get it framed for your foyer. We recommend a mahogany frame. If you don’t have a foyer please consider hanging all your emails in your kitchen or bedroom.

To celebrate receiving our emails you get Double Moosejaw Rewards Points on your next order. Really, it’s true. Moosejaw was named one of the Top 50 Best Web Sites by Internet Retailer in 2007 so we must know what were doing. We actually have no clue what we’re doing but Double Rewards means you get 20% of your first purchase back in rewards points to use for gear and apparel at MoosejawRewards.com. So, if you purchase a $200 jacket, you get $40 back to spend at MoosejawRewards.com.*

Love the Madness.

Moosejaw

This has been my favorite personalized welcome message yet because its goes beyond the standard, thanks for signing up lingo. 

So then the second message came after I submitted my order because it asked if I wanted to receive the newsletter before processing, which I do so if my email was submitted twice since I just previously signed up, then their system should figure it out.  This one was different and even more amusing:

Thanks for signing up. Did you know the first account ever created was when Julius Caesar signed up for mime classes in 60BC? We recommend buying seven items and telling nine people about Moosejaw. When you’re bored please check out the Moosejaw Madness section at http://www.MoosejawMadness.com. The Moosejaw Madness section was called “extraordinary” by made up customer #847. I’ll stop bothering you now. Love the madness. Moosejaw http://www.moosejaw.com

Complete randomness but yet I’m reading it and more excited about the emails than my purchase.  Lastly, my purchase order summary came:

Look at all these links to click on and all the information I want to hear like discounts, order status, rewards and community.  Not only are they driving me back to their site to increase their time spent on site stats, but they are getting me to thinking, what else do I need for my trip?!

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Posted by MindComet on Aug. 08, 2007

My Wishlist

I cant recall a time Ive ever used a wish list before, I usually just go ahead and make the purchase however with my birthday coming up, I figured Id make it easy on my significant other.  So I did my shopping and added everything to my wishlist, however when it came time to send I couldnt find the ‘my wishlist’ button anywhere prominent on the site.  I easily found the “shopping bag” however I was only able to find the ‘my wishlist’ button by going into my account preferences.  From there I had to add my significant others email and submit before being able to send him a personalized email that explained the reasoning behind why he was getting a lengthy list of items certainly not for him.  So I began to wonder if this is simply part of poor usability on the site or is the brand making it more difficult to send a wishlist to get me to buy instead?

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Posted by MindComet on Aug. 06, 2007

Is Texting Taking Over Teen’s Properness?

I was reading Tiffany Young’s article today on iMediaConnection on how to reach teens through email.  I started coming to some of the same realizations she did a few weeks back while out with family and friends.  We were all eating dinner and my friend’s children were at the dinner table, pizza in one hand and their cell phones in the other, texting what seemed to be 100 words a minute.  Their trick to being able to text so quickly while still getting their meal down was to abbreviate every word they could so their message would come out to something like this, “what r u doing?’ and “nm, c u 2morrow.”  All this abbreviated texting got me to thinking, are teens going to remember to capitalize beginning of sentences and end their sentences with proper punctuation or is texting going to take over their daily responses to email and face to face communication?  Young made a very valid point that if you get the right message across you can get the user to click on email messages however I’m still curious to learn what happens when that 89 percent have to hit the reply button?  Yesterday we pointed out that email is here to stay but are the demographics and purposes for using email changing?

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Posted by MindComet on Aug. 03, 2007