Category Archives: Common sense

I get about one of these a week:

From: UltraCorp
Subject: A Followup from UltraCorp

Dear Rafe,

This is Suzie from UltraCorp.

I’ve noticed that you haven’t been using UltraApp lately. We would really like to make UltraApp more useful for you, and it would help a great deal if you could tell us what went wrong. [Etc., with more whining. Also, I changed the names.]

The problem with this email, other than the fact that it’s sad and desperate, is this: I don’t know what went wrong, because I forgot what the product is and what it does. You’re assuming that I know something I don’t. And you just lost an opportunity to re-sell me on it.

Now, I’m sure there was a good reason I downloaded or signed up for it in the first place. I was probably excited to use it. Maybe it did just what I needed.

But then the need diminished, and I forgot about it. That happens. So what’s the best way to handle that? By reminding me of the product name?

Of course not. You need to remind me what WhateverApp did for me, or how it made me feel. Anything else is a massive failure.

Here’s what these letters should look like:

Hey Rafe, I’ve noticed that you haven’t used MomApp lately. According to our logs, you signed up for MomApp, the #1 app for reminding you to call your mom, on January 15 this year, and used it six times.

Remember, MomApp is the #1 service for
* Setting reminders to call Mom
* Telling you the top trending topics in Mom calls
* Keeping you up to speed on what you mom’s friends are posting on Facebook.

If you still need to do these things, try MomApp again! We even just added a new feature: Now we’ll remind you to call Dad, too!

If the app let you down in any way, we’d like to know why. Our engineers are always improving MomApp! Reply to this email and let us know.

We’d love to see you on MomApp again. So would your mom.

Yours,
MomCorp

In other words, don’t look at user fall-off as a failure. Look at it as a way to delight the customer with your pitch all over again.

Keep it upbeat!

Understanding jargon is a big part of covering technology. But no one reporter knows all the buzzwords. So saying that “everyone is talking about” acronyms you can be sure that most people have never heard before (except the geeks in your particular industry subset) is a waste of an opportunity to connect.

Dear Rafe,

Everyone is talking about SDN and NFV. But at Mobile World Congress 2014, [[company]] will go beyond the buzzwords and conduct the first public live demo of its Distributed NFV (D-NFV) solution.

On the other hand, you don’t want to talk down to people, either. Because then I’ll do another Pro PR Tip that’s the exact opposite of this one. So you can’t win.

Unless you know who you’re pitching.

I’ve seen plenty of pitches that stretch from current events to product news, but this one wins the Infinite Gap award, no question:

Hi,

We’ve all looked forward to this summer’s movie blockbusters, Spider-Man and Batman we’re both good movies but the real excitement starts with Object Storage :-) I wanted to share with you the top 5 must haves to look for when evaluating an Object Storage solution. Give it a read below, feel free to use the content and let me know if you need more info.

PS: Batman was the better movie, thoughts?

A list of 5 ultrageek things related to “object storage” follow. The company name isn’t even mentioned until the “about” paragraph after the list.

And although I hate to kick a decomposing horse, please, PR folk, learn English. Apostrophe’s have they’re place’s. Elsewhere, generally. Also, regarding smileys: If you feel the need to wink at me in text, rewrite that sucker.

Finally, What do you think you’re doing associating your product with a tragedy? The Batman movie is tainted. At least to journalists, who always have an eye on the news.

Thanks to: Stephen Shankland

See also:
Pro PR Tip #184: Piggyback
Pro PR Tip #167: Don’t bury the lead