As the year came to a close, I spent the winter break cleaning out my inbox. I reflected on cold e-mails that we effective at getting me to open them and those that went to spam. In general, I didn’t like subject lines where I couldn’t see the full sentence in my inbox. I don’t like subject lines that are pushy or alarmist. I don’t like the same e-mail to which I never responded to being forwarded over and over. Most of all, I didn’t like getting e-mails where I was coded incorrectly (individual school vs school district) or customer status (never a customer, currently a customer, or no longer a customer). Let’s be better!
I do respond to some subject lines. It has to be relevant, like an event. I enjoy mentoring Edtech companies so I’m happy to provide feedback. I prefer our first interaction NOT to be a sales pitch. I appreciate product updates. The biggest homerun is reminding me of the value you are providing my users. This can easily be done with high-level product usage information. Sadly, virtually no EdTech company highlights its value on a regular basis. The few that do often provide data that is too low level.
