Adventures in Mobile Marketing

With the fun social events of the holiday season comes the annoyance that is Evite. They’re an old company that has cornered the event and calendar market. Their notification emails, though, remind me of 2004. Basically, early Web2.0 sites tend to send “teaser” notification emails, to make you log back into the site. They don’t tell you the basic information (where/when/who) in the email. Yes, it forces you to log into the site, laden with advertising. Unfortunately for me, I am always forgetting my password, it doesn’t cache right, or I’ve been invited by another obscure email address. These are examples of Evite’s information-free invitations:

and

What prevents them from including the information? I’m guessing getting higher traffic on site and services. If they did post the relevant logistics, people would still click through to RSVP or view other attendees. These informal holiday events highlight the increasing importance of putting relevant information in the above-the-fold area of the email, and in the inbox (not in a link out to a site.) Especially not to a link outside the site that requires a password. Some savvy hosts include the logistics by hand. And evite emails those logistics once you RSVP that you are attending. Still questionable practices, in my mind.

You could argue that the centralization of information on a web site is easier for users than in an email account. I would contend that having information in both places is best- both on the site and searchable, and in the inbox and searchable (and ideally in the subject line).

Not to only pick on Evite, Friendster, another granddaddy of the social networking world also does this annoying teasing thing:

(Why do I refuse to turn on images? Because I test this feature a lot. And it’s good to let companies know, if they’re reading this, that a lot of their audience sees their emails with images off.)

Sites That Do It Right
Qwitter gives you the guts in the email!

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