Long time readers (bofem) may recall “More Ineffective Marketing — Emails that missed the mark” from a few months ago.
The “ABC” company I ripped apart in that email is Viewpath.
My decision to replace Viewpath’s name with an obviously generic name was to allow the reader to focus on the content rather the producer. I didn’t have any beef with Viewpath at the time, but they sure weren’t going to sell me anything with that email!
Here’s the next email, which I just received:
Subject: Your Viewpath account is still active – do you have any projects we can help you manage?
Dear Dave,
We’re contacting you because you are registered as a member of Viewpath – and to remind you that we’re ready to help you manage any project or activity more effectively!
Viewpath is the online project management solution designed by productivity experts to reflect the way people actually work. This free service provides a full set of easy-to-use tools to set up and manage project timelines, action plans, and task lists – to help you accomplish your goals with a team or on your own.
Just log back in to Viewpath, and in minutes you can build a project team, create the road map for a major initiative, or just organize your daily tasks.
· Log in at http://www.viewpath.com by clicking on the Member Login link in the upper left-hand corner of the Home page.
· Your unique Login ID is your email address: {user address}
· Enter your password. If you don’t have your password handy or forgot your password, click the link by “Forgot Password?” and we will send you a new one.
· Once you log in, you’ll find links to video tutorials and our online user guide on the Welcome Page for tips on getting started quickly.
We’re here to help – please contact us with any questions at support@viewpath.net, or call us toll free at (877) 843-9728, Mon. – Fri., 8am-6pm Pacific Standard Time.
Sincerely,
-Steve Davis
Viewpath Support
As you can see, this is much, much better than the previous email. However, it still has too much focus on features, and lacks focus on clear benefits to the consumer. I want to know exactly how I benefit from these features.
Since this is clearly (to me) a sales letter, if you’re interested in project management applications, feel free to check out Viewpath and report back. If you’ve used the service and products in the past, let’s hear about it!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
They finally got it right! Or at least in the right direction.
In a Frank Kern interview I recently saw, he mentioned that a lot of businesses have succeeded in spite of human nature, and that is going to have to change for businesses to succeed in the future.
Good marketing benefits everyone.
Sean´s last blog ..101 Project: Returning to Art
Yeah, I’m happy to see they are moving in the right direction.
At the moment, I’m pretty happy with Basecamp.
What Viewpath needs to do next is send a couple of short emails in a few weeks explaining specific benefits, how I can benefit more than from using Basecamp. That will get me logging in and checking out the interface and capabilities.