Ask HN: Best way to use pre-launch email signups strategy?

[lifestyleigni]

I've been working full time on my startup SpotHero since September. We put up a splash page to collect email addresses as the application is being built out.

I've collected a couple hundred email signups with my startup http://spothero.com Currently, the "confirmation for an email submission" is on the website and they do not get a follow up email. What is appropriate to send out before it becomes "spam"? There are a ton of things I can do with the email signup list, but I don't want to put people off.

[joelrunyon]

If you're talking about the 'legal considerations' of when it becomes spam, if they "opted-in", you can send them whatever you feel like as long as you have an unsubscribe at the bottom along with your physical address.

CANN-Spam regulations can be found here with more info --> http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus61-can-spam-act-complia...

That said, you don't want everyone unsubscribing so you need to focus on making sure your emails are not "perceived" as spam. Perception > Reality.

Basic [very basic] tips. --Make the emails useful (give people inside tips on places to park, ways to avoid fines, hidden parking gems of the week) --Don't make the emails all about you. They signed up for your list because they think you can help them with some sort of problem. Help them solve part of their problem in a small way, prove you're an expert and then when you launch you can let them know that you can solve a much bigger portion of their problem --Segment your list. Find out who's opening up & clicking through your emails and who isn't. Send the people who are opening & clicking more email. Send those who aren't less. There's a lot of talk about sending too often or not sending enough, but that's a bunch of crap. Fuel the fully interested customers with more content. Don't harass those customers who are partially interested with daily emails. Segment, segment, segment. --Make your news Newsworthy. When you do have something to say, make sure it's worth saying. Just sending something because you think it's newsworthy, doesn't mean it is. Make sure it's something you would actually want to know about the company. Your list's attention is precious. Don't abuse it. --Have a personality. Get someone to read the next word. That's the name of the game with email/content/copy writing in general. get someone to read the next word, then the next one, then the next one. Personality helps with that. There are people who sign up to groupon and don't even care about the offers, but they'll read every email because they're entertaining.

Hope that helps. Best of luck!

[wittjeff]

Have you seen launchrock.com? It might help with growing your list.

On you question, I suggest monthly updates until you have something live. But if you post your list ("ton of things") of ideas, we could comment on them specifically.

By the way, I like your business concept. Except I'd remove the Chicago-specificity from the tag line, as I would assume you can probably scale this quickly. If you need to start with Chicago, put that in secondary text on the front page.

[jaymstr]

Thanks for the mention. If anyone on HN wants an invite, just email us at hello [at] launchrock [dot] com and mention that you heard about it from Hacker News.

Advice wise, we've found that the pages work really well, and not just for us, but it does require for you to spend some time thinking about the design, your messaging, and more importantly, how you'll get people there in the first place. It's kind of an amplifier of sorts.

Anyway, we'll have some great data to share, but we're just trying to get to/through SXSW right now.

[lifestyleigni]

I have not seen launchrock. That's a pretty cool site. One thing I was thinking about was doing a survey to see if people were interested in renting out their parking spot, using SpotHero to purchase parking or both.

I'm glad you like the business concept. The way the current system is being set up, is that you can list your parking spot from anywhere. We are focusing all our marketing efforts/energy/time in Chicago to start, but it can scale and be used anywhere there's an open parking spot.

If having the "Chicago" there puts people off from other areas, I think you're right about removing it.

[heliosai]

I don't think a monthly "update" email would be bad. Actually it would probably keep people interested so they know a little about what is going on behind the scenes and keep them reminded about the company.

[jaymstr]

Keep a blog and update often. Our Posterous blog for LaunchRock has been amazing for keeping people engaged.

[chilldude]

Great idea! Best of luck!