In the last (and first!) census we did, lots of postcrossers told us the monthly stats emails was where they got news about Postcrossing… but we were terrible at posting news there and almost never did it. So this year we started adding these little blurbs about “What’s going on in Postcrossing” at the end of those emails:
It’s been some months now, and I wanted to ask whether anyone reads these, what you think of them, and also what kind of stuff you’d like to see more of in there.
Hi Ana,
Thanks for this new addition to the stats. I like this section at the end of the stats e-mail. It helps informing about an article I missed when published or remembering a blog contribution I wanted to read later then forgot…
This is a useful addition. I rarely go to the blog, because my English is poor, and it is difficult for me to read it, but the newsletter in e-mail sometimes attracts my attention, and I read the articles that interest me with the help of an auto-translator.
Ah! I should explain that we only include that part of the email if you indicate that you’re interested in receiving both the stats emails and newsletters.
So both of these options need to be active in your Account settings:
Although the “In case you missed it” is not technically a newsletter, we didn’t want to include this info in the stats emails for people who stated they were only interested in the statistics. That might explain why some of you never noticed them.
I have to admit I tend to overlook it sometimes because I forget to scroll down enough to see it. When I reach Top 3 favorite postcards I tend to think that’s the last part of the e-mail and don’t scroll further down.
Suggestion to change the topic subject line to pay attention. Like: Your Postcrossing Stats and Our News.
Introduction in header or first lines of email. Eg. Here are your most recent Monthly Postcrossing Statistics. AND for those who subscipted to newsletters scroll down for some news.
Under Statistics place a line like. Here is your Postcrossing Monthly Newsfact.
Change your settings here .link. if you want subscibe or unsubscribe to Statistics and newsletters.
I would like to see that every member is sent Monthly statistics plus news once a month.
to involve members. To see if emails are bounced.
I don’t notice the news section when I read the stats email on my phone. I just don’t scroll that far. I do read it when I read the email on a bigger device, which is maybe 50 % of the time.
The fact that many people don’t scroll so far is actually ok for me — it relieves some of the pressure of having to write these! Plus, I don’t want that everything we do is always annoyingly front and center (or “above the fold”) — so it’s fine if some people keep reading all the way till the end, and some others don’t. Personally, I like chatty, rambling newsletters, but I definitely understand it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
Of those who keep reading, is there anything you’d like to see more of in there? I wish we could share more of what we’re currently working on behind-the-scenes, but often it’s just longterm projects that take months to complete, and which aren’t really ready until they’re done, so that doesn’t make for good newsletter content.
I just read right through my stats email, including the ‘in case you missed it’, and found the link here. I thought it was pretty spot on in terms of content and length. It was interesting and fun to read.
I love a good picture, so I wouldn’t mind seeing one inserted in there too. It could be related to one of your write-up topics, or maybe it could be a random picture of a postcard received in that month. Or an interesting postcard, a highly favourited one, a big milestone postcard (someone’s 1000th postcard received)?