When is it a good time to mass email?

[ℓєσ gнσѕт]

Ive heard some people say its better to never mass email your members. Others say if posting quits and your site starts to die, then its a good time to email them with a we miss you message. Others still say anytime something big happens is a fine time.

Personally I think if it starts to die, then you can. I wouldnt do it for anything else unless it was MAJOR. (Like a host change, hacking, half the site got deleted, ect.)

So when do you think its a good time to mass email your members?

 

[conorod]

Well I get a few we miss you emails every so often, and sometimes I do go back to the forum, sometimes I don't.
I would do a mass email if I was doing something like changing host or if the site started to die.

 

[Kevin X Dragon]

I only do it if there was big news or the active was low for 1 or 2 week.

 

[Killman]

If alot of members become unactive or if you have some form of big/urgent news. These are the only reasons that I use it. ~smile~

 

[ℓєσ gнσѕт]

Ive just done a mass email to try and get some active members back and I have to say did work.

 

[CyberFreak]

How i see it is this...

If you forum is active DO NOT mass email your member unless you have a really serious bit of news such as a new default domain name or a host change or a forum software change maybe.

If your forum is not doing that well then send out 1 mass email. If people don't return seeing that email they probably won't return with the second and third. The second and third emails will only annoy your active uses and make them stop visiting. When you do send a mass email make sure it is worthwhile. Don't just say come back. Start a little contest or something and promote that in the mass email as that will make it look more worthwhile and make you look less desperate. Desperate admins is not good at getting an active community.

In any case try not to send out a mass email more then once or twice a month as it does annoy most people and sometimes if you sent alot of emails to people you can get in trouble with your hosts and you may get some angry replies from some of your members which i sometimes do if a forum sends me 2 mass emails a day every day.

 

[hcfwesker]

i've been up for over 6 months, and have never sent one out. yet, there's other forums i've ran across where i get them about 3-4 time a month.

i'm considering doing this now. my forum has slowed just a tad, went from about 40 active members to about 15 a day. i recently moved, and wasn't too active myself, and stopped advertising.

as stated befpore me, don't send them out too rapidly, they seem like a desperate plea to me, especiallythe " we miss you" e-mails. cause, it's not that they miss you, other wise they would have sent YOU a more personal e-mail, and not a mass e-mail to all members.

save them for when you really feel the need that you've lost some members, and feel you've made improvements that may encourage them to return.

or, as stated, there is a significant change, or move to the forum, that active/non-active members hould be aware of

 

[Ste]

I find it really annoying when some people send mass emails out containing useless information and things we really don't need to know. When people do that I never go back to the forum.

 

[Silvershark]

I send out a mass e-mail once a month with a forum/website newsletter that mentions some of the top topics on the forum, what is in the monthly magazine and also mentions the latest campaigns that are going on. I don't send out any others, anything that needs mentioning goes in the newsletter and if something is missed out tough it will have to wait until next month! I've never sent out "please come back" e-mails though, they are just pointless and irritating. Give me reasons to come back (interesting threads/debates/news etc) but don't beg!

I have been on forums where every other day I seem to get an e-mail which was very annoying, and as a result they were blocked.

 

[Murder he Wrote]

Firstly, Mass Emailing is a problem for those on paid hosts - because if you have over 500 members (therefore send 500 Emails at once), you normally end up being warned for excessive resource usage.

Anyway in my opinion Mass Email features should not be built into forum software at all. It's really irritating for members to receive useless "newsletters" and "Email ads". To be honest, the only people interested in the content of the Email would be the active members of the forum, therefore it would be more suited as an announcement.

 

[Ste]

I don't mind if I get a newsletter every month or fortnight aslong as it contains useful information to read.

 

[ℓєσ gнσѕт]

Firstly, Mass Emailing is a problem for those on paid hosts - because if you have over 500 members (therefore send 500 Emails at once), you normally end up being warned for excessive resource usage.

Anyway in my opinion Mass Email features should not be built into forum software at all. It's really irritating for members to receive useless "newsletters" and "Email ads". To be honest, the only people interested in the content of the Email would be the active members of the forum, therefore it would be more suited as an announcement.

In some ways I agree fully with that. Then again, its a good idea to have as a "just in case" sorta thing. For example, a hacking forum I used awhile back sent me a email one day randomly. Apperently the admin had gone on a trip and his Moderators went rough and deleted several thousands tutorials, guides, and other topics. He was able to get most of them back, but he also wanted everyone to have the full story, and assure us no personal information was collected, stored, or given out by the Moderators. That kind of email I see as a good thing, that way everyone got the same story and even older members who had stopped coming were aware of what happened.

 

[CyberFreak]

Firstly, Mass Emailing is a problem for those on paid hosts - because if you have over 500 members (therefore send 500 Emails at once), you normally end up being warned for excessive resource usage.

The limits on emails is usually about 300 an hour i think on most hosts and some hosts even limit how many to be sent out per minute aswell (Lunarpages)

 

[Shaolin]

ive mass emailed my members twice and the forums only been up for a few months!

i doubt they really pay attention, although only a few did

 

[SarahKik]

I bulk email usually when something is happening, whether it's a revamp, a major contest, or if activity is low.

 

[Fullmoon]

i only mass email when i board is dead. to get members to come back