Swim in the Ojeeziness

Communicating with our siteMighty users is very important to us. We like to answer support tickets in minutes, and to give someone who’s never heard of us (or affiliate marketing for that matter) an idea of who we are the instant they hit the site. The second part is something we’re working through right now, because not everyone has heard of affiliate marketing. Even among those who have heard of affiliate marketing, it’s our responsibility to not only educate them on how it all works, but how we work and fit into the equation.

Once a user is in our family, we start talking to them. The way we talk to them is something we refer to as “Aw Shucks Appeal.” We just want to come across as human, very natural language. We use slang, contractions, etc. to interact with our users and let them know that we are here to help. Think of it as calm, soothing tones, or talking with a smile on your face. Your mood will come across in your message.

The reason for this post is to highlight someone else’s work in Aw Shucks Appeal. I joined Ojeez.com a couple of weeks ago, and I really like what they’re doing in their communications. Here’s an email they just sent me (with highlights next to the image):

“Break out the Tamiflu because Ojeez is a viral machine!”

“We will email everyone the day before going live to let you know that you can take a swim in the Ojeeziness, but bring your business bathing suits as this is not a nude site.”

“And we promise to have your daughter home by eleven o’clock.”

“Take care for now folks.”

People know when they’re being marketed to, so if you’re trying to spread your message, you’re starting in the hole. People are going to be skeptical from the start, that’s why it’s important to be disarming.

We genuinely want people to try us out and let us know what they think. siteMighty is pay-as-you-go, so we don’t lock people in to long term commitments. We make it very easy to downgrade to free accounts, or to cancel an account all together.

Of course we’re in business here, but our job is to make a product so spectacular that no one thinks twice about paying for it. Like Chris says, does is pass the credit card test? Is it good enough to pay for? Would we be willing to pay for it?