The Cheesecake Test

What are we expecting from the welcome email?

What are users (and ourselves) expecting when opening the welcome email? And how can they be happy/satisfied/ surprised?

As I always believe in storytelling, the best (or honestly the easiest)way to find out should be putting myself into that situation and do comparison. So here is the game.

Background:

Suppose that there is a cheesecake company called Wumi(hard to find a name), and they have monthly subscription for their cheesecakes. Now, there is a cheesecake lover (me) registered on their website, and then found an unread email in mailbox…

——

Possible result A:

Hmm. I’d never expect to receive such a boring email from a cheesecake company (show some respect to food, gentleman).

One good thing is that, the confirming link is on a separate line. It could be worse if it’s within the second line (or first not counting greetings), I did not take any time to read it.

——

Possible result B:

Much better, at least I can see the cheesecake (It is! if you can’t recognize my drawing) now.

Compared to a lonely, weird company name, a picture can definitely help me to recognize the firm.

The link is very noticeable(center, bold) . Moreover, it’s written in words.

The only thing that may confuse me, is the sharing line. Why would I ever want to share it ?—-If it’s not interesting, cool, or useful to my friends.

——

Possible result C:

Cheesecake again, and there is a button for me to click on.

Every time I see a big button inside an email, I would consider it as the most important thing and click on it(if it costs nothing).

Actually that’s how I accidentally unsubscribed a newsletter. Indeed, why did they put “Unsubscribe” in a button?

One more thing is about the content. It looks like a welcome letter (or that’s why we call it a welcome email). And it achieved the goal—-making me feel welcomed.

Possible result D:

Finally it comes to my own drawing again.

Now I see a large piece of cheesecake. And I would just click on it to confirm my account.

Clear, simple and somehow presented the company culture. I would wish it to be fun and interesting if there is such a cheesecake firm.

But, as there’s always a but, it looks less sincere(if that’s the word) than result D. Images can be fancy, creative, stylish, but words normally mean more.

Thoughts:

Developing emails for a non-existent company is a weird thing, even for me. But I do find some things when viewing them as a receiver.

>Image certainly helps, but words from the team/founder do count.

> Stress the essentials (the confirmation link in this case). I should make the cheesecake in result D Yellow, if I could (or want to) spend more time.

>Company culture. Sometimes even a confirmation email can represent the firm’s culture. Leave a great first impression should be important (although in most cases they just use shift+# for all the emails).

That’s all what I have found out, for now.