Did you get the email announcement from Empire Avenue titled, “Empire Avenue is Changing!”
If not, you can click the image to the right to see a screen capture of the top part of the announcement.
Why this message? Why now?
Based on this line of the email, “If you haven’t been to Empire Avenue in a while, read below for some of the new features and improvements you might have missed:” the email seems to be geared towards inactive users.
But the timing of the announcement seems odd to me. On the one hand it sounds like a rebranding announcement, introducing EAv’s new mission, “to help you realize value for your reputation and networks.” But on the other hand, there’s no major news in the message and my understanding is the biggest changes in the latest EAv shift are yet to come. So why this message now?
It’s also clear that EAv still needs a new marketing director or marketing consultant. The email touts EAv’s new features. It’s a basic principle of marketing 101 to sell benefits not features. Don’t tell me what EAv does, tell me how it’s going to improve my life life!
That’s my $0.02
What do you think?
Does this get you excited to step things up in EAv? Do you think its going to bring back inactive users?
Empire Avenue Tips 
May 28, 2013 @ 17:58:26
Was glad to Discover I could Discover Discover but Discovered that Discover was mainly Leaderboards. Sure would like a good Search, though
May 28, 2013 @ 18:18:50
Me too, David.
May 29, 2013 @ 04:29:01
Empire has been a virtual goldmine for me and led to the formation of a very successful company I love Empire Avenue and agree yes there are some things they could improve upon but it is a winner.
May 29, 2013 @ 06:42:40
Cool. I’d love to hear more about that Justin. Can you tell us more about your company and how EAv contributed to its success?
May 28, 2013 @ 18:11:51
Hello Paul,
I definitely agree with you on the questionable timing and focusing on features not benefits. To get people to come to or come back to EAv, you have to “sell” them on what they will get out of it. It’s not what the site can do, but what it can do for them. It’s the “WIIFM” principle – “What’s In It For Me?”
That’s what the marketing director and/or marketing consultant should be focused on. In addition, if the changes aren’t finished yet, why are they bothering to send email out right now? Virtually, we’ve heard for the last 1-3 months that changes are ocurring at EAv – this is nothing new.
If they had come out with an email that said, “The changes to EAv are completed and this is what EAv can do for you and your goals (business/personal/self-development/networking, etc.),” it would have been a much more powerful message with much more impact.
The fact that you and I talking about it might make the marketing director and/or marketing consultant think they succeeded with their message, but truth be told, they really “missed the mark” when it comes to marketing impact, as I don’t think too many are going to pay much heed to that message. And, the main point of the marketing message was to get people to come to or come back to EAv and utilize it as a way to help them achieve their goals, right?
Just my 2 cents.
Take care,
Joe Chengery
http://ow.ly/ltWS0
May 28, 2013 @ 18:19:15
My thoughts exactly, Joe!
May 28, 2013 @ 20:41:36
Thanks Paul for you timely post.
I was wondering what I was suppose to be see that I was not in the EA mailing.
I could only think it was directed to those that are inactive, because for us that are active nothing is all that new.
Marketing can be very tricky but essential to the success of any endeavor. So to treat it lightly is a mistake that I hope EA will examine soon.
I enjoy EA very much and the connections that I have been able to establish is priceless to me.
Thanks again Paul for the work that you being of service to us.
Best Regards,
Norma Lee Beaton
May 28, 2013 @ 22:05:00
My pleasure Norma Lee. I appreciate the comment!
May 28, 2013 @ 23:05:47
INDEED where are the changes except in the /$”% prices….wow I can hardly afford dessert. NOT A HAPPY CAMPER with the non-changing changes
May 29, 2013 @ 06:40:32
In EAv’s defense, they are trying to level the playing field by making dessert more expensive for wealthier players and trying to generate income by making the “even more dessert” upgrade an option to consider paying real money for.
May 28, 2013 @ 23:38:46
Their Investors are breathing down their necks………and theY have to show that they are trying to turn things around……!!!!
I’m a marketing consultant….and that’s what I feel …..They are running scared……~
May 29, 2013 @ 06:46:32
You may be right Jay. If so, I’m surprised they haven’t launched more substantive changes this year. It’s been 6 months of feature tweaks, cosmetic changes, and elimination of old features.
May 29, 2013 @ 08:24:03
…and (as Harold pointed out further down) back-end code/data structure changes.
May 29, 2013 @ 04:20:47
Reblogged this on charlieslang.
May 29, 2013 @ 06:42:51
Thanks Charles!
May 29, 2013 @ 07:40:50
It will be interesting to see if they generate any additional activity from this email.
I would observe that when you say ‘only cosmetic changes,’ that probably should include ‘that I can see.’ Dups has asserted the primary changes are internal to rationalize the code base for more substantial changes. I can’t see the future or their current code, but I have worked systems where we had to freeze upgrades in order to clean the code base. A bit sad that a system so young was in this state, but better to get organized now than later.
As I have said before, time will tell the tale.
May 29, 2013 @ 08:23:18
Thanks Harold, I don’t think I said EAv has made “only cosmetic changes” but you make a good point that according to Dups they have been making a lot of structural changes to the underlying code and data structure. I’ll add that above to my comment where I said its been 6 months of “feature tweaks, cosmetic changes, and elimination of old features.”
May 29, 2013 @ 14:26:01
Paul, much of the rationale in the e-mail was not targeted towards you, but mostly to our newsletter mailing list. I agree with you in many things including the fact that we need to tell good stories. We want to get more of the old base active, we realize there is not one good email that would do that. We also realize that it takes time. One e-mail does not success or change make, we also test our newsletter list for open rates and click throughs and what messages make the most sense. Have we found the correct marketing yet, no. Everything we do will be criticised 🙂 If we wait to tell people we’ve changed we get criticism for not having informed quickly enough. Do we need a marketing director, why yes we do. And yes we are looking for a good one, that knows how to work with our team and our community.
You assert we have not made many changes, and I’m sorry you feel that way. Let me give you an example of some of our challenges that you have identified yourself 🙂
Pain Points:
1) EAv is complicated for new users to grasp
You asserted a while ago that we needed to concentrate on finding ways to make the interface easier for new people coming on board that we are not retaining enough people. We agreed with you. We decided that rather than adding new features that people were clamouring for, we would take a long hard look at how the site was even organized. Yes this might be “cosmetic” changes for you but to us this is very important in how we want to grow. Throwing more features in at a UI that couldn’t take it is also bad.
2) EAv takes too much time to manage
We agree and we hope to make some announcements and partnerships soon to show where we are going wth that
7) EAv does little to police users who are gaming the system.
We are testing out reputation systems, fixed our blocking etc.
Many of the other stuff in your pain points poll are also being addressed.
We also needed to get our back-end data structures under control (say the daily close taking 12 hours down to 4 and we are going to make many more changes). Much of what we released for two years was trying to find our way in the world.
And just so you are aware, our refocus on this has been in the last 4 months. Much of the previous 2 months was figuring out where to go 🙂
From my point looking out, I think our team of 5 has been doing an awesome job working extra long hours and we hope that we can work even harder to create a great product.
I’d rather hear from you and from your community, what marketing messages do work, what stories can we tell, how can we get Empire Avenue to be the biggest thing ever? 🙂
Again thanks all.
May 29, 2013 @ 16:32:19
Dups, thanks for the comment. Just to be clear, I never said EAv has “not made many changes.” I said in the post “there’s no major news in the message and my understanding is the biggest changes in the latest EAv shift are yet to come” Is that accurate?
I also said in previous comments “It’s been 6 months of feature tweaks, cosmetic changes, and elimination of old features… and back-end code/data structure changes” I understand you guys have been working hard, but most of that work has been on aspects of EAv that are not visible or noticeable to users. That’s fine if that’s what you think will move EAv forward, it just makes the timing and content of the message curious. In my professional experience, tweaks, cosmetic changes and under-the-hood improvements don’t compel inactive users to return.
>>I’d rather hear from you and from your community, what marketing messages do work, what stories can we tell, how can we get Empire Avenue to be the biggest thing ever?
Personally, I don’t have any success stories to share yet. I’m in a niche market and until better targeting, sorting and notifications for missions are implemented, I doubt I will find much success. You’re going to have to get stories from people/companies with broader markets.
But before you continue your rebranding marketing campaign, I would recommend first implementing targeting, sorting and notifications for missions which will make them useful for the 99% who operate in niche markets. Let us have success with it. Then we’ll have success stories you can use in your rebranding marketing campaign.
My $0.02
May 29, 2013 @ 18:15:44
Hey totally agreed Paul, it’s why we have only said “Changing”. The goal with that one email (and there were two for the record, this one had the lowest click through) was to get that message out there to those who had not been back in a while. We don’t have any marketing slogans, plan except rudimentary ones as we want to get the product to the mission we state. Hey I know you had a post a while back asking why the change in the front page. Same reason, we wanted all marketing messages removed while we change so that when we do come out, it’s not some weird hybrid… Will it be Social Media Rocket Fuel… maybe but then it will need to be backed up by a great campaign, bigger and better than before.
We will try driving the funnel a bit too as we do need it, but the major marketing won’t happen till we have some good stories. Stories sell the world.
Hey I know you are a supporter, I hope I didn’t come off angry, not at all, just explaining the rationale. There are many things we are testing, from newsletter formats to more. It’s never one thing and it’s hard to see that from the outside 🙂
May 29, 2013 @ 19:42:31
Thanks for the additional response, Dups. In your team of 5, do you have anyone with marketing experience (outside of EAv)?
Say this purely in an attempt to be helpful, but it looks like your marketing is being led by an engineer. You’re doing a great job posting helpful updates to the blog and in the community, but if you want a new message “backed up by a great campaign, bigger and better than before,” you need someone who eats, breaths and sleeps marketing. Somebody who understands your target audience, knows what they need and can speak their language in ways that will get them excited about how EAv will improve their life.
First, you need a service that actually has the ability to improve people’s lives, then you need someone who can communicate that effectively.
Another $0.02 🙂
May 29, 2013 @ 17:02:05
Reblogged this on Anthony Trimble.