Yotta (1147)    8 Jul 2018 09:55:43

We have launched a "Come Back" email campaign to invite back all the non-active registered players in our database to check out the new website.

Now that all the known teething problems are sorted out with the new website, our main focus is to grow the ChessConquest community. Those of you who are actively playing on the website won't be receiving the campaign email, so for your interest, I'm posting an example of the email here:

To: mail@chessconquest.com
Subject: Yotta, how are you improving your chess game?

Dear Yotta,

Understanding that your time is valuable, if chess is not currently a priority to you, then please ignore the rest of this email.

If chess still do pique your interest, we would like to invite you back to ChessConquest™ for one more battle. The website has been improved for a better chess experience, and we believe you will be pleasantly surprised.

If after one more battle at ChessConquest™ you are not convinced, we will humbly accept defeat as your online chess partner, and part ways without intruding on your time again.

Your current ChessConquest™ statistics:

Username: Yotta
Country: South Africa
Rating: 1012*
Games Completed: 1211
Games In Progress: 40
* All ratings have been re-calculated using the ELO rating system for the new ChessConquest™ website.

Click here to battle

May you claim many victories,
The ChessConquest™ Team.

 Corvidae (1142)    8 Jul 2018 10:56:22

Should do the trick. Just out of interest, how many people have, or will be, contacted.

 Yotta (1147)    8 Jul 2018 11:04:09

About 8,800 players, but I've limited it to 120 players per day as to not be flagged as a spam website.

It will take about 75 days to contact everyone.

 Corvidae (1142)    8 Jul 2018 12:44:35

Blimey, I didn't realise it was that many. Fingers crossed!

 ketchuplover (1355)    8 Jul 2018 15:56:19

Humble suggestion(s) Please make it "If chess still piques your interest" Please also list the site features(maybe even features in the pipeline) and how much the site speed has improved and anything else of that nature. Thank you and best wishes.

 Yotta (1147)    9 Jul 2018 11:15:36

Thanks for the great suggestions KetchUpLover.

Below is the revised emai. I did not list any future features, since I don't want to over-promise at this point. We will prioritize new features according to feedback and discussions on the forums.

Dear Yotta,

Understanding that your time is valuable, if chess is not currently a priority to you, then please ignore the rest of this email.

If chess still piques your interest, we would like to invite you back to ChessConquest™ for one more battle. The website has been improved for a better chess experience, and we believe you will be pleasantly surprised.

If after one more battle at ChessConquest™ you are not convinced, we will humbly accept defeat as your online chess partner, and part ways without intruding on your time again.

Your current ChessConquest™ statistics:

Username: Yotta
Country: South Africa
Rating: 1012*
Games Completed: 1211
Games In Progress: 40
* All ratings have been re-calculated using the ELO rating system for the new ChessConquest™ website.

Some of the improvements to new website include:
* Greatly improved the website speed.
* Much better support for mobile devices (tablet and phone).
* Only active users are now shown on rankings.
* New forum for community conversations.
* Random chess puzzles to solve.

Click here to battle

May you claim many victories,
The ChessConquest™ Team.

 ketchuplover (1355)    24 Jul 2018 14:31:51

I think you should ask them to invite others to join if they're satisfied with the new & improved chessconquest.com Sadly it appears none of the fish have taken your bait. I now suggest adding a link to this site and a note asking them to keep it for future reference.

In what order are they being invited back? tyia

 Yotta (1147)    25 Jul 2018 06:41:41

I'm inviting back the old players from first registered to last registered. Eventually it will invite back every player that registered, but weren't active during the past 4 months.

A very large portion of players, about 35% of the players, had fake email accounts that does not exist. We are seeing a few players starting to come back, even had a feature request from these players.

I'm planning to set up an "Invite a friend by email" feature. Also, once the come back campaign ran its course (about 10 weeks left), we will look at spending some money on an advertising campaign to attract new players. I would really like to get Round Robin tournaments in place however, before we spend money on marketing.

 ketchuplover (1355)    25 Jul 2018 16:17:38

Are all email addresses being verified?

 Yotta (1147)    25 Jul 2018 18:37:37

Currently email addresses are not being verified.

 Yotta (1147)    25 Jul 2018 19:21:37

Perhaps we can eventually add some sort of incentive for players who verify their email addresses.

 ketchuplover (1355)    31 Jul 2018 18:51:29

I think you should add the updated/upcoming features list to the invites going forward. Gracias.

 ketchuplover (1355)    31 Aug 2018 00:25:22

I think you should pause the re-invites until all the improvements/new features are implemented. Then include them in the outgoing letters. I think you should also add that vacations are stopped if you move during them-as far as I know that is unique to this site. Perhaps you can make it so we can't move during vacations. In your July 9 post it reads "Only active users are now shown on rankings" Please define active more clearly and include that in the comeback letters. Please also add the recent positive comments regarding the site graphics and all other favorable comments you can find.

How many letters are there left to send?

 Yotta (1147)    1 Sep 2018 09:24:18

Thank you for all the great suggestions KUL. We will resume the come-back compaign at some point, will also implementing a proper marketing campaign to attract new players.

There are probably about 2000 letters left to send (educated guess).

 ketchuplover (1355)    9 Jun 2019 22:44:11

How's the marketing campaign going?