Maximizing Guest Responses: Understanding Evite Deliverability and Viewing Rates

[Vicks]

I'm noticing my hosts that use the evites get a lot of "No" under viewed, meaning the recipient has not read the e-mail yet. My question is could these be construed as Spam by their e-mail provider and therefore not making it to their inbox? Or maybe they don't recognize the e-mail address so aren't reading them?

I just don't understand how out of 32 guests only 6 are showing as having viewed the evites. That just doesn't make sense to me. Another had 10 and only 3 had viewed. Some of my hosts prefer using the website instead of sending out paper postcards (to conserve), so I need to figure out if this is a simple fix that we can deal with, or if it's something else.

I am telling my hosts to make sure to CALL all the people they invited, and to get a final head count, so she can catch some of those people who are showing as not viewed. I just need to figure out how to make sure the maxium amount of guests are actually receiving the e-mails, so my hosts can benefit from this great tool we offer them!

Any help is appreciated!
~Vicks

 

[fikibiff]

I know that when I use the "e-vites" site, there are a few people that don't ever get them - especially at work e-mails. I tend to send those with "not yet viewed" a personal e-mail from my yahoo account. I always ask if they got the e-vite and here are the detail, just in case they didn't get it. It's not as pretty but at least they get notified about the party.

 

[finley1991]

Since the e-vites from our PWS comes from a third-party sender, it will most likely go to the spam or junkmail folder. That's why, just as with the paper and postcard invites, hosts need to verbally invite their friends and give them a heads-up that the invite will be arriving regardless of the method.

 

[chefann]

I think a lot of internet providers filter them and they don't even get to the recipients' mailboxes. I suggest that hosts use them, but always mail and phone ALSO.

 

[jzramom]

Does it make a difference if you only send out 10 at a time from PWS?

 

[TwinGirlsMom]

This happened to me last week! It's a shame because what's the point in having this feature if we still have to double up by creating back-up emails & phone calls!

 

[pamperedlinda]

I think the problem could also be with HO. I've sent myself evites from my PWS many times, I've only received a few of them. They did come to my in-box not my spam folder too. The ones I didn't receive I can only guess are still floating around in cyberspace somewhere. I don't trust the evites.

 

[Kitchen Diva]

no success with e-vitesI too have had trouble with people either not getting the e-vites or it ends up in their spam boxes. Most of my hosts have 40+ people on their list, so I put a lot of work into entering those email addresses correctly into my PWS so I can send the e-vites.

Another issue is that if people don't know my name, they just delete it before viewing it. I found out that my host can go onto the website with her little 4 digit code and send e-vites out herself and they'll have her name in the FROM category in people's inboxes, which they will recognize, and that seemed to help. We went from 4 out of 40 invites up to I think she said 8 yes's.

I think if the host can go in and send the e-vites it would be nice if we had the option of sending them with the hosts name in the FROM section instead of ours, which most people won't recognize. I do tell my hosts to call everyone first to invite them, and then tell them to be on the lookout for their e-vites, but so far that isn't helping much. People forget.

I agree that although it is an awesome feature it hasn't been as helpful or as efficient as I had hoped it would be.

 

[PamperedChefDebi]

I'm having this problem as well so what I've been doing is sending myself an e-invitation to their show, then modifying it and adding some info and forwarding this to my Host suggesting they use it as a reminder. That way the invitee still gets our nice e-invitation but it comes from the Host directly and has any extra info necessary.

 

[stacywhitlow]

I'm having this problem as well so what I've been doing is sending myself an e-invitation to their show, then modifying it and adding some info and forwarding this to my Host suggesting they use it as a reminder. That way the invitee still gets our nice e-invitation but it comes from the Host directly and has any extra info necessary.

That is a good idea.

 

[ginamkiely]

i have a catalog show open now, i just checked each of the 58 guests and 30 of them have never received the invite or 2 reminders. what i did was copied each address and wrote this e-mail to them....

<<<Good Morning everyone,

I'm not sure if you have received your e-invite to Danielle Leston's Pampered Chef Catalog Show, but there may be a problem with receiving e-mails and some servers thinking it might be spam. To be on the safe side and to make sure everyone gets a chance to place their order through Danielle's show, which is ending tomorrow, I wanted to send this e-mail.

You can browse the online catalog and make purchases from the comfort of your own home! Their high-quality products are so innovative, they'll help you put more love and less labor into cooking and entertaining. Don't forget to take advantage of our Guest Special either, most Simple Additions pieces are 20% off!!

To place your order, you can go to www.pc.biz.ginamkiely, then click Our Products, How to Purchase, then type in Danielle Leston as the host. Remember, this is the best time of year to give someone a high quality kitchen gift that can take the stress out of Holiday entertaining and cooking! All cooks, from amateur to gourmet, can benefit from the Pampered Chef® products. They make mealtime preparation easy!

Please feel free to e-mail me or call me if you have any questions! (201) 843-xxxx

Thanks again,

Gina-Marie Kiely>>>

SINCE sending that 5 minutes ago i have already received 4 undeliverable e-mails stating that either the mailbox was unavailable or my address was rejected. who knows whats going on but i wonder how many other times this has happened. otherwise i can't imagine why someone who invited over 70 people to their catalog show (with paper invites and e-vites) and she has only $120 in sales. we'll see if this gets anything else for her!

 

[urbnk8]

Ok, being dumb again! Where do you see whether it has been viewed or not?

 

[ginamkiely]

Ok, being dumb again! Where do you see whether it has been viewed or not?

not being dumb, i didn't know until this morning. lol

under the guest list in PWS, where it says last response to e-vite or reminder there is an arrow under each section that says view more... click that. it will tell you each thing you sent and if it was viewed or not.

 

[urbnk8]

not being dumb, i didn't know until this morning. lol

under the guest list in PWS, where it says last response to e-vite or reminder there is an arrow under each section that says view more... click that. it will tell you each thing you sent and if it was viewed or not.

Oh, Thank you!!

 

[Sherry Leigh]

My hosts won't even try sending invites fom PWS. Test e-vites to myself have ended up in my own spam folder. I'm having a lot of trouble with hosts and guests who have hotmail accounts. Even if they e-mail me first and I'm just replying, they get rejected for having "spam-like qualities"! It's so frustrating! I had 1000 business cards printed and don't want to get another e-mail address.
We should all complain to HO to see if there's anything they can do. I didn't know about these problems before I signed up, and know I feel like PWS is a waste of my $$

 

[ginamkiely]

it is really annoying, though i have had a lot of purchases through my website i think a lot of them are from hosts telling people to shop it, you know what i mean? i'm going to go back to my closed shows and see if any of them have a lot of unviewed e-vites.

 

[chefann]

Many, many internet service providers automatically flag hotmail accounts as possible spam. If that's what you're using for your business, I recommend getting another free service, like gmail or yahoo.BTW, evite is a trademark of evite.com. The invitations that we send from our PWS are email invitations, or electronic invitations.

 

[Sherry Leigh]

Don't get Yahoo!!! I HAVE yahoo, it's the hotmail accounts that are rejecting ME! So frustrating! I'll probably have to get a new account (through our internet provider should be safe...?), but still receive mail through the yahoo address because that's what's on my business cards. Grrr.

 

[PamperedChefDebi]

Don't get Yahoo!!! I HAVE yahoo, it's the hotmail accounts that are rejecting ME! So frustrating! I'll probably have to get a new account (through our internet provider should be safe...?), but still receive mail through the yahoo address because that's what's on my business cards. Grrr.

I second that! I switched from gmail to yahoo because my emails were disappearing into cyberspace. Then hotmail/msn and comcast started rejecting my yahoo address. So, I created my own domain to use and have both my gmail AND my yahoo forwarding to it. Really sucks since I had to pay for my yahoo because I wanted to use it with Outlook. But, I haven't been having any problems other than an occassional email disappearing into cyberspace.

 

[mypampchef]

Here is what I do

I too have had trouble with people either not getting the e-vites or it ends up in their spam boxes. Most of my hosts have 40+ people on their list, so I put a lot of work into entering those email addresses correctly into my PWS so I can send the e-vites.

Another issue is that if people don't know my name, they just delete it before viewing it. I found out that my host can go onto the website with her little 4 digit code and send e-vites out herself and they'll have her name in the FROM category in people's inboxes, which they will recognize, and that seemed to help. We went from 4 out of 40 invites up to I think she said 8 yes's.

I think if the host can go in and send the e-vites it would be nice if we had the option of sending them with the hosts name in the FROM section instead of ours, which most people won't recognize. I do tell my hosts to call everyone first to invite them, and then tell them to be on the lookout for their e-vites, but so far that isn't helping much. People forget.

I agree that although it is an awesome feature it hasn't been as helpful or as efficient as I had hoped it would be.

I log into my web site as my host (using thier code) and then send out the e-vites or reminders. I have found that of the people who actually receive them, if they are from the host they usually view them.

There are also many who never show that they have viewed any of the e-vites or reminders.

One of my hosts told me her sister had a Mac and could not open the e-vite. Not sure what that is all about, but something else to make me want to send them myself.

 

[chefjeanine]

Because I know I would never take the time to retype all my email addresses, I suggest to my Hosts that they go in send the email invitation to themselves. Then they can forward to everyone in their address book, from a known email address, without having to do quite as much work.

I do like the idea of going in myself and sending the invitation to the host so she can forward. That makes it much more likely to happen.