Cantr II Discussion Forum

Yes, we did actually consider that ... only considered, though ... Unfortunately it's past day 5000 now, but I still think it's a good idea.

I think you would see a boost in members at once. Sometimes people forget. Move on, life gets in the way. but life always changes. And day 5000 blew my freaking mind! I started on day 1981. And played until 3 thousand something. The changes are amazing! With more players we will see a world of change for the better. If there is anyway I can help I will. I have the time.

The majority of Cantr's (stable?) player growth is from returning players insofar as I can tell. Day 5000 would have been a nice excuse to wrap everything into a neat little email newsletter, but it's still possible to send an email out detailing what's changed in Cantr recently - animal domestication, horse riding, drunkenness, item customization, even NDS.

It's simple - maybe 15 minutes of work if you still have those old emails on file. Just write up a neat little blurb, make sure it's formatted well with no grammatical issues or spelling mistakes, you know, bullet points, maybe a nice graphic somewhere, the use of bold and italics.

You can still play off of the day 5000 stuff and make a
"this is what you missed!" type of letter that says all of the stuff wolfsong just said,
plus also gives some details (IC of course) about the numerous day 5000 festivals.

You end the whole "this is what you missed" type of letter with something optimistic like:
"This is what we have planned for the coming year"

Bait them in with successes and promise more of them and make sure that they know that there is more to come and, often, their suggestions can help mold that future of our permeable game.
Its really a standard advertising trick and it brings and keeps customers who are interested in a new or renewed pastime.

Be well.

Well, can someone propose an email text then?

Just make sure to exclude banned players because it would be awkward if you sent them a bulk email that would say something like "we'd really like to see you back".

I'll write an email to send, though I'd prefer not to post it here.

Joshuamonkey wrote:I'll write an email to send, though I'd prefer not to post it here.

Thanks!

I wonder, is there perhaps something that has changed recently that does not come off as fun to newcomers? I was thinking that maybe the newspawn world isn't doing as much good as we initially hoped. Maybe we should focus on fixing what isn't working anymore.

A few critical considerations before you guys send the email, some of which I was talking to JoshuaMonkey about a few weeks ago...



1. Use an email service like Mailchimp, and not the Cantr servers, to ensure email delivery succeeds

2. On the above point, this will also add an "unsubscribe" button for these players who are totally done with Cantr to no longer hear from us

3. Make it very clear this is a once-off email and they are welcome to permanently "unsubscribe" from future emails by clicking so

4. Please consider adding a Call To Action (or CTA), and make it very prominent and clear, lest we have that email flop. (that means, ensure the person reading the email knows EXACTLY what we're asking them to do (i.e. register again) and that it's very easy to do, i.e. click a big red button)

5. Consider sending the emails out over the course of several hours, or even days depending on the size of the list. I'm guessing there's thousands? This will prevent the servers being overloaded and crashing! Worst possible thing to happen.

6. On the above, consider setting up load balancing on the servers, or increasing what they can handle, before sending the emails

7. Please review, review and review the content of the email. This is essentially a sales email, you'll really want to sell them on why they need to come back, and keep it short, succinct and punchy.



I am capable of helping with all/any of the above items so do let me know if you'd like help (this, like others, is my bread and butter - I work in the web industry as a leader). I am also happy to pay for a Mailchimp subscription or give access to my own account if it means the difference between using Mailchimp and sending from the Cantr servers (which are consistently being blocked by Gmail, for example).

Good luck...!

Very good points!

Great points - thanks!

Cantr Staff is looking for marketing specialists! It's an important role, yet also we accept applications of those that don't have much experience with marketing or that are interested in learning about it. Go to the the link on the player page about joining staff to send the application form to your email, and then send the filled out version to Personnel or Public Relations through the contact form (you can also send it to me).

Let's share the world of Cantr!

I had a little dabble today with a new program I just bought.

I think we could really take advantage of some of the in-game history to create some real works of art. To really hook some new curious players. The notes, sketches, quotes... Everything from stories, diaries, laws, battles, drawings... They could all potentially be utilized into some form of advertising/promotion.

Now I've just got to see if I can figure out how to get this dabbling of mine into this post...

(500 post edits later...)

That's it. I quit trying to embed it. Here's the link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmfc5u48ggM

Hedgedhogst wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmfc5u48ggM

This is great! Can we put this on the front page?