The best e-newsletter you've seen?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Nancy Doyle on June 30, 2009 at 9:15am

Give readers something to look forward to - either with interesting images, practical information, a sense of humor, special/insider offers, etc! We're a retail wine shop in NYC and our newsletter, "Short & Sweet," combines news and utility. We always try to include a tidbit that helps people learn a little something about wine, or tip them off to a great upcoming event. It's not all wine all the time! See what you think... Thanks, Nan
Examples here: http://www.bottlerocketwine.com/newsletter

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Permalink Reply by Sheila Lawrence on June 30, 2009 at 9:38am

I am in Real Estate sales, so I get a lot of email marketing. The one I would point out, not so much for content, but for their visual aspect and title, is a company called Clean Offer. It is a Vertical Response piece and does a great job. Their newsletter is more of a sales piece for their service so it really is not a true newsletter, but if you want to grab someone's attention, the visual and title is first and that is where they excel.

Their format contains a picture in the upper left hand corner that you see regardless of how you view your email and the colors in the newsletter are very subtly complimentary of the picture. Their content is short and sweet and basically three headings that run horizontally beneath the picture and the title. The title is hits squarely on what they can do for your business. The picture is well selected and changes with each sending so you're compelled to open it again even though you know it's a sales pitch.

Hope this helps,
Sheila Lawrence, Sonoma County, Northern California
www.SheilaLawrence.com

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Permalink Reply by Emi on July 7, 2009 at 2:10pm

I agree with Nancy, give your readers something to look forward to! We try to do that with offering something of value, whether it is business tips, news about where we are, where we are going, giving away something every time, contest news, and a human aspect too (Life of a Qtasker). And this is for an online project task management and collaboration tool!

Images really help. It keeps it easy to read and friendly.
We set a style, and stuck to it.
Check it out: http://www.qtask.com/public/newsletters/2009-06/index.php

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Permalink Reply by Bill Henthorn on July 8, 2009 at 5:13pm

Hi Paula,

I'll throw in my highly opinionated two cents:
follow direct marketing pros who make their clients
millions every month.

Direct response master and copywriter Clayton
Makepeace, who has generated over $1 billion for his
clients, runs the marketing for his financial advisor
client Martin D. Weiss.

I guesstimate Weiss has 500,000 emails in his lists.
(For example, when he asks for comments on his
blog, he gets 3,000 in a day or so.)

The format they use is simple, sent out daily,
although you may be thinking of a lower frequency,
and I've adapted it to run high-frequency campaigns
(14 emails in 10 days) very successfully.

In short, study from a master who makes one of his
clients millions every month.

Links for you:
* Weiss newsletter: Money and Markets: signup

* Serious pull-no-punches marketing info if you're
determined to thrive in this economy rather than
just survive: Ripper Marketing

Questions? Put it on my wall and I'll respond

Best of success,

Bill Henthorn

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Permalink Reply by Grant Mills on July 14, 2009 at 1:59am

Hi Paula,

I would have to say that we do this stuff pretty well :) Check out our flagship newsletter that we do for Virgin Money every month at http://www.extraextra.co.za. You can also see a number of our other projects at our online portfolio at http://www.mailgloo.com/portfolio/

If you would like us to quote on providing you with a great custom design, please get in touch with me at grant.mills@mailgloo.com

Thanks
Grant Mills
MailGloo - Email Marketing That Sticks

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Permalink Reply by eDining.us on July 20, 2009 at 4:19pm

I do!

Newsletters are so very, very, very dead. I don't understand why anyone doesn't realize this. Must be a delayed death-realization syndrome of some kind. The newsletter is a holdover from the print era, the print era is over, people do not read, email is an instant medium, it is a fast text message glorified, it is design at its most challenging. ONE IDEA, One or TWO images MAXIMUM and OUT. You made your impression or you didnt, the client is long gone by the time you just finished reading THIS sentence.

NOBODY finds your business or your new inventory important enough or compelling enough to actually READ about.. if you texted them, would they answer you?

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Permalink Reply by Grant Mills on July 21, 2009 at 8:13am

I both agree and disagree with this point of view...

Sure, noone wants to hear you wax lyrical about how many projects you did this month and how many new clients you got - send a few newsletters like that and your recipients will be diving for the unsubscribe button in no time no matter how good it looks.

On the other hand, if you make your newsletter relevant to your customer then there is no reason why they would not want to read it. There is a reason why they decided to become your customer when there were no doubt many other options available to them through your competitors and thats what you need to identify and leverage. If you sell software that improves business operations, your customers will most definitely want to hear about the latest security update that prevents hackers from stealing their data.

I think its important to view newsletters as one of many marketing tools in your arsenal and not to pin all your communications on just newsletters alone, otherwise you will end up losing ground with your subscribers.

Grant Mills
MailGloo - Email Marketing That Sticks

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Permalink Reply by Kris on August 25, 2009 at 3:06pm

So, how did the revamp go? Is there any particular reason you have to do the redesign?
I would be glad to help, if you are still on the look out for solution.

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