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Q&A 4 U: How to Make Fantastic E-Newsletters
Posted on August 31, 2005 by Sarah Eaton.
Todd Smart loves to spread the word about eMarketing, specifically about e-newsletters.
That's right, folks, BeTuitive "how to make a newsletter" secrets revealed here. The four steps to making great e-mail newsletters:
- Start with the outcome in mind.
- Strategize: Think about list segmentation and about how much educational and how much promotional material you want to include.
- Concentrate on content: What will be compelling to your readers? What will make their lives better?
- Analyze results: Pull out the pertinent data that can be fed to sales for them to act on it.
Now, those four points might make a bunch of other questions arise. Lucky for you, Todd gathered up the FAQs from his speaking tour, and you can find those questions (and his answers) here.
tags: Todd Smart | eMarketing Excellence Summit | e-newsletter strategy | list segmentation
What's a tag?
August 31, 2005 in audio publication, award winning magazine, award winning newsletter, Award winning publications, Blog Outsourcing, Blogging Tools, Building B2B Relationships, Building Customer Intuition, company newsletter, corporate magazine, Corporate publications, create a newsletter | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Effective, Efficient: WebMarketCentral Blog
Posted on August 30, 2005 by Sarah Eaton.
In my continuing quest to provide you with ways to make your marketing life easier, allow me to recommend Tom Pick's blog to you: The WebMarketCentral Blog.
Trying to think how to describe it accurately I came up with this: Thought. There's a lot of thought that goes into this blog---interviews, rants, and just some thoughtful ruminations on marketing issues.
tags: Tom Pick | marketing blogs
What's a tag?
August 30, 2005 in audio publication, award winning magazine, award winning newsletter, Award winning publications, Blogging Tools, Building B2B Relationships, Building Customer Intuition, bulk email marketing, company blog, company magazine, company newsletter, company newsletter sample | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Does worrying spur action?
Posted on August 29, 2005 by Sarah Eaton.
I'm going for it today--for over a month, I've had the instructions for adding Technorati tags (thanks, Peter) languishing in my "In Process" folder of my email; yet because of my woeful html inexperience, I have been pretending they're not there.
Avoidance no more, I say! After reading Wayne Hulbert's post about visitor logs (he says not to worry too much about them, time will take its course; I agree with this...to a degree; to me, it seems sort of like the old "Do what you love, and the money will follow" adage--well, yes, but you've got to take some action, too, and, in my world, there's nothing like worrying for spurring me to action), I'm inspired.
Hence, you will notice the new little tags below in this and all of my following posts.
tags: Technorati tags | Wayne Hulbert | visitor logs | Peter Davidson
What's a tag?
August 29, 2005 in audio publication, award winning blog, award winning magazine, Award winning publications, blog publish, Blogging Tools, Building B2B Relationships, Building Customer Community, Building Customer Intuition, bulk email marketing, company newsletter sample, Company newsletters, Company publication, Corporate Blogging, Corporate newsletter, create a newsletter | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Multiple Brains For the Price of One
Posted on August 25, 2005 by Sarah Eaton.
I just love talking about brains; as a result, sometimes I wonder how many hits my blog gets from people who are looking for zombie sites. When really it's all about the e-newsletter: newsletter design, newsletter content--how to create a really great newsletter, when you come right down to it.
And the number five reason why it's a good idea to outsource your newsletter? It combines elements of some of our previous ideas (as seen below). You get a designer, an editor, a writer, a list manager, a strategy team. You get all of those things, for the price of hiring one person to work on your newsletter for you in house. That's right: a whole bunch of brains for the price of one.
5. Multiple brains for the price of one.
4. Design that pops and complements the custom content.
3. Professional writing and editing services at your disposal.
2. You're working with experts; you can let go of the worry.
1. Because you're so flippin' busy.
August 25, 2005 in award winning design, award winning magazine, award winning newsletter, Award winning publications, Blog Outsourcing, blog publish, Brand enhancement, Building B2B Relationships, Building Customer Intuition, bulk email marketing, Business publications, company blog, company magazine, company newsletter, company newsletter sample, corporate magazine, create a newsletter | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
What I Did on My Summer Vacation
Posted on August 23, 2005 by Sarah Eaton.
Easing back in, I thought I'd tell you about my vacation.
Basically, I went to Brooklyn because that is where my best friend and his wife live, with brief forays into Manhattan to do tourist-y things, like go to MoMA (excellent new acquisition by Ellen Gallagher, altered magazine pages) and to The Pillowman (it turns out I don't hate theatre--I hate bad theatre; this was good).
Also what I did was stay up way too late for several nights in a row and get a cold that knocked me flat for three days. Nothing like illness to give you a vacation from your vacation.
But, I'm back now, and while I'm playing catch-up from last week and battling the last of a cough, I'm also thinking about e-marketing. And will return to topic tomorrow.
August 23, 2005 in award winning design | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Back and Better Than Ever
Posted on August 22, 2005 by Sarah Eaton.
Just a quickie today, to say I'm back. Being gone for a week results in a Lot of email. I'll tell you about my trip tomorrow, after I've caught up.
August 22, 2005 in award winning design | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Big Apple--inspiration and vacation
Posted on August 12, 2005 by Sarah Eaton.
That's right, I'm heading off to The City That Doesn't Sleep for a little rest and relaxation. I'll be back next Friday to regale you with tales of New York intrigue.
Maybe I'll be inspired to blog while I am away, but...I wouldn't count on it. I plan to have out-in-the-world fun rather than tapping-at-keyboard-keys fun.
Until Friday!
August 12, 2005 in award winning design | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Winning: Jack Welch on Work-Life Balance and Other Pressing Issues
Posted on August 11, 2005 by Sarah Eaton.
Yes, you read that correctly. The title of this review speaks the truth. The Jack Welch of “Winning” seems to be a kinder sort of fellow—one who still believes in booting out the bottom 10 percent of performers in organizations (differentiation), but a mellower one nonetheless.
To tell you the truth, I went into this book wondering what it would have to offer me due to our differing philosophies when it comes to the whole numbers vs. people thing, but, to my surprise, I’ve started a couple of sentences with, “Well, Jack Welch says…” since I’ve finished it.
Jack Welch says you need positive energy and the ability to energize others. Jack Welch says candor is the key to streamlined communication and results. Jack Welch says if you don’t shape up, I’m going to differentiate you right out of here. (Just kidding on that last one.)
Here’s what I liked:
- There are takeaways. This is a biggie. It’s not one of those books where the author rambles on and on without giving you any practical applications.
Example: “Strategy: It’s All in the Sauce” is the title of one of the chapters. In that chapter, he, believe it or not, outlines steps you can take and questions you should ask yourself to analyze your situation, and then move forward to act on your strategies. This is real, applicable stuff.
And in that spirit, here are five takeaways for you. Jack Welch says…:
- A company’s mission statement and a company’s values must reinforce each other. Values should support the mission.
- Every person deserves a voice. Every person deserves dignity. Everyone should be able to speak her mind, and everyone should be respected for who she is and what she does.
- The four characteristics of a high-level leader are authenticity, resilience, the ability to see around corners and a penchant to surround himself with the best people. Look for those characteristics when hiring.
- There are three firing mistakes: Moving too quickly, not being honest enough in the process and waiting too long to do the firing.
- Attach change initiatives to clear goals.
- It’s well-written. Gosh, it’s easy to get through—it’s what I would imagine it would be like sitting at your grandpa’s knee as he weaves tales of his success, sitting in a rocking chair, sharing his caramel chews.
- It covers a lot of ground. From learning how to survive a crisis (face it) to learning how to survive a bad boss (take a look at yourself, first) to mergers and acquisitions (all right, I admit I skipped half of this chapter because I got bored, but you might find it fascinating), Jack is sharing his thoughts, experience and stories of successes and failures of real people with whom he’s worked over the years.
Here’s what I didn’t like:
- It covers a lot of ground. I guess the thing is called “Winning,” which is a gigantic subject, so this should have been expected. But, because so many topics are covered, it can feel like you’re careening haphazardly through the canals of Jack’s brain as you read. Once you start to get a handle on one topic—zip!—you’re off to the next one.
Yet, this kind of structure does mean that you can use this book as a kind of business reference book. Interested in budgeting today? Crack open “Winning” and check out that chapter. Two months from now you might be having trouble with your team—grab “Winning” off the shelf and see what Jack’s got to say about it in the chapter called “People Management.”
Overall, I’d recommend it. The positives of the book far outweigh the negative, and the way the book is structured means that there’s something in it for everyone, regardless of your position, or business interests.
August 11, 2005 in award winning magazine, award winning newsletter, Blog Outsourcing, blog publish, build credibility, Business editorial, Business newsletter, Business relationships, Corporate newsletter, Corporate publications | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Original Artwork in Newsletter Design
Posted on August 09, 2005 by Sarah Eaton.
Just to expand a bit on last week's post (let's call this post Reason to Outsource number 4b), and also so you can look at my August header, of which I am particularly fond (so click through, all you aggregators, and check it out), keep in mind that professional artwork and professional design tend to go hand-in-hand: Where there are professional designers, so too can there be found professional artists (usually).
For our own newsletter, we customize the header each month. And then it migrates over to my blog. And I think it's pretty cool. So there.
What do you think?
August 9, 2005 in audio publication, award winning magazine, award winning newsletter, Award winning publications, Blogging Tools, Building B2B Relationships, Building Customer Community, Building Customer Intuition, Business publications, company blog, company magazine, company newsletter, company newsletter sample, Corporate Blogging, corporate magazine, create a newsletter | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Newsletter Design: Looking Good
Posted on August 04, 2005 by Sarah Eaton.
I was chatting with BeTuitive's designer the other day, and she mentioned that one of her major pet peeves is when people think that, to design a website, all they have to do is hire a high school kid with time to kill over the summer, and there it is.
That's one way to go about getting something designed for you, certainly (and no offense to all those ultra-savvy design genius high school students out there--I'm sure you could design circles around me), but there are advantages to hiring someone with mad skillz and experience, who can give you what you want in your secret heart of hearts.
Sure, you could get someone in-house to design your newsletter. You could hire a freelance designer to design your newsletter. You could find a high school kid whose friends are all at summer camp to design your newsletter.
Or, you could hire a newsletter designer, someone who knows the ins and outs of both design and newsletters, as part of the package when you outsource your newsletter.
Reasons to do so:
4. Design that pops and complements the custom content.
3. Professional writing and editing services at your disposal.
2. You're working with experts; you can let go of the worry.
1. Because you're so flippin' busy.
August 4, 2005 in audio publication, award winning magazine, award winning newsletter, Award winning publications, Blog Outsourcing, blog publish, Blogging Tools, Building Customer Intuition, bulk email marketing, Business publications, company blog, company magazine, company newsletter, company newsletter sample, Company newsletters, Company publication, Corporate Blogging, corporate magazine, create a newsletter | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack