The Evolution of E-Newsletters

Zana Fauzi — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 01:36:29 +0000

Email marketing has quickly gone up to become one of the most versatile tools to reach customers when it comes to marketing brands and products. With the help of a number of platforms such as Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Litmus, GetResponse and many more, it is easy to implement custom and/or ready-made designs, segregate customers into specific groups, schedule mail sending time, generate reports, analyse trends and better forecast results through data-driven approach. All we need is a good strategy, and these platforms can help us achieve our goals accordingly.

From “me, me, me” to “I care about you”

There used to be a time when brands used to be implementing “me, me, me” approach in the email marketing campaigns. Some email marketing mistakes as ran through by Don Sadler, which rang true as early as 2004:

“It’s all about me.”

Many companies still don’t get the fact that it’s not all about them. E-newsletters that get bogged down in how great the company is, how many products they have, how long they’ve been in business, etc., etc., are doomed to failure, because people just don’t care about that. Readers want to know what’s in it for them.

No clear target audience.

You simply can’t be everything to everybody. As noted above, the tighter and more narrow your niche and content, the better.

Way too long.

With e-newsletters, people want to quickly get to the information that’s going to help them, digest this and then move on. If they know they can read your e-newsletter and get something of value in a couple of minutes, rather than having to slog through page after page, they’re much more likely to add you to their “must read” list.

The “me, me, me” approach sure works after a while, but as according to Dale Carnegie:

To be interesting, be interested.

Today’s email marketing campaigns seem to move more than just a ‘campaign’. Most of the products and brands send weekly email newsletters detailing on their opinions, their work culture and things they find interesting enough to share – something very personalised and with a more human touch.

This gets customers to warm up more to them, knowing that there are real people behind these products working hard to give the best for them, and in return, they would appreciate it more.

Email newsletters for everyone

Recently I have been noticing an increase of individuals creating personal, curated email newsletters. To be honest, some of them are really, really good. Again, with easy-to-use platforms such as Mailchimp and Tinyletter (I have been contemplating on creating my own, but could not find great topics to share). It is really interesting to see this evolution, of how some methods that were once accessible to companies are now open to interesting individuals ready to share their valued opinions.

I love the Internet.

Lists of list

Here are some of the e-newsletters I have been subscribing and they are all my favourites. Feel free to add your recommendations in the comments!

UI/UX

Web Design and Development

WDRL

Companies and Brands

Technology, Culture, Music etc.

Miscellaneous (Writing, Ideas, Productivity, Cats!)

In the meantime, be sure to also subscribe to our Stampede Weekly to receive latest and curated web topics, from best practices and UX ideas to design inspirations & productivity tips!

(Thank you Wired for the photo.)

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