Email marketing should be a brilliant marketing strategy to keep you front of mind with your customers and prospects, but must be done with a clear purpose. In my last article, I took the devil’s advocate’s approach and highlighted five reasons why I will hit delete or unsubscribe. So, let’s move over to the positive and talk about the things I love in good email marketing campaigns. Interestingly, I spoke previously that if you are going to do email campaigns more frequently than every month you need to ensure you have great and relevant content for your subscribers.
As I began to compile my list of favourite email newsletters, I realised they were daily or weekly. But with this, what my favourite email marketers do brilliantly is have real purpose about what they are sending and why. They provide excellent goodwill advice and tips or are a fun or thought provoking read.
So who are my favourites? Here are my top 5 e-newsletters:
- Seth Godin
Now, this list is in no particular order, but why wouldn’t you put Seth at the top! I admit to being a massive fan and every night (for me in Australia) I look forward to his pearl of wisdom on marketing and business and how we should be doing it better. His posts are short, with a clear message to take away to ponder for work and life.
- SmartCompany
I’ve been reading SmartCompany’s daily (weekdays) newsletter for five years. I don’t always have time to read them daily, but I never delete – they sit waiting for me to make time. It is a jam-packed newsletter highlighting major business news of the last 24 hours along with a spread of different bloggers who write on their topic of expertise. With a byline for each article’s link, I can quickly decide what I want/need to read for business.
- Web123
Fellow ABNer, Bianca Board, is one of my ‘Wonder Woman’ role models. Her weekly emails are concise with links to a treasure trove of tips on SEO and website marketing. Each week there is a clear action that Bianca wants her readers to achieve – usually within a monthly theme – with tips of suggested homework to keep goals achievable.
- Stewart Media
I stumbled across Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) expert Jim Stewart via SmartCompany and quickly became a screaming advocate. What makes his emails even more of a delight is it’s him on video! Why more people (note-to-self) aren’t doing this is surprising, really. He highlights fabulous tips on SEO that are quite achievable for people with basic marketing knowledge. And, being video, he shows you how to do it.
- Kirsty Dunphey
Another person I found via SmartCompany and another ‘Wonder Woman’ who I have been in love with for five years. Her newsletters are little stories, gorgeous to read, with a message to transfer into business success.
Now there are more people doing fabulous email marketing – Marketing Profs and ABN looks remiss not being on my list – but this highlights people/businesses doing their e-newsletters with structure, commitment and purpose. Their content is the definition of goodwill and they never disappoint. My list has been swayed by my love of business and marketing, so may not be everyone’s favourites, but the strategy should be the same regardless of industry: have fun with your email marketing with the goal that your recipients look forward to receiving your message, not burdened with seeing it arrive. [Disclosure: I am not endorsed or aligned with any of these businesses except for my writing with ABN. My list is personal, based on what I love to read.]
