MindComet

Email Design Showcase

I thought I would take this post to present a few emails that I’ve been impressed with recently. The emails below have landed in my inbox within the past month and all have exceptional designs for their own unique reasons.

eROI: Sales / Marketing Blast

I love everything about this email, from the subject line, the content blocks & calls to action… Especially the overall design with the cutting board & bread.  They really seem to nail the tone with this blast—beckoning to join their team if you’re currently unhappy with your online marketing efforts and general presence on the web. I’d really like to know the stats for this email, what the terms of success were and how many conversions they scored.

Jupiter Images: Special Deal / Promotion

I can honestly say that I’ve never seen an email designed this way.  Although, it lacks any HTML supporting text (it’s basically just 3 images in their own table row), the idea behind the design is a winner.  The angles drew me in… I scanned the entire email and spent a lot of time below the fold once I got there, inspecting the smaller images carefully.  Points off for not hot-linking the “EMAIL US AT” call to action to the email addresses, but all and all great job.

Blue Sky Factory: Sales / Marketing Blast

I can’t remember ever receiving an email with a newspaper / traditional newsletter design.  And for that reason, this email really made an impression on me.  It may also be due to it’s simplistic nature, the small call to action on the bottom right hand corner, its good balance of imagery and text, or how it makes the case that email marketing still works and still consistently provides the highest ROI out of any other form of marketing.  Either way, it put a smile on my face.

If you have received any exceptionally designed emails recently, post them below!

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Posted by MindComet on Nov. 14, 2008

Email as Digital Glue

Earlier last week entrepreneur and overall media junkie Greg Cangialosi spoke in Boston about “Email Marketing’s Role in New Media”.  At the core of this presentation, we’re left with the central theme of email being the “digital glue” that ties all other emerging and established interactive media outlets together.  Through this presentation he determines that even with all of these stimulating and exciting forms of media in today’s market, email is still the most dominant and essential application used.  Here is an overview of some of the highlights of his presentation:

• 92% of all internet users read and send email on a daily basis.
• For ever dollar spent on email marketing in 2007, there is a return on investment of $48.29.
• It is the only common medium that ties all avenues of social networking together.

Compelling stuff indeed.

This presentation was part one of a three-part series by Greg.  Stay tuned for the impending installments.  See the presentation slides here.

Oh, and thanks to Tamara for pointing this out!

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Posted by MindComet on Jul. 22, 2008

Is Email Marketing Becoming Stagnant?

After reading this post on the No man is an iland blog, I feel compelled to respond and give my two cents.  They pose the question “Why is email marketing becoming stagnant?”  This is supported by the fact that B2C emails featuring both free and sales offers dropped in 2006.  They hypothesize that it’s a combination of a few things including:

- Statistical anomalies
- New marketers still getting ramped up to the ins and outs of email marketing
- General malaise
- Over shooting their email list quotas
- The ever-annoying Outlook 2007

I agree with some of the points mentioned, but I do believe a few things have been left out.

Yes, Outlook 2007 is extremely temperamental and is difficult to code emails for (No background images!?  Seriously!?).
Yes, I agree that the majority of emails that come through my inbox lack charisma and creativity.
And yes, there are a lot of fresh faces in the game, trying to make a name for themselves, but who are unfamiliar with the basics.

I think we have to consider that other sources for information on the web are more widely used, which may have influenced a drop in a B2C email presence.  More and more companies are sinking their online budgets into ads, viral campaigns, and SEM.  Yet, the most ROI-generating form of media online is still direct-email marketing.

So what gives?  Does the problem lie with communicating these cold-hard facts to potential business?  Is email inherently at a disadvantage since you can’t incorporate embedded flash or video on a widespread basis (as Mac Mail is the only client that displays video)?

The best way to solve problems like these is to collaborate with other email-marketing specialists.

If you’re in the email marketing game, I suggest you sign up for Email Marketer’s Club.  We can use the EMC to band together, get a dialogue going, address these tough questions and get them answered once and for all.

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Posted by MindComet on Oct. 18, 2007