How about you? What do you like or dislike (be gentle) about Bill’s newsletter?
Michael
4 thoughts on “E-Newsletter Field Trip: "InkBlot"”
Michael Katz
We migrated these Field Trips from Facebook and didn’t want to lose the comments, so we’ve posted them below:
Erica Lewis: What I liked about Bill’s newsletter is his catching your attention right away with a slightly challenging opener and then empathising with your problem. Also it’s justthe right length and has a friendly supportive tone. I’m struggling to find anything that would make it even better – a coupl emore illustrations further down possibly to even up the impact of the smart header? Overall, it’s great and I’m about to (finally!) start mine so it’s a useful contribution to my research….
Erica http://www.inspiringaction.co.uk
Rhonda Alexis Dirvin: I agree with Erica that pictures in the other two sections would be really helpful. If you can’t find what you want in Constant Contact’s stash, Flickr is a good source.
I love Constant Contact’s ability to track links, so I would have shortened all three articles and provided a link to the whole thing. Since you can now link to a pdf that you store in Constant Contact’s library, it is easy to do and gives you lots of information on which articles people actually clicked through to read.
The content and tone are great and are the hardest part (in my opinion) to get right. Good job, Bill!
Laura Ellis: I liked the helpful casual but professional tone and the fact that he provided useful information in the content. Even if I don’t use his company, I have a sample plan to work on my own.
Personally, I prefer to not have to click links for actual content (don’t mind to get more source info) – it’s annoying like having to flip to the bag of the magazine for the rest of the article!
He sounds approachable and very non-patronizing. I agree about the pics – just to break up the page – or charts would add interest if pics are suitable to the content.
Wonderfully helpful advice to give a newsletter a name rather than just have a company header. (It’s a helpful newsletter not a marketing message.) Bravo! (Now I best find a name…)
We migrated these Field Trips from Facebook and didn’t want to lose the comments, so we’ve posted them below:
Erica Lewis: What I liked about Bill’s newsletter is his catching your attention right away with a slightly challenging opener and then empathising with your problem. Also it’s justthe right length and has a friendly supportive tone. I’m struggling to find anything that would make it even better – a coupl emore illustrations further down possibly to even up the impact of the smart header? Overall, it’s great and I’m about to (finally!) start mine so it’s a useful contribution to my research….
Erica
http://www.inspiringaction.co.uk
Rhonda Alexis Dirvin: I agree with Erica that pictures in the other two sections would be really helpful. If you can’t find what you want in Constant Contact’s stash, Flickr is a good source.
I love Constant Contact’s ability to track links, so I would have shortened all three articles and provided a link to the whole thing. Since you can now link to a pdf that you store in Constant Contact’s library, it is easy to do and gives you lots of information on which articles people actually clicked through to read.
The content and tone are great and are the hardest part (in my opinion) to get right. Good job, Bill!
Laura Ellis: I liked the helpful casual but professional tone and the fact that he provided useful information in the content. Even if I don’t use his company, I have a sample plan to work on my own.
Personally, I prefer to not have to click links for actual content (don’t mind to get more source info) – it’s annoying like having to flip to the bag of the magazine for the rest of the article!
He sounds approachable and very non-patronizing. I agree about the pics – just to break up the page – or charts would add interest if pics are suitable to the content.
Good newsletter!
Thanks everyone, I appreciate your comments. And thanks especially to Bill Alpert of CopiesAndInk.com for sending this in!
– Michael
Wonderfully helpful advice to give a newsletter a name rather than just have a company header. (It’s a helpful newsletter not a marketing message.) Bravo! (Now I best find a name…)
Thanks Jonn! Glad it hit the spot. Good luck on the name — a fun exercise!
Michael