Way back in 1982 when I decided to major in advertising, I thought I’d be an advertising copywriter and work for a big-time agency on high-profile campaigns for major brands. Basically, I envisioned myself as Don Draper before the iconic Mad Mencharter was dreamed up. Things didn’t quite turn out…
One of the first things on my to-do list when I went full-time self-employed about eight years ago was to launch an e-newsletter. I’d spent my career writing newsletters, both print and electronic, so I knew first-hand how effective they were as a marketing tool. Since I launched my e-newsletter The…
The last few months I’ve been talking about ways to improve email marketing results. I believe that great marketing emails start with great writing — which I guess is what you’d expect me to say, since I’m a writer. However, I realize there’s a lot more that goes into a…
In last month’s article, I shared a few tips for writing better emails and got some nice responses with more tips and also some a few email pet peeves. For example, one reader said she hates it when people don’t change the subject line in old email chains to reflect…
Do you remember when email first hit the scene? My first exposure to email was around 1988 when the publishing company I was working for installed internal email on our IBM 286 PCs. (Google this old PC and look at the pictures for a real stroll down memory lane!) I…
Thirty years ago, I graduated from college as an excited 22 year-old, ready to make my mark on the world. While reminiscing about those days recently, I Googled “1985 trivia” to see what was hot in pop culture 30 years ago: #1 TV show: The Cosby Show #1 movie: Back…
When you hear the word “newsletter,” what’s the first image that comes to your mind? If I had to guess, I’d say it’s probably not something that’s very exciting or dynamic. Across the wide spectrum of different marketing tools available today, newsletters fall to the far end of “non-sexy.” After…
Last month, I shared some e-newsletter best practices from three of the best publishers I know: solo professional marketing consultant Michael Katz, freelance writing consultant Peter Bowerman and SEO expert and consultant Jenny Munn. When I receive their e-newsletters, I almost always stop what I'm doing and read them. To me, that's the mark of a…