Ok, don’t get me wrong, I love MediaPost – I subscribe to a bunch of its publications and regularly read & love them. However, today, I got a new one called “Performance Insider”, so out of curiosity I open it up and pleasantly to my surprise, it has this note attached introducing me, explaining what the new newsletter is about and why they think I might be interested (because I already subscribe to other similar MediaPost newsletters)

So anyway, I find the note compelling enough and decide I want to subscribe, so I click the link… but it brings me to a registration page (strange, since the note sounds like the email was only sent to those who are already registered) but no worries, I easily find a link for existing users. Then it prompts me to login.. I try once – invalid login, I try again – Invalid login, one more time – same thing.

Now I registered eons ago, and I’m sure I checked the “save my login info” because I ALWAYS do… but it’s not there now, and now after so many steps I’ve lost interest and won’t be subscribing to this new newsletter…

This is why it’s always important to make things quick and easy for subscribers, why couldn’t I just click a link and it automatically subscribes me to this email. I mean I’m already subscribed to their other publications, so it’s not like they need any additional info from me.

If you haven’t heard yet, Microsoft is in the midst of releasing Outlook 2007. However, it looks like Microsoft is shocking email marketers everywhere with decreased HTML & CSS support.

The good news is, Microsoft has already posted a list of what will and will not work as well as a validator to check your HTML.

Also, the Campaign Monitor blog has posted a good write up about it (including screenshots of what works/doesn’t work)

If you haven’t had a chance yet, you should check out MarketingSherpa’s Marketing Wisdom for 2007, because it has so much great advice, you’ll definitely be setting yourself up for a good year.

As you can probably guess, I perused the “Email Marketing” section, and it’s fantastic. One reoccuring theme is to re-send your email campaigns a week or two later to all who did not open the original campaign. It’s very easy to do, and from the sounds in the report – leads to great ROI! Try it!

The saddest part about being a writer, is EVERYONE thinks they can write. So especially if you are writing for a client, you rarely encounter someone who says
“Well you are the expert, so I’m sure whatever you write is best.”

So where I’m going with this, is I found this great article on the Bad Language blog. “Why good writers (occasionally) produce bad writing.” Sometimes it’s the writer’s fault: tight deadlines, bad working environment etc. and other times it’s dealing with too many editors, corporate speak and so on.

If you’re thinking “What does this have to do with email?” then the answer is EVERYTHING! In email every word is precious and the writing needs to be concise and convincing in order to keep a captive audience. Keep your writing skills sharp!

If you aren’t a subscriber to Expresso, than you sure missed out yesterday!

But lucky for you, I’m feeling the holiday spirit and would like to share our Season’s greetings email.

Get your share of holiday cheer!