I just noticed, while looking through the various newsletters I subscribe to, that the ones I read first, or indeed usually pay attention to, are those that have good presentation.
Of course, yes, that means they are HTML.
This surprised me because I’ve long been an advocate of text-based mail for several reasons. But the reality is that text-based newsletters seem blah, boring, and yes, even cheesy.
Now, I don’t mean that they are! But for me that’s how they come across. One of the first thoughts to cross my mind is ”another wannabee solopreneur“; while the presented newsletter, such as DM News or RainToday, immediately grabs my attention and almost inevitably will result in my following at least one link to read the rest of the article (it helps to have really good article content, too).
Note that I’m not talking about flashing neon ads or even heavy duty graphics. At most I’m talking about highlighted and formatted text, styled links, and header/sidebar/footer graphics. What I’d call a basic, well-styled web page in email.
I know Content is King but sometimes it is about getting their attention, first. If no one’s looking at you they can’t see what you have to offer. Once you have done that then you can wow ‘em with your content.
