These days, when we hear the word newsletter, it conjures up images of yucky, salesy emails of people who are, rather transparently, trying to sell us crap we don't need. Or if it's quite not that yucky it's droves of uninspired emails telling stories about the last industry party or award won, which frankly, no one cares about.
But it doesn't have to be that way. There are examples out there of companies and individuals who send relevant, informative or simply hilarious emails that bring something of value to our lives, even if it's just for a minute. I had to laugh hard at a recent William Painter newsletter that had "Jonah Hill had to be hospitalized because he snorted so much fake blow" as a subject line, relating to this story. I don't really want to buy their sunglasses, but their emails are so funny that I cannot bring myself to unsubscribe.
Email marketing is probably the single most underrated tool in the marketer's arsenal, but now that everybody has moved on to social media and those platforms are completely oversaturated, not to mention the privacy issues and the menace they pose to society on many, many levels, there is a huge opportunity for the people who want to put in the work to revive email marketing. Yes, it will take time and effort, but by being smart you can build a pretty decent list and keep people engaged by providing them with amazingly valuable content. The more creative you get with this the better.
PS - If you're using Gmail or Gsuite and you want to continue receiving email updates from people who make good use of permission marketing, check out Seth Godin's recent update on the matter.
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If you have questions about this piece, rvltr or want to chat about your strategy and communications, you can leave a comment, share with a friend, or reach us at hello{at}rvltr.studio.