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This topic couldn't come at a more poignant time given that my wife is 30 weeks pregnant! Obviously, I look on these emails in a different light. Which if you think about it is kind of the point of email blasts. Unlike a public site which has to appeal to anyone who might fall onto the site, email lists are the sort of thing only the truly passionate sign up for. Given that, it seems to me that the messaging within these emails can be more targeted. In this case the email can be catered to the current message, Fathers Day. Sure the "holiday" is already over, but maybe this will inspire you email designers next year.
June 25. 2008 12:57
I'm looking at these ads (I guess that tips one off of how I feel about them) and just am not impressed what so ever. I know these are a different caliber than your full fledged site but the creative direction is found lacking to me. I know email isn't necessarily the "final frontier" but I do believe its a market that has tons of potential. I just don't think anyone has bothered to think out of the box just quite yet. The technology is I guess getting there but I think innovations are always best when there is very little to work with (it makes you think about what you have to work with a little harder). Over all I think the design isn't bad by any means, the over use of the image is a little annoying,(think 2000-2002 of site pages that were made of 1 single JPEG) But I think I can safely say that none of these examples "push the ubiquitous envelope" of design and advertising. I would love to see how an agency like d or F-I would approach an email. Can't recall them doing any email newsletters/advertisements though (I say that with utmost levity). To wrap, I think if companies put a little more of the annual advertising budget/and energy into producing some worthwhile content they could start to see their email recipients utilize that submit purchase button a little more than the unsubscribe or spam button.
Alexander Lopez
June 25. 2008 14:48
I am with you Alexander. I suppose I hope that this site will expose the email marketing industry for its good and bad qualities and as a result it will improve. I don't think HTML emails have gotten much in the way of showcasing online and I think this site will provide a better view of the industry.
Patrick