Noticing another (the first being the gray text on white background) trend and it ain’t good. More and more newsletters require you to click a link for the full newsletter. To make the situation worse, some of these are in — ack! — Acrobat pdf format!
I like Acrobat files, but not for e-mail newsletters. E-mail newsletters generally load fast unless the issue has too many images that aren’t optimized (you won’t find me subscribed to those that do this every time). But to click the link to go to the PDF page takes longer.
I still read some newsletters that use this method because they offer high quality content and I respect the editor behind the newsletter. I just might not read every issue or refer back.
E-mail newsletters work for me because I can file them, search them, and read them whenever. Yes, you can file the “click link for newsletter” e-mail, but you can’t search it. You won’t remember if the content you need came from that newsletter or another.
Yes, trying to get an e-mail newsletter to display the way you want it in every e-mail client is an impossible task. But that’s not an excuse for chucking the idea and going PDF where the newsletter doesn’t have to deal with e-mail application idiosyncrasies.
Remember all of us have lots of information coming at us… and we all have our preferences how we like to get that information: RSS, e-mail, Web. A successful newsletter provides readers with choices in how to obtain the content.
More related posts on this topic
- HTML in Newsletters
- Designing Newsletters for all E-mail-Kind
- Spread the Marketing Wealth for Best Results
Am I off base here? Or do you like your PDFs?
When I find my way to a Web site, I may have gotten there through a search engine or through a link from a colleague or Web site. After I’ve scanned the content and fiddled around in the pages, the site may impress me if the information proves valuable.
What do I do then? The possibilities: Bookmark it, Furl it, subscribe to the feed or subscribe to the email newsletter. The action I take depends on how much I need the information and what options the site offers by way of feeds, newsletters and what-have-you.
Let’s say I found the email newsletter link or subscription box. Would I subscribe? It depends on what’s available on the site surrounding the newsletter. I won’t subscribe if respecting my privacy isn’t mentioned. I also won’t subscribe without finding archives to review. The third reason I won’t subscribe is if the site asks for too much information. [ Read more in the May issue of eNJ ]
Search and archives
Get Updates
-
Categories
Archives
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
-
Other Stops
-
Connect with Meryl
-
Recommended
Sponsors
Blogroll
All Content © Copyright 1995 - 2012 Meryl.net. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Privacy Policy | Thanks to Blue Flavor and Fireside Media | Valid XHTML and CSS