Drupal Meeting: Monique Presents on Email Newsletters

Join me Thursday for the Vancouver League of Drupalers April meeting on Email Newsletters.

I’m providing this month’s feature presentation:

Email Newsletters: What the F**K? with Monique Trottier from Boxcar Marketing (formerly Work Industries). Learn how email can complement your web strategy. Email, it’s not dead yet!

Date: Thursday April 17th, 6:30pm
Location: Raincity Studios, 1 Alexander Street, Suite 400 in Gastown.
Cost: There is no charge and all are welcome

See the full post.

Here’s what I promise to talk about:

Email Newsletters: What the F**K

So everything is running smoothly with your Drupal install. Multiple blogs, no problem. RSS, done. Tagging, check . . . Then the client nonchalantly mentions their newsletter. Email newsletters, WTF? Email? Who uses email?

Email newsletters may be off your radar but email is the most used of the online marketing tools and opt-in emails often have the highest ROI. Email’s effectiveness though, including subscription-based or opt-in email, is hampered by subscribers’ perceptions of Spam and inbox overload. Monique Trottier, author of the newsletter Underwire: Full Support for Non-Techies, gives us the secrets of writing a newsletter that not only stays out of the spam folder but is enjoyed by your audience!

* Learn how a well crafted newsletter gives you an advantage over your email shunning competition by reaching non-Web 2.0 audiences, creating word-of-mouth, and bringing people back to your website.

* Learn how your customers’ perception of Spam may affect your email open rates. Know what a good open rate is and why it’s important.

* Understand what eyetracking studies tell us about how people view content in newsletters, whether they are b2b, b2c, marketing-oriented or information-based, and how to create effective email layouts.

* Know what metrics you should track and what they mean.

Regardless of whether you are using email as a marketing tool, information tool or sales tool, there are best practices that work across industries. Monique’s talk about adding email newsletters to the mix will give you information to effectively build and sustain your online audience.

The presentation will also include a demonstration of Drupal’s Simplenews module.

Monique Trottier is a partner with Boxcar Marketing (formerly Work Industries—we’re in stealth mode at the moment, official launch April 7). Boxcar Marketing is an online marketing company with expertise in web strategy, online marketing, content development and online communities. And yes, we email. Monique writes a regular newsletter called Underwire: Full Support for Non-Techies.

UPDATE

Here are the articles and resources that I referred to in my presentation:

1. MailChimp.com article “Stupid HTML Email Design Mistakes”. Read ‘em and weep.

2. MailChimp Inbox Inspector.

3. Grokdotcom article by Bryan Eisenberg on Email Secrets of a Top Converting Website.

4. Campaign Monitor on how to ensure your emails are CAN-SPAM compliant.

5. Campaign Monitor’s html to inline style for email tool.

6. Campaign Monitor’s 2007 Guide to CSS Support in Email 2007 (pdf)