I feel like MTV just abandoned me at some point like an old friend that decided they wanted to get a new haircut, new clothes and hang out with younger people. I don’t even know you anymore.

In any case, I got on their list somehow (I assume through the VH1 newsletter I’m signed up for) and received the following email the other day that stood out for all the wrong reasons. Continue reading

Josh Nason is the Inbound Marketing Director for SendLabs, a New England-based email marketing software company with great customers across the street and around the globe. Follow him at @joshnason and @sendlabs.

Contests via email marketing aren’t anything new and highlighting winners with a picture is a nice touch.  But take heed, marketers: sometimes it’s a bad idea.

The case in point here is Meadowbrook, a concert venue in New Hampshire who has been running contents using Facebook and smartly using email marketing as a way to promote.

In other words, they’re using a marketing mix which is fantastic.

However, I didn’t like how they designed this email for several reasons:

- The pics they used are not good. In some cases, they didn’t have a profile pic and used the default image (take a look at William). Really? You’re pointing to a contest you’re running and you don’t even have pictures of everyone?

- By using profile pics, they fall at the mercy of whatever the user puts up there and in some cases, they aren’t effective. The one that stands out the most is Jessica, whose picture makes her look like she’s challenging someone to a fight. Is that fair to her? Is that the picture you want to paint of your core fans?

A little common sense here would have gone a long way. Ask the users to send in a picture to feature. If they don’t, you don’t put them in the email. It’s that simple. If you don’t have images, use text and some clever design to create something that looks good.

It’s a great idea to point out winners of contests in email, but there needs to be some caution taken in how you present them. They’ve put trust in you, so repay the favor when you tell people about them.

Josh Nason is the Inbound Marketing Director for SendLabs, a New England-based email marketing software company with great customers across the street and around the globe. Follow him at @joshnason and @sendlabs.

Using tables in emails can be a great way to help format and clean things up a bit, but when used the wrong way, they can take away from the visual appeal – taking your good idea and making it look like a sloppy, underperforming mess.

I got this email today from WEEI, a major sports radio station here in greater Boston. As of late, they have amplified their email marketing efforts and have been sending out a ton of pushes for offers through their various sponsors.

As you can see, they used a two-column, five-row table.

However, this looks pretty bad and I’d argue the email would look a lot better if that entire right column was eliminated.

The main product push is the various offers on the left-hand side which is what should be gaining the most views>clicks>actions. You know what a restaurant serves, right? Yeah, so do I. So what’s the point of overcomplicating things here?

And I love white space in emails (props on the background being white and the email being centered by the way), but in this case, the white space below those pictures is ugly and completely at the mercy of how much copy there is in the left hand column.

This means no consistency with the various rows which makes for a visual nightmare. Yuck.

My suggested fixes:

• Eliminate the right-hand column.
• Format all of the logos so they’re the same size.
• Word wrap around the picture and format the headlines and copy so they’re a bit more consistent.

You’d get a better looking email and hopefully, a better-performing email because that’s what ultimately email marketing is all about. Are you using tables? If so, do your emails look like this?

Josh Nason is the Inbound Marketing Director for SendLabs, a New England-based email marketing software company with great customers across the street and around the globe. Follow him at @joshnason and @sendlabs.