Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Whitney Hoffman on March 27, 2009 at 3:43am

I use templates in Pages, although bigger email marketing firms, like icontact and Blue Sky Factory have templates as well. A mac is a great investment for becoming your own creative print house- Pages is perfect, and much cheaper than trying to learn the ins and outs of Adobe Photoshop.

Permalink Reply by Denise on March 27, 2009 at 2:28pm

Sending it to your web designer as a word doc sounds kind of cumbersome. Do you think you could ask him to set up an html template you can use? Then use a service like ezinedirector, aweber (I think they have free templates too) or the ones Whitney mentioned.

Permalink Reply by Malika Duke on April 12, 2009 at 7:30pm

Hey Delwyn,

I love your site design and that domain name rocks! What software are you using for your subscription box now? Most companies have templates you can easily customize with links, images and even banners.

I personally use Aweber. Also, if you are using "self hosted" service like PHPList (free if you can install yourself or what ever a designer may charge for 1 time install fee) I know 2 people who would design templates to match your site.

Don't do anything that will make you dependent on anyone else to deliver for you. Although it always starts off as a well meaning intention invariably, you'll be a slave to every tantrum and life issue they have.

Malika

Permalink Reply by Delwyn Hanns on April 13, 2009 at 12:46am

Hi Malika,

thanks for the tip, I will check out Aweber. My newsletters are currently done by uploading the document to my site, I then opt for it to be sent to my mailing list which is kept on my own site. I do not really want to give these addresses to a third party, I am more looking for a way to make my newsletters have live links that can take people straight to pages on my site that are mentioned in the newsletter.

Cheers,
Delwyn

Permalink Reply by Polly Schlafhauser on April 13, 2009 at 10:42am

Hi Delwyn,

I use Constant Contact to send out my newsletters. I use the service to manage my contacts, lists, and design and send out my newsletters. They have templates available you can customize for your own needs and they also have people available to customize one for you (there is an additional charge for this service). They also offer an autoresponder service and online survey services, but I have not tried either one. Good luck.

Permalink Reply by April Dowdy on April 24, 2009 at 10:16pm

Cakemail.com and Interspire.com both have some pretty nice newsletter templates. I used one from Cakemail and used my logo. It looked very professional. You can also use a regular webpage or blog css template by placing the newsletter and css file in its own folder. There are numerous free templates for blogs and you can just remove the sections you don't need.

Permalink Reply by Aneatra Dorsey on June 22, 2009 at 12:44pm

Hi Delwyn,
You have a beautiful website! I have 2 links to on my site that may be of use to you. Go here & click on the "Free Newsletter Templates" button.

Keep Smiling & Best Wishes!

Permalink Reply by Delwyn Hanns on June 22, 2009 at 5:12pm

Thanks for your comments, I will definately check out the links.
Also thankyou to everyone for your help.
Cheers :)

WebSolutions4all said:

Hi Delwyn,
You have a beautiful website! I have 2 links to on my site that may be of use to you. Go here & click on the "Free Newsletter Templates" button.

Keep Smiling & Best Wishes!

Permalink Reply by Robyn Mather on July 27, 2009 at 11:07am

I have used constant contact for over 8 years. I had a retail wine shop and sent out a weekly ezine to my customers. I'm now building my newest venture, which is a local community site for moms living north of Boston, Ma. I plan on using constant contact again. Here are a few reasons why it may be a good idea to invest in this service:
1. fees climb as your membership grows, so investment is minimal to start $15-25/mo for lists under 500. they offer a 60 day trial as long as your membership is under 100. I f your current membership is more than that I suggest using the 60 days to play around, get it tweaked and customized on their dime.
2. ability to survey your customers and visitors. constantly improve your offerings by their feedback. knowing more about your customers/audience increases your ability to give them what they want = $$$
3. Newsletters can be archived on your site for continual viewing. Can add links, photos, text, coupons etc.
4. have a custom template built by your designer or just customize the colors yourself to match your website. Branding is key.
5. Guarantees a higher rate of delivery to your customers email box. This one is a biggy! Many computers spam filters are extremely efficient and your email may never reach them or go to their spam folder. Your message needs to reach them for email marketing to work.
6. Everything is trackable. Opens rates, click throughs, forwards, etc.

I don't work for them but I know how powerful email newsletters can be in done right and a service like constant contact is money very well spent. Outsourcing the management of your customer emails is a good thing...
Good luck and love the quality of the products you showcase.
Robyn
www.twitter.com/robynmather

Permalink Reply by Karen Davis on July 27, 2009 at 12:09pm

I use Constant Contact they have templates and charge a monthly fee. Great Service..

www.constantcontact.com

Karen