August 2012 Newsletter of the Month

Sometimes, less is actually more. Though using tons of bright color might work out for few email newsletters, it is quite risky, which is why limiting the amount of colors is a smart move. 

With their clean, no-nonsense design, Occupy Wall Street was chosen as the August newsletter of the month:

GraphicMail client Occupy WallStreet certainly needs no introduction to most people.

But if you haven't heard of them yet, they're a people-powered movement that's recently made news by putting the spotlight on key issues in the global economy.

Why did we pick it?

• Design-wise the single column lay-out will make this newsletter much easier to read on a  mobile phone - perfect for supporters who want to catch up on the latest news while out on the street, no doubt heading to their next Occupy assembly.

• Both the main call-to-action and the secondary call-outs are perfectly clear, informative and motivating.  Even a quick look at the newsletter will make it very clear what the purpose of the newsletter is: to get funding. Within the main text, a reader has the option to go to the donation page at three different stages. This just might convince some hesitant recipients.

• The designer of this direct marketing mailer has also made sure that there were alt tags included. This way the newsletter won’t end up in the ‘spam’ section of the inbox, which of course is an email marketers’ nightmare.

• Occupy Wall Street has made their social media presence very prominent. On the left side there are Facebook- and Twitter-buttons which can’t be missed, especially on a mobile phone. Also readers of the main text won’t be able to miss the reference to their social accounts. Since Occupy Wall Street is big on the social platforms, they made good use of their strength.

Any room for improvement?    

Good content writing for email is all about giving readers just the right amount of information, and in just the right context.

This particular newsletter could be a bit text-heavy for some readers to absorb all of it at once, in which case a condensed version may help them get even more responses.

We’d suggest that they run an A/B split test, checking how many people engage with a longer mailer on average, compared to shorter editions.

One can always slap lengthier paragraphs onto a website landing page to link off to from the newsletter, so interested readers will still have direct access to it.
 
Also the prominent call outs of the social accounts would be even better with some big buttons, to make it more clickable for the thumbs of smartphone users. There’s always room for improvement!

Congratulations on an email marketing job well done!