As customers of T-Mobile phone service who use their “My Faves” program can attest, it can be difficult but very cost efficient to declare your top five friends because these five people you can call free any time. Deciding who is more important though, mom or the new friend you just made who you might or might not be calling frequently in the coming month can be a trying task.
But if you had to narrow down your top five sources of information to keep efficiently informed through e-newsletters, which ones would it be? We found a thread of bloggers dishing on their favorites: David Baker’s “Who’s in your Fab 5 inbox?” and a follow up article by Lisa Harmon “My Fab 5 inbox.” It would be interesting to make note of your favorites and why they are your favorites so that you could incorporate the “best of” into your own email newsletter. They do say that imitation is the highest form of flattery. Now, mind you, we are not recommending copying but rather objectively analyzing what works and deciding what elements you could incorporate. For example, Harmon notes that she enjoys getting communications from Netflix because they “make her feel cared for… and consistently deliver the kind of attention that builds brand loyalty.” Sound marketing principles for any business. But since the e-newsletter is a premier form of communication with customers across all industries, finding the finesse and style as well as message that best suits your brand is worth some time and analysis.
Our collaborative KMK favorites list includes:
TrendCentral … weekly what is new in Lifestyle, Style, Entertainment & Technology, efficient because it highlights only three trends at a time, in short paragraph form with links and is always interesting
AAf Smartbrief… most everyone in the office reads the Smartbrief, a free daily e-newsletter with the latest industry information, always efficient and relevant
Mashable … “all that’s new on the web” this daily report groups and highlights new tools, applications, trends and web sites, and with the many that are unveiled every day, this site and newsletter help to sift through options with expert advice
MEDIAPOST- sub categories: Media Daily News… Mediapost have many informative newsletters (net, TV, magazine, creative, digital, blog, online and more), but consensus is that the Daily News is the best summary across the industry. It gives us leads for blog posts and helps us check that our marketing strategy responds quickly to current news.
(And from the tech guys down the hall) SearchEngineWatch … for all the juicy news on search engine optimization, software, web trends and analysis of news from a technical point of view.
Other top 5 ideas? Please do share.
