Are Email Newsletters Dead?

     I've been doing this type of work for a long time. Newsletters/Ezines aren't groundbreaking news to me.  I had a newsletter back in 1996 that I abandoned when the list got unmanageable. We simply didn't have the same level of tools or user comprehension. Nobody really knew what they were looking at.
     So why start now considering the impact social media is having on all forms of publishing. Aren't Newsletters dead?  It all depends on what you're doing. Here's the Readers Digest Ben Franklin on that.

• If you're going to make something that I can read, comprehend, file away and be useful. I'm all in.  
• If you're planning on invading ANY part of my existence with anything about pharmacies, enhancers and replicas I'm not interested.

     I haven't sent out a lot of newsletters, but my first test of this resulted in over 70% opens and over 50% clicks to get more information. I don't know if those numbers are high, low, or average. What I do know is that the information helped some people.  I know this because they thanked me and took the advice I sent them. They followed and made me their friends.  We connected. 
     Here's the Fifty-One on this:

1. The people I sent the email to know that I don't send out spam.
2. The information I sent could help them.
3. The information was brief and presented with clarity of purpose.
4. The things they were asked to do were... well... DO-Able. 
5. I didn't ask them to spend any money. 

That's it.  Keep it simple.  Don't try to over analyze everything if you're a small business.  Do what works.  If you need somebody to discuss this with.. contact me!
"I Read Your Email Sippy Cup"