Apple's Mail Stationery--is it useful for marketing?

[bakarichavanu]

<p>For you Mac users out there, I thought I'd share how I'm starting to use Apple's new Mail

Stationery. It's a part of the new OS X Leopard. There's about 30 different templates that come pre-

installed with Apple's Mail, but an internet search will reveal <a

href="http://www.equinux.com/us/products/stationery/index.html">other third party templates</a>

that you might find useful for your business.

 

What I like about these templates is that they are customizable and easy to use. Most of them comes

with a graphic placeholder which means messages can be personalized with client photos. I've started

using them to respond to lead request, wedding anniversary emails with the clients' photo, and will be

developing another one for maybe a monthly newsletter.

 

I know rich text HTML can be a hassle for some email recipients, but more and more people are getting

DSL hooked up, so the emails should come across okay.

 

Anyway, just thought I'd share this, especially to get opinions from others about the marketing and

technical aspects of using this Stationery.</p>

 

 

<a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img

src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2084/1849587521_fc63f3a0ac_o.png" width="480" height="171"

alt="Picture 5.png" /></a>

 

<a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img

src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2154/1850407838_0c458dd661_o.png" width="532" height="523"

alt="Picture 6.png" /></a>

[timberwulf]

It's not so much a problem with downloading as it is with spam filters/blocks. Be aware that some users will never see your message, as many filters get very aggressive with HTML rich email.

 

If you're going to do this, and you're serious, send it by snail-mail. They're guaranteed to get it, and they'll cherish it a lot more as something that took some effort instead of a quick email you dashed off on a whim. ;)

 

Just my personal opinion. YMMV.

[peterlyons]

My personal opinion is that there are so many people sending and receiving e-mail in so

many ways, special stuff like this doesn't work as well as we'd like. I've had people send this

kind of formatted e-mail, and the background and any other graphics simply come as

attachments to a plain text formatted e-mail.

 

I agree with Garry. If you want to do something fancy, do it on paper and mail it.

[._._z]

HTML mail is to many people an annoyance at best, an abomination (and security problem) at worst.

 

http://www.zeldman.com/2007/06/08/e-mail-is-not-a-platform-for-design/

 

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2001/02/41639

 

http://www.birdhouse.org/etc/evilmail.html

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML_e-mail

 

The better websites permit people who put themselves on subscription lists to choose whether they wnt to receive Text or HTML versions of emailings.

[don_hill]

As a client I would not appreciate it.

 

From a marketing angle, it would be a much better idea to send them a physical card on

their anniversary. Hopefully they have spent thousands on you, so spend a few bucks on

them. Be memorable, send one of those goofy singing cards with a personalized message

that is hand written. Throw in a few extra images from their wedding. Flatter them and

thank them once more for their business. This will go much further than an email that is

easily deleted and possibly annoying.

 

Anyone can send email.

[bakarichavanu]

I'm starting to read what seems like a good study and defense of marketing with email. It's titled Email

Marketing by the Numb8ers, by Chris Baggott. Though I've only read the first chapter, scanning the

rest of the book provides what seems to be some useful arguments for how to make good emails a

part of your marketing program. I have considered snail mail in terms of postcards, but I find that

approach more time consuming and costly for me as a photographer. I'm not saying that hand written

personal messages can't be highly effective, but they're not always as practical in today's workflow.

 

Like most people, I get lots email and snail mail, but I respond more to the former than the latter

simply because of the immediate link that's put into the email. Snail mail often gets lost in a stack of

lots of other advertising snail mail.

 

I'm not an expert in this discussion and that's I why I started this thread. I just felt that Apple's

Stationery offered a way to personalized emails with images that we take. And because our business

revolves around the images we take and make, I think personal graphic emails could be very useful.

But hey, I'm opened to learning and researching the strategy to see how clients respond.

[timberwulf]

And you've hit the nail on the head there Bakari. Marketing is all about what *your* audience responds to. If you find that email marketing works better for you, by all means latch on to it with a vengeance! Just make sure you're always measuring the cost-benefit ratio and keeping a keen eye on its effectiveness. :)

[sara_brady]

I think Apple's new Mail Stationary is superb...question--how compatible is it with Adobe Illustrator (can the layouts easily be imported into Illustrator for editing)?

[bakarichavanu]

Sara, I'm not sure about Illustrator. Some articles have been written about how to

customize or create your templates. And I've written an <a

href="http://www.mymac.com/showarticle.php?id=3073">article</a> that includes

additional additional links. Please share what you find out or create. I going to customize

a few of the templates this week using maybe Dreamweaver.

 

For photographers, I think Stationery could be very useful. It's tens time better than my

own handwriting, that's for sure. :) Plus, I just like being able to access client photos

directly from Apple's Mail and then drop a few selected in an email. Seriously sweet.