I would really like to start doing the newsletter thing as another way to reach out to past and future clients. I would love to get some ideas of content and design.
Also, how do you send them? PDF? Mail?...

Lets see what you've got!

jacquelynn

Come on guys......

Hi Jacque!

This is a great question, and one that I am very happy to answer! I have been a very vocal spokesperson for Emma for about 4 years! To see what Emma is all about, check out their website:

http://www.myemma.com

It's hard to explain exactly why they are worth an upfront investment of $250, plus an annual monthly fee of $30, BUT I promise you that they are absolutely, hands-down the single best html email platform on the market.

I have tested Constant Contact, Reach Mail, Intelli-something, and several others. Emma's tracking technology is simply the best available. They keep the features really simple, and just build a rockin' product.

I would highly recommend giving them a call & taking the test drive. Oh yeah -- and Marathon Press actually became a reseller for Emma, and is offering a better price if you are looking for a small quantity of emails per month.

Now...as far as the email design goes, here is ours:
http://app.e2ma.net/campaign/2a914aafcf1b5...440a3251ed897d0

Hope this helps!
~ Charles

I'm creating my first newsletter as we speak! I'd love to post it once it's done.

Jacque Lynn,

Because this is such a new feature to everyone and most photographers are mostly blog intensive...Newsletters are the definite future. Here is one of my templates in the Newletter Templates Set. These are literally drag and drop on Mac's. PC's are set up through multiple layers in Photoshop with instructions. However I am doing a video and pdf's within the next couple weeks. Here is an EXAMPLE. I cannot tell you what it will do for your business. I see where you are ordering the templates. We have been shipping them same day. Kara has really been working hard to fulfill everyone's order. Thanks to everyone. I am starting to receive testimonials already. Please email me yours so that I can post it on the blog with a link back to your site.

Thanks

Charles Bordner
Imagine That Photography, Inc.

Im excited to see them Charles!!! I will do one for a client and give ya a testimonial for your blog

I would also recommend Constant Contact. www.constantcontact.com I was turned onto them by other pros I know when I needed to send a message to a big distro list and didn't want my ISP to shut down my account for 'spamming'.

They're very reasonably priced, allow all sorts of mail campaigns, tracking of how many people open the message, automatically allow people to un-subscribe, etc. The cost is based on how many people you have on your mail lists, but it's very reasoanble. You set up your mail piece, file it as a new mail campaign with them, and they actually email it out so there's no worry of your ISP scolding you for spamming. It's all web based and easy to set up.

I think there's also a way to use a link to allow people to add themselves to your mail list - like a "fill in your email here" on your website that automatically ads them.

There's a small tag at the bottom of the message "powered by constant contact" but it's still pretty clean. It's all HTML and is really liad out nicely.

I used it to email a list of brides after a bridal show last year and will again over the summer get back into it as we are going to start emailing blurbs once a month or so.

I love this idea; I haven't made one yet, but for my next session this is an absolute must do. I'll probably just design in Photoshop or PageMaker and export to PDF.