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West Elm gets it Right with Their Email Campaigns

by Ryan Shell on March 9, 2010

One thing I appreciate is a well designed email that presents a well defined message and is easy on the reader’s eyes. I get a plethora of emails each day, most of which I quickly scan and delete (I should probably unsubscribe from several).

All is not doom and gloom though, because there is one that stands out from the crowd on a daily basis, and it comes from the furniture company West Elm (Seen below).

Click to enlarge.

It’s interesting how the psyche works when it comes to emails. I’m interested in what West Elm has to offer, and their daily emails don’t bother me.

On the other hand, a bulk of the emails that tend to get on my nerves are marketing/PR related, which is something I’m also interested in… yet many of them annoy me to no end. Maybe it’s a combination of the sales pitch and terrible design… or the fact that there always seems to be a catch with the “free” content.

The email from West Elm clearly states the message at the top, and then provides a visual, and it’s like this in almost every email. In addition, I like how they’ve included their sites navigation in the email just in case I want to jump to a particular section of their Web site.

Email campaigns are typically inexpensive in the grand scheme of things, but having a poorly designed email could cost you by having an increased unscubscribe rate.

Do any particular email campaigns stand out to you?

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I moved my personal residence two weeks ago and got most of the unpacking and organizing done with a day or two, but there are a few things I’ve been avoiding, one of which being a box of old radio stuff.

The contents of this box bring back memories of a lot of things I miss, or have tried to compartmentalize in one way or another. Friday evening I decided to go ahead and organize the contents of the box and toss out some things that were really of no importance – such as old radio show content schedules.

While looking through the box I found a video (shot and edited by someone else) of an interview I did with the rap artist 50 Cent in the 2005 timeframe.

It’s somewhat humorous to look back at this video and think about how much has changed in my life, and how much I’ve personally changed. I’m still a high energy, goofy kind of guy that admittedly loves to perform (It’s a Leo thing I guess), but the personality/lifestyle I created as “JJ McCain” was a bit over the top.

The interview has five different segments, four of which I’ve uploaded to YouTube and posted below (Missing segment was on a corrupt disk and I couldn’t pull the file).

I hope you enjoy this unique look back to my days on the air

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My Interview About Facebook with Fox 8

by Ryan Shell on March 8, 2010

Bob Buckley, a reporter for the local Fox  affiliate asked me to take part in a segment he was doing about Facebook. His focus was addiction and the various ways people use the popular social networking site.

Bob and I are friends on Facebook and he frequently sees the updates I do throughout the day, which is how this came about. Take a moment to watch the segment below.

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Get Fit: Hitting the Wall

March 3, 2010

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This post is part of my ongoing “Get Fit” series, an effort to lose a little weight/tone up, and save money by reducing the number of meals I eat out.
No matter your fitness level, you’re going to experience peaks where you feel great, but you’ll also experience valleys and at times feel completely unmotivated, or [...]

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Are Features Lost when Facebook Pages Aren’t Connected to a Profile?

March 2, 2010

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My previous post titled “How to Create a Facebook Page Without Connecting it to a Profile” has turned out to be very popular.
A Linkedin comment about the post stated that some of the Facebook Page functions are lost when they are created without being connected to a profile, but I don’t think that is correct. I’ve [...]

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New Billboard Campaign

March 2, 2010

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 I don’t know about you, but I think creating new ad campaigns is a blast.
I’ve previously highlighted the new TV commercials for my employer, and thought you might also like to check out the new billboards.As you know, billboard messages have to be extremely short, but can still pack a punch if done well. The core [...]

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Local Businesses Could use Social Media to Grow

March 1, 2010

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I’m sure you’ve seen examples of larger companies putting social media to good use, but examples of smaller local businesses aren’t exactly busting at the seems. This post highlights how a local business could be using social media to increase their customer base.
As you may have learned through my “Get Fit” series, I’m an inline [...]

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Corporate Blog: Planning is Key

February 26, 2010

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Prior to launching my employers’ corporate blog, I knew that an editorial calendar was needed and that it was very important to stockpile posts incase we hit a dry spell.
My goal, prior to day one was to have three weeks of post completed. The blog launched on February 1, 2010 and we indeed had three [...]

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Google Ultra-High Speed Broadband Network

February 25, 2010

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My hometown of Greensboro, NC is currently vying to be the recipient of Google’s new ultra-high speed broadband network.
From Google,
“Google is planning to launch an experiment that we hope will make Internet access better and faster for everyone. We plan to test ultra-high speed broadband networks in one or more trial locations across the country. [...]

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Quiz: How Millennial are You?

February 24, 2010

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I thought you might like to take this short 14 question quiz from the PewResarchCenter to find out how millennial you are. It should only take 2 -3 minutes and I think you’ll find the results to be intersting.
Click here to take the quiz.
By the way, I scored an 89.

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