Monday, July 18, 2011

E-mail Newsletters: Is the Market Saturated?

There are a ton of "lifestyle" e-mail newsletters out there that cater to more of a young, hip, urban audience. Thrillist, Daily Candy, Urban Daddy are just a few that we discussed in class. Expanding upon just the editorialized, article-based newsletters are the e-commerce-based newsletters. The big player there is Gilt Groupe. Another segment of sites that is e-mail heavy are the coupon sites like Groupon or Living Social.

I get so many of these types of emails that if the subject line doesn't jump at me, they just get filtered or deleted away. Another concern I have with these newsletters is that the content just seems forced. Either it is obvious that a bar, designer or store paid for the space or the copy is very trite ("soak up craft suds with gourmet, organic gastropub grub").

What I think is needed in this space is unique and differentiated content. A lot of what I see on these sites seems like rehashed versions of previous content. One way around this is to add even more customization to what users receive.

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