Your beer is good, your weekly newsletter...eh.

At least one Saturday a month, I venture out with husband and dog to a local watering hole named Hamilton's Tavern on North Park's well known 30th street. They have a laid back vibe with a very loyal following for various events. Plus, you can bring in your pup as long they are of the housebroken non-barking variety. Here's a screenshot of their website. Branded, organized, informative, not bad for a bar.

Now let's take a look at an example weekly email from Hamilton's Tavern (The screenshot below depicts only what is "above the fold" in Gmail):

 

What is this? A text based email? Someone horsing around with bordered cells and tables? No offense, Hamilton's Tavern, but this is bad. Really bad. You can do so much better. The first thing I have to point out is your large header. You list all of this info week after week, but that's all I see when I open this email. What do you want to tell your customers? Put that at the top. And no logo? Really? You're all over Twitter and probably make a killing on your second Saturday events, but you don't even have a logo in your email. That's just crazy.

Good news. There's an easy fix to rocket launch your emails into the 21st century. First, take your website shell, navigation and all, and use it as a new email template (some code modifications may be required to ensure ISP rendering and best practices). Now your email is branded and you're linked up to your website. Next, edit your content. What's the weekly beer special? What's new on tap? Any upcoming events? Place this info neatly into the main content space. And please, PLEASE don't go overboard with the bolding and underlining of various words and phrases. This only confuses us. We will find the information we are looking for. Trust. Below is a mockup of what your emails COULD look like. Good luck and happy conversions.