Sounds like a content marketer's dream come true, create a newsletter in a flash?
Pinch yourself. Now you can.
There's a new, free email newsletter making tool called FlashIssue. FlashIssue allows you to curate stories from anywhere on the web, including your blog, and almost instantaneously create a clean-looking, content-packed communique ready to send to your email contacts. But it gets better.
On login, you're taken to a simple screen where you upload an image, choose a title and begin clicking in the stories you want to curate. Pull in content from your website by adding your RSS feed URL, and a gallery of posts with an image thumbnail will appear on the right side of the web page. Simply drag the stories to the left that you want in your email. Then add some introductory and closing text and then you're done. Done.
For sure, bookmarking great content is a whole lot easier than creating it yourself, but if that wasn't enough to save you from having to rack your brain for compelling content, it's FlashIssue's integration with email marketing providers like MailChimp, ConstantContact and Gmail that makes this tool very cool. In Gmail for instance, simply begin typing the names you want the email to be sent to. (Now if they came up with a way to send emails to a whole circle segment that really would be a dream.) For MailChimp, after permissions are granted, you simply choose which list you want to send it to. Hit 'send' and you're done. Done.
If you download the Chrome boomark plug-in for FlashIssue, you will be able to clip content for later use in your next newsletter. Check this video.
Still in beta, there's still hope that social sharing tools and social follow tools will be added to make this an even more dynamic and powerful tool. Also, the ability to format text would be a great feature. But perhaps the greatest gift FlashIssue offers is the ability to make you a great storyteller, without the effort. Cool.
For the small business owner, FlashIssue makes a good email marketing tool. Announce an upcoming event or promotion, discuss a burning topic, take a poll to unlock customer pain points, sneak in a coupon to reward your most loyal following. But really anyone needing to communicate with a group of others on a particular topic would find FlashIssue useful: plant some ideas for a later brainstorm with the team, get the Girls Scout troupe leaders focused on the same mission, encourage your followers with a daily devotional from your Pastor. This tool makes you look like you've got it together.
FlashIssue is almost too easy to use; the temptation might be to bombard your readers with too much information. Remember though, effective marketing requires a clear strategy. Think through your goals and consider how often your readers can handle an email from you. Choose only the best of what you find, and limit yourself at that. In other words, respect the time of your readers.
FlashIssue. Give it a go and see if it might be a good solution for you. What other email marketing tools would you recommend?
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