Story Highlight

Award-winning emails
Before I talk about the three emails I have chosen for this article, let me just say how hard it was to unearth any really good emails. I went through emails of all kinds, from a variety of sources, including lists of so-called "award-winning" emails. I looked at promotional emails, customer service emails, retention emails and more. Some were B2B, others were B2C.

I found it a depressing search.

The underlying weakness I saw was that almost every email I read failed to take advantage of the very personal, one-on-one potential of email as a medium.

I saw too many emails that simply thrust their message into the reader's face, as if email were some kind of mass, broadcast medium.

Finally, I found three emails that I believe succeed simply because they connect with the reader in a more personal way...with the right tone, the right message and a burst of life.