The new Dealer Digest Daily from Automotive News and Dealer Marketing Magazine seems to have some formatting issues which I think really takes away from impact this daily newsletter digest could have. All images are lined up on the left with text copy beneath it. It looks awful. There is no web view either so readers are limited to this poorly formatted email version of a newsletter...EVERY DAY.

The content is not unique either which also takes away from its potential impact. Automotive Digest spits out a lot of newsletters each week but the content is primarily recycled information from the Wall Street Journal and the Detroit Free Press. And unless you are a WSJ subscriber, you can't read the source articles they reference. This newsletter is no different, just regurgitated articles, nothing original.

Anyhow, back to the newsletter, here is a link to one of them for you to view if you are not receiving it. You will see what I mean. It seriously lacks visual appeal. Even worse, the first two images are ads, one being a very tacky promotion to click a plastic girl name Nadia who wants you to win a "free engraved iPod nano". Resorting to gimmicks like this completely discredits the content.

The one thing noteworthy about these daily digests however are the audio/video casts. This is really the way to go. These guys should concentrate the entire newsletter around these media message deliveries, but they shouldn't be limited to just an email. These media files need to be placed online in various social networks and then linked to and from by the various automotive bloggers out there to give them more of a shelf-life than just this mediocre email.

All said and done, this daily digest is a poor example of email marketing.