rob bryn and shoemarket

The image Rob Bryn selected for his final email. A Rockwell.

I like that Rob Bryn is featured on Racked today. I like that Racked has featured this master email writer/shoe salesperson quite a lot actually. Today is Rob's last day at Shoe Market and he has announced he will not continue writing the newsletter. Here is an excerpt from one of my favorites, dated 11/24/08, "A Million Things on Sale - Victor Frankl - Happy Holidays". Check out Racked for theirs.

Dear Friends and Family,
"For the highest readability, start your letter with a short sentence."

That's the advice of Constantcontact, the program I use to make these e-mails. I will have you know, New Yorkers, that I don't like the idea of people opening my e-mails and not reading them because they're too long. I have adopted precision and simplicity as my personal creedo.

Also, they're won't be any pictures in this e-mail. We have so many shoes on sale, including 30% off select women's boots that it would be impossible to show you even a fair fraction of them and not waste your time like reading big books at ancient libraries.

And, the Holidays are upon us. Have you ever read Viktor Frankl's, "Man's Search for Meaning." It's delightful. Full of ideas that Viktor came up with while he was busy surviving the Holocaust. He talks about the passage of time, our perception of it and hope. Are you full of hope? Time is flying by. 2008 is almost over. Let us enjoy what time is allowed us.

In that spirit, we're having a Holiday / Launch Party for our collaboration with Jeffrey Campbell. Have you gotten a pair of our shoes yet? Cooked up right here at Shoe Market in Brooklyn, New York. We're very pleased with how they came out, thank you Jeffrey, and they've been selling very well. Even our old, ex-employee Martin said he like them, picked up a pair and said, very earnestly, it was touching, said, "I like girls wearing cute shoes."

[...]

I wrote right back:

This is a wonderful and bizarre email. I love it. Funny, I am just writing copy for a holiday e-blast myself.

(But it was nothing like his.) Truly unique. Good luck Rob Bryn, whatever you will be doing next, where ever you will be doing it.