An HTML email is just like a web page. Except in some ways it's not. It's worth understanding the differences, even if you're not the person responsible for the design and coding of your email messages. Let me rephrase that - if you're overseeing the business of email marketing then it's essential to have a handle on the potential design issues.
The thing to always bear in mind is that the sender is never 100% in control of how the email appears to all recipients. So how can you find out how your emails will look? Some email service providers offer the ability to test how your email will render in a selection of email clients. That sort of service isn't cheap, however. There's also generally an emphasis on US-based ISPs which isn't much help to the UK email marketer. You could just as well open accounts with each of the major webmail providers and recruit a small group of testers using AOL, Entourage, Apple Mail and other common email clients.
Backgrounds and fonts
With HTML email it pays to be simple. Background images often won't get seen, and dark backgrounds can be a disaster if your pale font colour defaults to a standard black or blue, making the copy unreadable.
As with web pages, the viewer can only see specific fonts if they are installed on his or her computer. So if you use something exotic for your subheads, just be aware that it may well default to Arial or Times New Roman for many recipients.
As I've mentioned in a previous eTip, in Googlemail (or Gmail), images are turned off by default - but at least the recipient can elect to see them, whereas styles are ignored.
Layout
For a web page designer it's easy to create a fluid page that adjusts to the screen size. Some 'cool' sites even require the viewer to scroll sideways to see content. By contrast to all this design flexibility, the optimum width for an email is 600 pixels, but anything within 500 - 700 will probably be fine. This is based on the default message box width for the most common email and webmail clients when viewed on average screen sizes and resolutions.
When it comes to laying out content within your email, again I'm afraid the old ways can't be beat, and that means using tables. Although tables are no longer in favour with web designers, using styles to layout an HTML email is the proverbial recipe for disaster. Be aware that fonts can display larger than you'd like when styles are ignored, and that could break your layout with over-long rows and shifted columns.
Rich Media
It's certainly possible to add video, animations, forms and other interactive content into an HTML email. But this will inevitably attract the attention of spam filters and network administrators. Is it necessary? How about a teaser to the interactive content, accompanied by a clickthrough to see it on your website - not only is this simpler, but you can then track who clicks and thereby the popularity of the item.
The bottom line: HTML emails may not be as sophisticated as their web page cousins, but plain is the new interesting! Stick to pale backgrounds and dark fonts, and check how your email looks without styles and without images. It may not be perfect, but is it still readable? Stay within the optimum width, avoid Javascript, Flash and other fancy stuff. And test in as many different email clients as possible.
Your recipients will thank you for it, and your messages will have the very best chance of arriving intact.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Thursday, January 11, 2007
How to stay out of the 'junk' folder
Bring up the subject of email in any conversation and the topic
almost always turns to spam - how much we're getting, what to do
about it, which spam filtering software is worth using, and so on.
But talk to a potential email marketer and one of the first
questions is 'how can we stop our email from being filtered
out as spam?'
The war against spam is being fought on many different levels,
from ISPs and email service providers, to network administrators
and, of course, individuals themselves. What they all have in
common is that they are trying to filter out irrelevant, unsolicited
email from disreputable sources.
So your first priority should be to ensure the domain you are
sending from hasn't been blacklisted for any reason, and that
the content of your email is relevant to the audience you're
targeting. It always irritates me to read things like 'email is
just a numbers game - the more people you send to, the more
responses you'll get', and then use that to justify a mass mailing
with the promise of a 0.1% return (or less). Only spammers think
that way - short term gains, inbox misery all round and screw the
customer!
Notice that I haven't mentioned permission. Permission is important
in both marketing and legal terms, but we're not talking about that
here. Spam filtering has little to do with marketing concepts or
even what is or isn't legal, it is simply rules-based.
In a previous eTip I talked about how you can reduce the chance of your emails being blocked. But there is something else you can do, and according to Marketing Sherpa's 2007 Benchmark Guide only 22% of email marketers actually do this: ask recipients to whitelist your 'from' address.
Better still, tell them what that means or how to do it - many people won't know, and providing instructions greatly increases uptake. Detailed information about this is freely available on the web - for example, here at SiteSell.com.
Or you could simply say 'Please add ourcompany@emaildomain.com
to your address book or contacts list, or ensure you add
emaildomain.com to your 'safe senders list', in order to receive
our emails.'
Asking people to whitelist you is a simple thing to do. It can
increase the chances of your emails getting through to those who
want to read them, reducing the 'false positives' generated by
clunky spam filtering.
almost always turns to spam - how much we're getting, what to do
about it, which spam filtering software is worth using, and so on.
But talk to a potential email marketer and one of the first
questions is 'how can we stop our email from being filtered
out as spam?'
The war against spam is being fought on many different levels,
from ISPs and email service providers, to network administrators
and, of course, individuals themselves. What they all have in
common is that they are trying to filter out irrelevant, unsolicited
email from disreputable sources.
So your first priority should be to ensure the domain you are
sending from hasn't been blacklisted for any reason, and that
the content of your email is relevant to the audience you're
targeting. It always irritates me to read things like 'email is
just a numbers game - the more people you send to, the more
responses you'll get', and then use that to justify a mass mailing
with the promise of a 0.1% return (or less). Only spammers think
that way - short term gains, inbox misery all round and screw the
customer!
Notice that I haven't mentioned permission. Permission is important
in both marketing and legal terms, but we're not talking about that
here. Spam filtering has little to do with marketing concepts or
even what is or isn't legal, it is simply rules-based.
In a previous eTip I talked about how you can reduce the chance of your emails being blocked. But there is something else you can do, and according to Marketing Sherpa's 2007 Benchmark Guide only 22% of email marketers actually do this: ask recipients to whitelist your 'from' address.
Better still, tell them what that means or how to do it - many people won't know, and providing instructions greatly increases uptake. Detailed information about this is freely available on the web - for example, here at SiteSell.com.
Or you could simply say 'Please add ourcompany@emaildomain.com
to your address book or contacts list, or ensure you add
emaildomain.com to your 'safe senders list', in order to receive
our emails.'
Asking people to whitelist you is a simple thing to do. It can
increase the chances of your emails getting through to those who
want to read them, reducing the 'false positives' generated by
clunky spam filtering.
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