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Designing Email Marketing May 2007 In the beginning, there were text-based emails. Then came HTML formatted emails, which made marketers and designers happy because they were more visual, achieved much better response rates and could be tracked easily. And then... disaster struck. People began getting viruses and worms in their email, either as an attachment or embedded in HTML formatted emails. Some makers of email software responded to the threats by turning graphics off by default. That means that if you send emails to people using AOL, Outlook 2003, Outlook Express or Gmail (and there are probably others), they might see this: 
Instead of this: 
Visitors can still hit a button and turn on images on a per-email basis, but if they're unsure of what the email may be by looking at it with the images off, then they might not load the graphics and instead throw away the email. Does this mean that we as advertisers have to go back to sending text-only emails? No, we just have to make consessions to ensure that people get the jist of the email and want to load the graphics. Rule Number 1. First things first, there needs to be "real" text in the email, rather than just a bunch a graphics that happen to include text, as in the example above. Recipients will see the text, regardless of whether or not the graphics can be seen. Also, spam filters are more likely to filter out emails with only graphics in them. It's ok to have some text in your graphics, but make sure your most important text, especially the call to action, is actual HTML text. Rule Number 2. Make sure your HTML email fits the email program as best it can. As a general rule, keep your email under 600 pixels wide. It's hard to give an optimum height because you can change the height of your preview pane, so everyone is different. Keeping the most important information near the top of the email will help to prevent things from appearing "below the fold". Most body copy should be 11-12 points in size. Disclaimer copy can be a bit smaller, but no HTML copy should be below 8 points, as it becomes very hard to read on a PC.. Rule Number 3. Make sure the design of the HTML email "degrades" well. This means that if the person is viewing the email without the graphics, it still retains the look and feel as when the graphics are viewed. The following enewsletter looks similar in both versions, and is inviting even with the graphics off. Graphics off: 
Graphics on: 
Rule Number 4 Plan for the worst. Assume that the person has their graphics off and that they're using an older email client that screws up your nice layout completely. To counteract this, put a line at the very top of the email that says something like "If you're having trouble viewing this email, view it in your browser. This should link to a web page that contains the exact same ad that's in your email. Also including a message such as "To ensure you receive our newsletter, make sure you add info@sample.com to your address book." will help keep your emails from being automatically thrown into a junk folder. And to be compliant with the anti-spam laws, make sure you include a way for recipients to opt-out of any future emailing. |
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© 2006, Greteman Group. 1425 E. Douglas, Wichita KS 67211 • 316.263.1004 • info@gretemangroup.com |