1. Be sure to backup your mailing list regularly. I recently had a client call me and ask for help in retrieving their mailing list. Someone in the office had cancelled their subscription to Mailchimp to save costs. And now they had no access to their mailing list database. When using third party software like Mailchimp, Constant contact, iContact, Vertical Response, etc, be sure to back up your mailing list monthly. There will be a function on their website that allows you to download your mailing list into an Excel spreadsheet. Do this regularly and you will not lose your email database even if you switch providers.
Need help with managing your email newsletters? Expand your network and gain new paying customers with our custom email newsletter design and email marketing campaigns. Contact Katy at SeascapeWebDesign.com.
2. The HTML code used in Email Newsletters is different than HTML used in webpage design. Use tables for your email newsletters. Don’t use CSS. These HTML tags are not supported by many email programs: background-color, background-image, font-family, border, float, margin and padding.
3. Don't forget to design for Preview Panes. Every email software uses a different style of preview pane. Some are horizontal and some are vertical. Your call to action needs to be clearly visible in the preview pane. It’s a good idea to duplicate your call to action button to make sure it is seen by your audience.
Design your email newsletter to be 600 pixels wide. Left align your logo at the top. It is mostly the only thing they are going to see for sure.
4. Don't assume that images are going to be seen. Images are turned off in Gmail by default. Use the alt tag with all your images. This alternative text will show up instead of your image.
5. Too many images, not enough text. I recently received a newsletter that consisted of one large image – a screenshot of their home page. You click on this one large image and go directly to their website. This is very poor e-newsletter design. Using one giant image will usually get caught by spam filters.
6. Not testing in different email programs. There are dozens of email programs being used today to view email. Each one displays your email newsletter differently. Mailchimp.com is a popular email newsletter provider and it has a handy tool to show your email looks in many different browsers. It’s called Inbox Inspector by MailChimp.
7. The footer of your email is very important. CAN-SPAM laws require that you have an unsubscribe link in the footer and also a mailing address where you can be contacted. If you work from home, use a P.O. Box to keep your home address private. I recommend the UPS Store. They charge about $15.00 per month and you get a Suite # instead of P.O. Box.
Be sure to include these links: your call to action, forward to a friend and subscribe link for new readers.
Need help with managing your email newsletters? Expand your network and gain new paying customers with our custom email newsletter design and email marketing campaigns. Contact Katy at SeascapeWebDesign.com.
Thanks for reading!
Happy Holidays,Kathryn Laan
,Creative Director
Seascape Web Design
Phone: 604.729.4227
Email: katy@seascapewebdesign.com
Web: http://www.seascapewebdesign.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/seascapeweb
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1 comment:
Hi! I know this is kinda off topic however , I'd figured I'd ask. Would you be interested in exchanging links or maybe guest writing a blog post or vice-versa? My site goes over a lot of the same subjects as yours and I think we could greatly benefit from each other. If you happen to be interested feel free to send me an e-mail. I look forward to hearing from you! Superb blog by the way!
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