Email is New. Business Communications is Not. The Ultimate Email Marketing Design Guide Including the Ultimate Email Design Check-off List
ZRINITY, INC. 2008 Authored by: Rob Thrasher
Email is New. Business Communications is Not. The Ultimate Email Marketing Design Guide This report includes best email practices for ALL email recipient systems, for B2B and B2C communications. Send perfectly-designed emails to Yahoo!®, AOL, MS Exchange (Most Versions), Hotmail, and more!
There’s nothing really new about sending email that wasn’t true from the days of static newspaper ads. You still have to hit the right person with the right message at the right time. The only difference is in the degree to which the rules of marketing are new. Zrinity has compiled a list that, if followed, will allow all your email recipients the ability to view your emails no matter what system they use. This includes Outlook, America Online, Yahoo!, Gmail, Hotmail, and others. You must first craft a message that matches recipient
Email is New. Business Communications is Not. | 4/1/2008
desires, needs or pain/stress points. With newspaper and
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TV ads, you had to guess a lot, and then do extensive and expensive surveys. Now, you can simply watch how email recipients act. Did they click through your page or buy
“You still have to hit the right person with the right message at the right time.”
anything? Then, you adjust your message and timing based on these metrics... Somewhere in your Website statistics you can learn which computer monitors people use to browse your Website on any given day or month. Look at your stats to determine the most reasonable or appropriate monitor setting for your audience and then use this information to draft a message that fits nicely onto most popularly‐used monitors. It is better to use science than it is to use surveys to determine how people view your site and, ultimately, their email.
Look at Figure 1, and you will see that if you plan the email for the top four monitor settings: 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1280x800 and 1680x1050, then you cover over 74% of all possible viewers. Some of you might want to look at these statistics and be sure your site fits within these parameters as well.
Figure 1: Top ten monitor settings.
What is your plan, and how can we validate it through the email process? Make a sketch‐level plan, but try not to plan too much as a lot of your knowledge will come
using multivariate testing. This is a more evolved method of AB testing. It uses multiple variations of a message and other offers within the email to judge responses and then uses the most popular version for the rest of the recipients. Keep sending the emails out fast. Learn about the viewers with which you are not already familiar. Use your email metrics to determine to which email clients are the most likely to respond. Then, on your next attempt, you can send draft emails based upon recipient systems such as Gmail, AOL or Yahoo! If you aren’t ready to send a different email to each base of recipients or clients, then just try to test the emails with top clients using systems such as Yahoo! and AOL. It is too easy and inexpensive not to verify your email design. It is always as good idea as well to
Email is New. Business Communications is Not. | 4/1/2008
from what you learn from email recipients’ actions. Send multiple versions of the same email
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check such designs using a third‐party system such as Habeas. This system will allow you to view email campaigns in many scenarios and versions of email software such as Outlook.
ABOUT HABEAS
Some email recipient firms will block email based upon the integrity of your HTML. If there are HTML errors, your message can be stopped in its tracks. The methods described above will help you determine the integrity of the HTML used in your email and avoid the perils associated with HTML errors and compatibility.
Email is New. Business Communications is Not. | 4/1/2008
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Photo: Business People. Big Stock Photo: www.bigstockphoto.com
Habeas is the market and technology leader in online reputation management services. The company's software‐ as‐a‐service (SaaS) platform includes the award‐winning Habeas Email Monitor, an on‐ demand application that enables businesses to analyze, improve and manage their email and Web operations to ensure maximum deliverability and online performance. Complementary sender services include Habeas Audit for reputation assessment and Habeas SafeList, the most broadly used Internet white list. Habeas also provides SenderIndex, the industry's largest email reputation database, for enterprises and ISPs to make better, faster delivery decisions regarding inbound email. For more information, visit www.habeas.com.
Images, Alt Tags AND Text You have created what you determine to be a powerful marketing message based on a combination of images and text. The ad that was supposed to run in last week’s paper is seen in Figure 2‐1. Imagine for a minute there were a series of printing errors. The first error displayed only your text message without images (see Figure 2‐2), while the second error displayed only little red ‘X’ where you were supposed to have an image, and the text message was also left off these ads. In a nutshell, no images, no text message at all (see Figure 2‐3). Despite the fact you will get another free ad next week, which of these two errors might still generate revenue? Would you choose the ad
and no pictures? This is old school newspaper advertising, but it applies to email as well. Placing images into an email almost always have a likelihood they will not appear in some browsers or on some screens as most email providers’ automatic settings are to block images. With no text, this is a horrible thought. Also, for B2C, Hotmail does not show Alt Tags. You have to ask for the images. So your recipients might still be a click away from even seeing your message.
Email is New. Business Communications is Not. | 4/1/2008
with nothing or the one with your text message
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However, if you also have text describing the images, both alt tags and inline text descriptions, you will generate more revenue than if you just deliver images. It is old school common business sense and we do not require a study to prove or disprove this.
HTML, Text, Etcetera Many recipients will view your email in HTML format with images disabled as the default for their particular email recipient system. HTML should be done carefully and as basic as possible. Always use text and alt tags to add text with images since they might elicit an action where suppressed images without text descriptions and links will yield zero. Avoid rich media, animated gif’s, image maps, forms, and anything that is “dynamic” in nature. Be sure to use inline CSS coding. How the HTML is viewed
Email is New. Business Communications is Not. | 4/1/2008
(Outlook for Business) Yahoo!, Google, AOL, etc.
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“Many recipients will view your email in HTML format with images disabled as the default for their particular email recipient system. HTML should be done carefully and as basic as possible.”
for commercial, is something to take into account. However, if you use HTML best practices, you can prepare an email for most all scenarios. Use science, not surveys or studies. Look at your viewers in your Website statistics and design for the majority of the users. Use tables and nested tables for layouts. Don’t use background images or spacer images. Test campaigns with a service such as that provided by Habeas to verify HTML integrity.
Sending to Non-Business Recipients (Hotmail, AOL…) For B2C, since Hotmail does not display underlines for hyperlinks, use inline CSS text‐decoration property to underline in the <a> tag of every link where you wish to have the link underlined. Always assign colors, even if the color is black. Don’t assume the default colors will work for any email as some email providers have different default colors.
Top Ten Email Design Check‐off List
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{SCIENCE NOT SURVEYS} Craft a message that matches a person’s desires, needs or pain/stress points. Did they click or buy? Adjust and evolve your message and timing based on metrics. {SCIENCE NOT SURVEYS} Look at your stats to determine the likely monitor settings. Draft a message that fits nicely into most‐used monitors. Which monitors do your Web browsers use? Make a sketch level plan but don’t try to over‐plan since you can learn from email recipients’ actions about their desires. Send multiple versions of the same ad‐email using multivariate testing. Start NOW and learn as you go about your readers. Avoid being blocked based upon HTML integrity. Triple check for obvious HTML errors and use basic HTML. Avoid rich media, animated images, image maps, forms, and anything that is “dynamic” in nature. Use Alt Tags AND text descriptors for key images. Most email providers’ automatic settings are to block images. Hotmail does not show Alt Tags. B2C ALERT: Use inline CSS text‐decoration property to underline in the <a> tag of every link where you wish to have the link underlined. Use tables and nested tables for layout. Don’t use background images or spacer images. Always assign colors! Even if the text color you desire is black, always define it as black.
10. Last but NOT LEAST: If your email design is important to you, always test campaigns through a system such as that provided by Return Path or Habeas to verify HTML integrity.
Email is New. Business Communications is Not. | 4/1/2008
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