How to create a great email newsletter without spending a lot of money...
By Les Proctor, March 2005
Creating an email newsletter is not an undertaking which should be taken lightly. Developing editorial requires time, talent, and a sustained effort. If you are thinking of creating an email newsletter, here are a few technical guidelines to help you create a great newsletter without spending a lot of money.
1. Use your own list
This sounds very fundamental but it’s absolutely necessary to say it, ‘Only use email addresses of people who have registered to receive email from you’. People are very finicky about their inbox, and you don’t want to tarnish your reputation by being labeled a spammer. Don’t go overboard with your registration form, either. Capture enough useful information so that you can send each segment of your subscriber list a meaningful offer.
2. Send email in plain text and in .html
Send MIME/Multipart Email. This requires a little more work…, but if you write your newsletter in a plain text format, and design one that looks nice in .html, it’ll get greater distribution. The same way you should always design a site for the lowest common denominator browser settings and screen resolutions, you should design your email communications to account for people who have their Outlook Express settings to only accept plain text email. Also Microsoft Service Pack 2 strips out all .html email to eliminate the threat of email tracking software by the spammers. Do both or the effectiveness of your communication will decrease.
3. Embed your styles in the .html
Use Inline CSS for formatting. Use Inline .CSS to format your .html email. Many sites that offer email services like Yahoo or Hotmail use CSS to format their browsers. If you are using the same tags they are, then your tags are redundant and are stripped out. The result? Your email comes through looking like straight .html without the styles. In other words, it looks bad. Then you look bad. CSS styles cascade into a new "virtual" style sheet in the following order, where the inline style has the highest priority:
- External Style Sheet
- Internal Style Sheet (inside the <head> tag)
- Inline Style (inside HTML element)
Hotmail actually strips out the <head> and the <body> tags from the email, so it’s best to remove them, and design your email in plain .html.
4. Create meaningful offers(s)
Take the time to develop a "knock-your-socks-offer" somewhere in each newsletter, or better yet, add dynamic elements with special offers for each segment of your email list. One of the crucial elements of a successful newsletter program is to create a relevant offer, or offers that will be meaningful to your subscribers. When you’re creating your email, take the time to develop a special offer; better yet a special offer for each segment of your list, and then insert dynamic fields in both the plain text email and the .html email, which are served off the extended information on the .csv file your using.
Like the editor of a magazine, your job as an email newsletter editor is to create an audience, offer meaningful editorial, and an opportunity for you to create sponsorship, ads, or promotions to make your efforts worthwhile.
5. Maintain a do-not-email list
Be sure to maintain your unsubscribe list. There’s no faster way to be labeled a spammer than to mail someone who’s requested to be removed from your list.
6. Make it easy to get off your list
It should be very easy for someone to remove themselves from the list. Make this clear and in the link to a privacy statement on your site. Most spam blocking software out there will flag email that has a “remove” or “unsubscribe” link, so simply include a short statement to the effect that information instructions on how to remove yourself from a list can be found on your company’s privacy policy page.
