Having spent much of the past two years working with graphic designers, email list rental brokers, email service providers (ESPs) and various companies who wanted to send HTML emails to their clients, I have learned – often the hard way – how different the world of coding effective emails is to writing HTML/CSS for websites. I’ve also seen good emails fail because the campaign wasn’t properly thought through.
This post isn’t about the mechanics of sending HTML email – I am assuming you know the basics – but about how and why some emails arrive looking as intended and work a treat, and some don’t. So here in no particular order are 12 tips for successfully producing email campaigns. I could have written 100 and they are all necessarily brief, but if you’re not used to crafting effective email creatives, they should get you thinking.
Tip 1: It’s 1997, man.
That means you can’t use floated divs to make your emails look nice. You can’t use external stylesheets. You shouldn’t really even have a <head> section on your emails (although there’s at least one hack I know that requires this – out of the scope of this blog post). Your emails have to be constructed using tables. End of story. Get used to it. And while we’re there, no images as backgrounds (Outlook 2007 doesn’t like them. In fact, there’s a lot Outlook 2007 doesn’t like).
Tip 2: Easy on the graphics
Remember, Hotmail/Windows Live, Yahoo!, Gmail, Outlook etc. all display emails by default with the images switched off. Your email has to get its point across without relying on images. In my experience, convincing designers of this one fact is a hard thing to do. But what’s the point of having a great email creative if nobody even clicks “Allow images” because there was nothing text-wise that convinced them to do so? Plus, if anything more than 50% of the email is graphics, some spam filters start to get twitchy.
Tip 3: Don’t put anything of any importance in your images
Following on from the above, if the only “Click here” in your email is contained within a graphic, and the addressee doesn’t choose to view images, your call to action could be lost on them. So don’t do it. And that goes for any other important text that isn’t repeated elsewhere, too.
Tip 4: Use alt tags
Whenever you do use images, make sure they have well thought-out alt tags. You can be crafty here, too – remember, if the images aren’t downloaded in the client browser or email program, there will be a largely empty box with (often) just the words from your alt tag in it – so why not say “Go on – download the images – They’re lovely!”? Or make the images into links (don’t forget to set the border to none) and make your alt tags say “Click here for more information”. Viewing all email creatives with and without images will give you the right insight here.
Tip 5: Not everyone has maximised, designer screens
Look at your email in a web browser, on one of the webmail clients (say, Yahoo!) on a 1024 x 768 screen. If the email’s main message and a call to action don’t come across clearly in the part that is visible, it won’t do its job. Redesign it so they are.
Tip 6: Keep it simple, stupid!
KISS is a cliche but it’s true. What is the main purpose of the email? Be explicit. Say it out loud. Write it down. Now, make sure that it is ALL you focus on as you build it. Rambling newsletter-style emails with reams of text and no calls to action take ages to make and don’t increase anyone’s bottom line. People are busy, and what you’ve got to say is not as important to them as you think it is. Save the essays for your blog. You’ve got a few seconds to do the job. Make sure your message is clear and succinct.
Tip 7: Make your subject line compelling
So your reader powers up her PC and gets 20 emails in her inbox in the morning. Which one is she most likely to open? The one that say “Fuel Card Newsletter Spring 2009″ or the one that says “Save 25% on your fuel costs in five easy minutes”? If people don’t open your email, the rest counts for nothing. So spend a long time on these few words.
Tip 8: Make sure your landing page is simple and to the point
So someone gets past your subject line, is interested in the content, and clicks “Yes! I’m interested!” Don’t dump them on your home page. They will leave straight away. Point them to a landing page that does two things: 1) Reiterates briefly the offer, using the same styling so they know they are in the right place, and 2) Closes them. That normally means a short, simple, easy to fill out enquiry form. No need for more sell – they’ve already opened the door to you. Get their details before they change their mind.
Tip 9: Send a text version, too
And make sure you work hard on it – don’t do it as an afterthought. Some email-enabled phones view this version by default. The Outlook bubble in Windows uses it. Also, ISPs are more likely to treat HTML-only email as spam. It’s boring, but necessary to include a plain text version too.
Tip 10: Use bullet points, not paragraphs in your copy
Maybe even more than online, people scan emails. They are not expecting much of interest. So try this: Compelling headline – intro sentence (with call to action) – three or four bullet points – closing sentence (with another call to action). Chunking the copy up will increase the number of people you get through to, without question.
Tip 11: Test, test, test
Send your campaign to Yahoo!, Hotmail/Windows Live, Gmail, AOL. Look at these accounts in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari, on Mac and PC. Open it in Outlook (2003 and 2007) and Entourage. View with graphics on and off. Use different screen resolutions. Otherwise, a mail that looks great in Dreamweaver may not work at all for big chunks of your audience. This part will take a long time. So consider sticking with a template that works when you hit on one.
Tip 12: Don’t spam
You will get blocked. You will annoy your clients. You may not be able to send emails at all from your company, even to each other. You will damage your brand. If you think it’s spam, it probably is. If you don’t remove your unsubscribe requests, it definitely is. But if you are flagged as a spammer and you are convinced your email is only going to double opt-in loyal clients, then the reason may be that people are using the “Report as spam” button as a delete function – behaviour that has been reported to be on the increase. The solution? Move your unsubscribe link to the top of your creative, before everything else. That way, it is as prominent, if not more so, than the webmail client’s “Spam” link. Worried people will click it if you put it there? Then you’re probably spamming them after all. Sort it out. Timely, relevant, targeted. That’s what email marketing is all about. But that’s for another post.
Phil Morse
Tags: email, email marketing, emailing, html