Email Marketing Design Guide
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Transcript of Email Marketing Design Guide
ZRINITY, INC.
2008 Authored by: Rob Thrasher
Email is New. Business Communications is Not.
The Ultimate Email Marketing Design Guide
Including the Ultimate Email Design Check-off List
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Email is New
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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
desires, needs or pain/stress points. With newspaper and
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
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.
“You still have to hit the right person with the right message at the
right time.”
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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.
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
from what you learn from email recipients’ actions. Send multiple versions of the same email
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
Figure 1: Top ten monitor settings.
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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.
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.
ABOUT HABEAS
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.
Photo: Business People. Big Stock Photo: www.bigstockphoto.com
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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
with nothing or the one with your text message
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.
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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
(Outlook for Business) Yahoo!, Google, AOL, etc.
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.
“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.”
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Top Ten Email Design Check‐off List
1. {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.
2. {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?
3. Make a sketch level plan but don’t try to over‐plan since you can learn from email recipients’ actions about their desires.
4. Send multiple versions of the same ad‐email using multivariate testing. Start NOW and learn as you go about your readers.
5. 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.
6. Use Alt Tags AND text descriptors for key images. Most email providers’ automatic settings are to block images. Hotmail does not show Alt Tags.
7. 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.
8. Use tables and nested tables for layout. Don’t use background images or spacer images.
9. 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.