You want to achieve the highest number of email views, and above all, clickthrough rate.
Before we even get to the email content, the Subject line needs careful thought (no more than 40 characters, make it relevant and engaging). The key to the success of any campaign HTML email design is to grab your recipients' attention. It seems obvious, but ensure the most important information is above the fold, preferably in the form of a compelling single message, and on-brand (but not necessarily to corporate template - in the same way as you wouldn't create all print ads in the same layout).
Single message emails have higher clickthrough rates, text links score higher than graphic links, and we'd recommend a maximum of three links to find out more or contact for more information.
There's a significant difference between what looks great and what works - and you need designers and coders experienced in the latter. Consider the view your user is going to get in their preview pane (let alone above the fold if they open the email to view it)... and think about creating a new template for each campaign. Make sure too that your designer is thinking about how it's going to look in Gmail, Yahoo, Lotus, on a BlackBerry and in Outlook 2007 which doesn't like CSS a lot, and has that 'Don't Download images' option checked more often than not. Alt tags are therefore really important, as is putting your message in text. Getting the message right is paramount.
Designing for Newsletters is the same but different, you're going to want to follow all the rules above except you'll probably want three or four main stories to feature.
We find that creating micro sites to support campaigns and regular communications works really well. Here you can include all the detail you wanted to put into the email itself, whilst retaining the campaign style, reinforcing the message, and then linking back to your web site for further information.
Posted by:
Peter Greatorex, Managing Director, Page Nine Ltd. www.broadcast-email.co.uk
Before we even get to the email content, the Subject line needs careful thought (no more than 40 characters, make it relevant and engaging). The key to the success of any campaign HTML email design is to grab your recipients' attention. It seems obvious, but ensure the most important information is above the fold, preferably in the form of a compelling single message, and on-brand (but not necessarily to corporate template - in the same way as you wouldn't create all print ads in the same layout).
Single message emails have higher clickthrough rates, text links score higher than graphic links, and we'd recommend a maximum of three links to find out more or contact for more information.
There's a significant difference between what looks great and what works - and you need designers and coders experienced in the latter. Consider the view your user is going to get in their preview pane (let alone above the fold if they open the email to view it)... and think about creating a new template for each campaign. Make sure too that your designer is thinking about how it's going to look in Gmail, Yahoo, Lotus, on a BlackBerry and in Outlook 2007 which doesn't like CSS a lot, and has that 'Don't Download images' option checked more often than not. Alt tags are therefore really important, as is putting your message in text. Getting the message right is paramount.
Designing for Newsletters is the same but different, you're going to want to follow all the rules above except you'll probably want three or four main stories to feature.
We find that creating micro sites to support campaigns and regular communications works really well. Here you can include all the detail you wanted to put into the email itself, whilst retaining the campaign style, reinforcing the message, and then linking back to your web site for further information.
Posted by:
Peter Greatorex, Managing Director, Page Nine Ltd. www.broadcast-email.co.uk
