Guidelines For Proper Use of HTML In Email

By Don Monell on January 22, 2010

There is nothing worse than creating a well constructed HTML document that renders perfectly in your web browser only to find it mangled when sent to your Gmail account.

What To Do?

1. Use tables for layout. You're welcome to try "div" tags for positioning and layout, but our research shows that tables are more consistently supported. But do very simple layouts, avoiding lots of nested tables.

2. Use inline styles liberally in tables. In fact, you'll find you can get the best mileage out of inline styles in "td" tags. That way you are setting up little style regions within each table. Think of these inline styles as miniature style sheets. This allows non-technical users to swap content in and out of pre-formatted cells in a modular fashion.

3. Avoid background colors in table cells that contain other tables.

Proper Handling Of Images

1. Define background images using background. Instead of the inline background-image call. Gmail, among others, will ignore any URL attribute in an inline style. Keep in mind, though that if the background image is ignored, the default color is going to be white. That means your white text on black backgrounds will disappear. Stick with text colors that are visible against a white background.

2. Don't use images for important content like calls to action, headlines and links to your web site. Outlook, Gmail and others turn images off until allowed by the user. If your entire email is graphical, all your recipients are going to see is a lot of broken images.

3. Provide alt text for all images.

4. Declare BOTH height AND width parameters for images. Outlook Web Access especially needs this for your table layout to display properly.

Specific Elements That Can Not Be Used:

1. External or embedded style sheets (those contained within the "style" tag above the "body" tag). This is the most important thing to avoid. Many email services cut everything above the body tag and disable external style sheets.

2. JavaScript. There's no better way to have your email marked as spam. Not all email clients can handle the scripts, and most web-based systems disable scripts as a general rule to prevent malicious code from being executed on a system.

3. Table width greater than 600px. Considering most email is viewed in a preview pane table width of 600px or less is the industry standard

4. Embedded video. This will work with special coding in Apple Mail, but the most popular web-based email clients - Yahoo!, Gmail and Hotmail are choosing to disable HTML video from playing. So play it safe and link to a web based player.

This should get you headed in the right direction to better looking, better converting email. If I can assist you further please call me at 631-306-9361 or email me at dmonell@anchorcomputer.com

Signs Your Email Program Is Behind The Curve

by Chad White, Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Email marketing's high return on investment often breeds complacency -- and is often pointed to as both a blessing and curse. After all, why invest more in analytics, segmentation, and testing when the profits are already rolling in quite nicely?

 

Meanwhile, some companies realize that there's much more to be had from their email programs. They recognize the effect that a strong email program can have on other channels and on their brand reputation. They make smart investments in new capabilities and are constantly optimizing their processes, messaging and email designs. They're way ahead of the curve, leaving complacent competitors in the dust.

Here are a few signs that despite "good" results, your email program is getting lapped:

1. You rarely, if ever, A/B test anything. Why sweat the details? Different subject lines, calls-to-action, messaging, layout and send times can sometimes boost the performance of an email by double digits, while uncovering tactics that you can operationalize and build upon further. To me, a culture of testing is the surest sign that your email results are market-leading.

2. You don't review performance metrics. Money keeps coming in, so why bother with analyzing open, click, unsubscribe and complaint rates? If you're flying blind, you have little hope of making improvements to your program.

3. You don't segment. All of our subscribers are interested in everything we offer. Unless you only sell one or two products, this is surely not true. Mining past purchases and click behavior in your emails and on your Web site, plus asking subscribers for their preferences, will reveal lots of opportunities to send the right offers to the right subscribers. One-size-fits-all programs are losing their effectiveness as email volume rises and consumers gravitate toward email programs that respect their time. People know that they can just Google discount codes when they want them. They don't need to sign up for your emails to get broadcast discount codes and other non-targeted, non-individualized content.

4. Transactional messages are the only triggered emails that you send. We don't have to send other triggered messages to be successful. Lifecycle messaging such as welcome, birthday, anniversary, browse, and shopping cart abandonment emails deliver revenue per email that's multifold what's generated by broadcast emails. Plus, trigger email programs tend to return the money you invest in them within a matter of months and don't require much upkeep thereafter. 

5. You haven't updated your sign-up form, opt-in confirmation page or any other such pages since launching them. They work pretty well for us, so we're focused on other things. These pages are not fire-and-forget. Logos change, brand messaging changes, email program benefits change. These elements should be reviewed annually, at a minimum.

6. You don't make it easy for customers to sign up for your emails. Our Web site department is hard to work with and won't give us space for a sign-up link on our homepage or anywhere else. If customers can't easily opt in, your list growth will be perpetually stunted. Weak organic growth may also drive you to try to acquire subscribers through riskier means, jeopardizing your sender reputation.      

7. You're totally preoccupied with the day-to-day of getting emails out the door. We've hired strategic consultants before, but we never have time to implement any big changes. If you're mired in the trenches of email production and not devoting a substantial chunk of your hours to strategic initiatives, your program is basically static, making it easy for your competitors to pass you by. Look for ways to streamline production processes through better coordination with other departments, faster production tools, more flexible email templates and other means, so you can spend time building the future, not just your next email.

It's my hope that 2010 is the year that CMOs and CEOs wake up to the massive investment gap in their email program. In the not-too-distant future, they may find that gap has grown so large that they're unable to close it.

Chad White is the Research Director at Smith-Harmon, a Responsys Company and digital marketing services agency. Visit his blog at http://www.retailemailblog.com/

Direct Mail Starting To Show Signs of Life

Jan 15, 2010 12:28 PM, By Herb Torgersen

Great post from Herb, direct mail is not dead, far from it. It is finding its strength again in both traditional and new verticals, supporting the multi-channel marketing world we live in.

If the first two weeks of 2010 are any indication of what is to come, direct mail might just find its way off life support.

In the past few weeks my mailbox has been overflowing with direct mail—an increase in credit card offerings, mortgage re-financing offers, home improvement offers that actually have my name on them, and of course, some catalogs.

However, the majority of the direct mail we've received has been from national retailers and restaurant chains. These are two categories that picked up their direct mail presence in 2009 and it appears that the trend is continuing into 2010.

They are using direct mail to drive store traffic. Plus, they're employing a multitude of direct marketing tactics to capture consumer information to further CRM initiatives, both through direct mail and online. Companies like Target, Publix Supermarkets, McDonald's and Chik-fil-A are putting a high level of importance on being able to continually communicate with prospects and customers to drive in-store traffic. Frequent communication is essential in this tough economic environment. Lifetime customer value has become an important part of their marketing strategies.

These retailers/restaurant chains have been amassing a considerable amount of consumer data that will continue to drive their marketing strategies. For example, consider how Chik-fil-A continues to grow in today's tough economy.

Their advertising campaigns are creative, witty and cutting edge. Their direct mail initiatives are specifically designed to drive store traffic. They have chosen to stay with their core competency…serving delicious and healthy chicken products in spotless restaurants with exemplarily customer service. And through these tough economic times they have not resorted to price reduction promotions to drive traffic. Applying consumer psychology, they count on their product and customer service reputations for increased customer visits. And it works—here in the greater Atlanta area, Chick-fil-A at dinner time is quite considerably more busy than competing fast food restaurant chains. Each individual store is actively involved in their community and that sense of community participation is widely accepted by their customer base.

If we go back about 10 years or so, direct mail was predominately the domain of "traditional direct marketing companies" like catalogers, publishers, financial services firms, insurance companies and continuity clubs. Now with the new decade upon us the landscape has changed.

There is a whole new spectrum of companies applying direct mail, and direct marketing initiatives. As we all seek continued growth it is time we step outside our comfort zone and embrace the opportunities available. It may require research and learning the marketing strategies of a new industry but the effort will be well worth it. Direct mail is showing signs of life once again.

Herb Torgersen is president DirectInnovations Inc., Suwanee, GA(htorgersen@directInnovations.biz).

Are Email Appends An Achilles Heel For Deliverability And Strategy?

I follow Ryan's posts and this one I thought was worth sharing. The benefit of email append can certainly be improved by following Ryan's suggestions. Enjoy the read!
by Ryan Deutsch, Thursday, March 19, 2009, 11:15 AM

Last Thursday, I joined a friend for a pick-up basketball game, played (poorly) for 30 minutes, made a move on the baseline and ripped my Achilles tendon in half!  Four days later, I was in surgery, and I am now in a cast for the next ten weeks....arghhhhh!   What does this have to do with email marketing? Not a thing -- other than giving me some extra time to read up on all the latest email articles and putting me in the mood for a good fight -- I mean, debate! 

On Tuesday, I came across a blog post denouncing the use of opt-out email appends.  For those of you not familiar with the practice, it is essentially a quick way for marketers with large postal files to add emails addresses to their database.  For example, Acme Company sends their postal file to a database company, said database company matches Acme's postal records to the records in their database, and when a "match" is found with an email address they add that record (with  the new email address) to an "append" file.  The database company then does a quick "welcome" email to the entire append file with an opt-out only link and then ships the resulting file back to Acme company.  The issue with this process is that Acme Company now has a file that is NOT opt-in and could cause serious delivery problems for their business.

While opt-out email append is not without risk, if managed correctly it can be an excellent way for marketers to grow their email lists.  In these tough economic times, companies are looking for ways to accelerate the use of the email channel, essentially reallocating marketing budget from less "accountable" channels to email.  As experts in the space, I think it is our job to help them do so responsibly.  

We often look at things as black and white with regards to email best practices and deliverability. I understand and agree that from a delivery standpoint, email append can be a bad idea, especially if the senders simply add the append to their current list.   However, I think from time to time we should try and look at things from the marketer's standpoint.  If we know that they are going to go down this path, why not try to help them do it effectively?

Here are some thoughts on opt-out appends that folks should consider before deciding to throw in the towel altogether:

1. Only append active customer files.  Do not append inactive or "stale" customer files.  These result in poor match rates and are riskier than active customer files.  Furthermore, it is critical that these customers pass the PBR (Prior Business Relationship) test.  As a general rule, be sure that the customer has purchased and/or interacted with your organization in the last 12 months.   If you append bad data you will, as the article I read Tuesday suggests, destroy your deliverability.

2. Build an append-specific communication strategy.  You should not treat your appended email recipients the same way you treat subscribers that have been on your file for months and years.  First, make sure you isolate your append mailings from your core programs.  While I believe opt-out appends can deliver value to a marketer, we must accept that this file IS riskier than the house file.  As a result, keeping it separate limits any negative impact the program will have on your existing email campaigns.  Second, develop a series of communications that repurpose email content for the appended addresses, and be sure to place opt-out front and center and continually remind recipients how they ended up on the email list.  Be transparent; your customers will appreciate it.

3. Build rules to migrate append addresses to your house file over time.  As time goes by, proactively migrate appended addresses into your house file.  Migration should be based on specific recipient activity (clicks, purchases, etc.) Companies can build these rules to apply to their unique business models. 

Of course, as with any other poorly executed email program, opt-out appends can negatively affect your email strategy.  But if executed correctly, they can add tremendous value quickly. In these tough economic times, what marketer can afford to ignore ways to reallocate budget to more effective direct channels?