Home » Blogs » joe's blog

A Good Reading about Using Newsletters

Submitted by joe on Tue, 08/26/2008 - 9:04am

I used simplenews module in drupal. There is a good article introducing simplenews at group 42. A good presentation is included about 6 mistakes when using Email newsletters by Monique Trottier of Boxcar Marketing. These 6 mistakes remind me my "poor friends" who helped me test my newsletters before. A MUST SEE material. I summarized its content below.

  1. 6 Mistakes:
    1. Assuming that HTML was fully support by mail clients.
      • Mail clients have different levels of supporting HTML. Many clients does not support CSS, for example.
    2. Assuming people will see the whole email. Many people just use preview frame in different ways.
      • put actions link to see the original web site. Make people click it by "click here to get a clean report or click here to know a case study."
      • put important links in more than one places. This may caused redundancy but ensuring the users see the link.
      • the template max wildness should not be more than 600 pixels.
      • may left the line of ur logo, because it is the only place that every client see it.
    3. Assuming images would work for all.
      • the template max wildness should not be more than 600 pixels.
      • Using texts for important links, not image. some users never see the images.
      • Do not use huge big image. Use small images.
    4. Too many image and not enough text.
      • Need avoid spam filter to block out (ex. just one big image).
      • Balance images and texts.
    5. Not tested in different email readers.
      • Use the inspector of mail-chimp to help testing.
    6. Neglecting the footer.
      • Must included un-subscription link.
      • Footer must included physical address if you promote any products (regulation in the US). The penalty maybe more than 11,000USD per recipient.
      • Also a good idea to put privacy polity there.
      • Another good idea is put "forward to your friend" at that section.
  2. Related tools:
    • Campaign Monitor a web site help to manage campaigns.
    • A good tester assistant, mail-chimp.
    • Constant contact helps tracking user behaviors
    • Use stylish way to help navigation through text, such as bolded keywords...

I will find some time to check these tools in the future. Anyway, enjoy the reading.