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HTML Newsletter Guidelines
The lower cost and increasing availability of tools to send graphically rich html emails has many communications directors excited about the possibility. They’re bored with their basic text emails. Not so fast, says NPA’s Rick Christ, who admits to being graphically challenged and “text oriented” himself. It’s fine to test the addition of graphic elements to email messages, but it’s important to stay focused on the overall objective of the email. If the objective is to produce an email that the communications director is proud to show her board, then html is clearly the way to go. If, on the other hand, the objective is a measurable direct response, then proper marketing testing is required, and one needs to be prepared to accept the fact that text, or simple html, may outperform graphically rich “magazine-style” formats. TargetX is a commercial email service bureau whose customers can send html emails as easily as text. Nonetheless, they urge caution too. Niles doesn’t espouse raw text, however. He suggests a clean, simple html that NPA refers to as “rich text” – combining the elements of proportional font, logos and type formatting. By adding a "letterhead" graphic -- the organization's logo or logotype, for example -- TargetX dresses up the email without detracting from the one-to-one feel of a simple text message. According to their recent email newsletter, one national liberal arts college recently reported an 88 percent higher response from a text and letterhead combination versus a graphically rich HTML. The content and subject lines were identical. December 2004 | |
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