Specify perimeters.
Without proper guidance, email clients might present your design differently than you had intended. This leads to wide or narrow margins, embarrassing blank spaces and photos next to the wrong story. To avoid this embarrassing situation, use a table-based layout with inline styles, specifying margins and spacing so email clients aren’t able to create those for you.
Test across several platforms and readers.
Your design looks flawless on one email client, but the next program shifts tables, blocks images by default or breaks CSS. Additionally, different email clients have different standard lengths for subject lines. To ensure proper design and formatting across a broad range of email clients and ISPs, campaign managers should always test messages prior to full launch. If your list is primarily comprised of addresses from one web client, such as Gmail or AOL, pay special attention to visual rendering through that specific provider. Services are also available to enable email rendering previews in multiple email clients.
Review results and talk with subscribers.
Plan and continually refine
email marketing campaigns by reviewing reports and surveying prospective and existing subscribers. Learn how your messages will be read. Will subscribers receive it most often on their computer, handheld device or mobile phone? Pinpoint topics of interest to your reader by asking them or evaluating customer and technical support logs. Use interactive blogs to gather feedback, then offer the content your readers want.
Focus on honesty and ease-of-use.
Finally, each email you send should instill trust with your customers and protect your business reputation. While it is important to be legal and compliant with the CAN-SPAM Act (which requires companies to list a physical address and the ability to unsubscribe from an email), even companies in legal compliance can frustrate subscribers or render it nearly impossible to opt-out. Use a font color and size that is clearly visible with your chosen background color, and make it as easy as possible to unsubscribe. This can, in fact, reduce complaint rates and improve your deliverability. It is good practice to provide a one-click unsubscribe link, a full physical mailing address, a link to your privacy policy, a forward-to-a-friend option to boost word-of-mouth marketing and a quick sentence reminding your recipients how they signed-up for the list in the first place.
