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The Chaffey Column - May 2009Tips for a better E-Newsletter

 

 

 

Enewsletters are the main online customer communications tool, so it pays to invest time and thought in a decent template.

 

 

Over the past few years of running email marketing training courses I have reviewed hundreds of enewsletter templates and often see the same basic errors. Individually they often aren’t important, but if several good practice features are missed, they can definitely adversely affect the experience or response rates.

 

 

These best practice tips are generally presented from top to bottom of the creative. A longer version of this article including examples is available at www.davechaffey.com/blog/email-marketing/

 

 

But I start with the most important practical issue which although obvious seems to be forgotten by many print designers working on big brand accounts.

 

 

1. Ensure enewsletter version effective in image-blocked version. Many subscribers will initially view your enewsletter with images blocked which is the default in Outlook and most webmail readers.

You should design and test that your template, creative and messaging is effective for this situation.

2. Use a clear, consistent brand ident. Reassure your readers you are a trusted sender. If your branding isn’t clear your enewsletter will be deleted or ignored.

Use familiar typography, background tints and logos based on brand guidelines. Is the enewsletter “on-brand” even if all references to the brand are removed?

The from address is also important…

 

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3. Use an identifiable from address. The physical email address

(here Online@mailing.tesco.com ) and the display address (Tesco.com) should reference the brand rather than an email service provider.

 

 

4. Usual subject line guidelines apply:

Shorter tends to be betterFirst three words most important as readers scan their inboxMake relevant through targetingHighlight valueAdd branding if relevant

5. Include a prompt to view in browser or mobile version. Make this meaningful. Most enewsletters now do this, although relatively few recipients will select this option. Keep this short and sweet.

 

 

6. Include a whitelisting prompt. Again not many recipients will act on this, except perhaps for their most personally trusted brands, so better to encourage during initial subscription confirmation emails.

 

 

7. Use an effective header banner width. The banner width will often be used by the designer to control how the creative is displayed. If the banner width is set too wide, this may require the reader to scroll right - an unsatisfying experience which may truncate some of your headlines and offers. l advise a maximum width of 500 pixels although 550 to 600 are commonplace.

 

 

Specify the height and width in pixles of banners and other key images since these will be used to control layout when images aren’t downloaded.

 

8. Use an effective banner-depth. It’s difficult to get this balance right. You will certainly see email designs where an image banner is too broad and it pushes the content below the fold.

9. Integrate navigation bar with website.   Linking to different product categories is a common approach in retail enewsletters. It could be used more widely in non-transactional enewsletters to link to different website sections.

10. Use a distinct text headline. Since the image banner will often be blocked, a large font headline is a must-have for highlighting the lead feature or main offer of the newsletter.

11. Include a table of contents. Particularly important for informational enewsletters, this can reduce the problem of subscribers not scrolling down to later features. Usually positioned in the top left or right, it is generally best implemented as a jump to a named anchor rather than a link to the website:

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12. Encourage the viral effect. A simple forward to a friend / forward prompt to a colleague will encourage some subscribers to forward.

 

13. Include a subscribe option. This may seem redundant, but if an enewsletter is forwarded, an easy subscribe option needs to be present, likewise for browsers of archived enewsletters.

14. Include personal subscription preferences. These can be incorporated into top-menu bar or as in this case, from the HP.com newsletter, a menu bar below the main content.

15. Consider a personalised editorial. This helps make your enewsletter more personal and can stress the main offers or features with a text link through to the website which will often generate a high proportion of clickthroughs.

16. Incorporate your main brand value messages. Emphasise your customer value proposition, for first-time customers.

17. Group related features into common sections. You can highlight the different parts of your proposition through using section headers, each of which can contain several features. This works particularly well for informational enewsletters.

18. Make feature headers or product offers readily clickable. Rather than using a tiny “read more” link under the snippet about the feature, make it easy to read more as shown by this imediaconnection enewsletter which has nice large point size feature headlines which are underlined for a mouse rollover.

19. Use quality images. The double digit open rates achieved by many enewsletters show that images are often downloaded and quality images appeal, so use larger high-resolution product shots.

20. Make it social. Newsletters that include comments or testimonials from your customers are more engaging. Social options include.

For transactional emails:

Customer reviewsCustomer ratingsMost popular products

For informational emails:

Surveys and polls that can be rolled forward to the next editionTop blog postings or discussion forum topicsFeatured customer stories or case studies

21. Use a multi-column design (with care). Using a multi-column format can help fit more content above the fold and make the design more visually appealing. It is essential for retail enewsletters.

 

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22. Use 4-6 panels or areas of visual emphasis. Help the user to scan by limiting the number of areas with visual prominence to a maximum. I recommend “Focus on Five” as a mnemonic.

Tinted background-colours can help add visual emphasis

23. Include an unsubscribe option which links to a communications preferences centre. Of course offering unsubscribe is required by the privacy laws in many countries. But don’t make it too easy to unsubscribe. Offer options to change or limit the types of features / offer or frequency.

24. De-emphasise the T&Cs. The terms, conditions and privacy conditions are essential and should be reasonably easy to read, but through use of a lighter colour grey smaller font they can be setup so they don’t detract too much from the visual design.

About the author Dr. Dave Chaffey, is the Director and lead consultant for Marketing Insights Limited , an independent digital marketing consultancy. He is the best selling author of several Internet Marketing books used by digital marketing professionals and on many University and College Courses globally. His latest book, Internet Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice, now in its 4th edition, was published in January 2009.