Web Gurus Newsletter Issue 3
Welcome to another Web Gurus Newsletter, here’s what’s in store for you in this issue:
Feature Article: Are You Using these Tips to Increase Newsletter Readership?
Automating Your Newsletter (Part 1)
Web Site in the Spotlight: The Renaissance School of Dance
When your newsletter arrives in your recipient’s inbox does look good?
First lets clarify what I mean by looking good. Your newsletter doesn't have to be full of graphics, and as you'll discover, having lots of graphics is often a negative rather than a positive. Looking good, means it is well laid out and arrives in the inbox looking as you intended it to look when you sent it.
Using the tips in this article will help you eliminate horrible looking newsletters turning up in inboxes and increase readership.
When you are creating your newsletter are you testing what it looks like in the common email software?
Remember not all email software is created equal, in fact there are so many variations in how they display your newsletter it can quickly get overwhelming.
Unlike creating a web site, where it is quick and easy to see what it looks like in the most common web browsers, email is different. Here's a quick list of some of the software and online email sites you’ll want to test with:
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Outlook 2007
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Outlook 2003
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Outlook XP
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Outlook Express 6
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MSN Hotmail
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Gmail
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Yahoo! (Classic) and Yahoo! Mail
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Windows Live Hotmail
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Windows Mail
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Plus if you are sending to people in the US or Europe there are others to test too.
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And with each of these you'll want to test with images turned on and with images turned off - yes it can make a difference to the formatting and layout, plus it can have big impact on your recipients reading or unsubscribing.
Warning: the next 3 paragraphs contain traces of jargon
Several of the common things that vary between email software include; fonts, line spacing, borders, and spacing between images.
To overcome many of these requires doing the opposite of what you'd do for a web site. For instance, in a web site the styles are created and used like you would in Microsoft Word. You set the font, size, bold etc for your heading 1 in Word and then apply it to headings throughout the document. You do the same on a web site, that way when you modify it centrally, the change occurs through the rest of the web site or Word document.
However, because email software does not do styles well, you have to do the opposite and specify the font, size, colours, etc, for each paragraph and heading, etc. Otherwise your email will not look like you intended it.
Creating a well formatted newsletter requires an iterative approach of sending test versions, looking for what to improve, updating the newsletter, and then repeating the process.
What I usually do is test it in Outlook 2007, Gmail, and Yahoo, then when it is close to being ready I run it through a tool we use to test it in all the other main email software and online services, with images on and off.
This enables you to overcome the hard to read aspect and increase the likelihood of someone opening and reading your newsletter.
3 More Tips to Increase Readership
1. Include text that excites people or makes them inquisitive about images or links to web pages within the newsletter, this gets people downloading images or clicking on the links to find out more.
2. Many recipients have a pop up message display when new mail arrives. The text shown in this small pop up window (depending on the email software or online service) is usually part of the subject or first part of the email text content. Use the subject and first sentence to get the reader to want to find out more and open the email.
3. If you include a big image at the top of your email, make sure you have text above this and, or info in your subject that identifies who you are. If the recipient doesn't recognise who the email is from and images are turn off (which is the case in most modern email software), chances are your newsletter won't get read.
If you, or someone you know would like to put their newsletter through he same tool we use to test newsletters, this is available for as little as $99. If you're only sending out to a small handful of people, the initial test I do above is probably enough.
Lets face it, you're busy and sometimes your newsletter doesn't get the timely attention it deserves. This series of short articles will cover techniques we use, and help our clients implement, to automate their newsletter processes.
With laws around the world cracking down on spamming, you want to make sure you're on the right side of the law. This means providing all the details required to identify who you are and enabling people to unsubscribe.
If you are sending out your newsletter via Outlook or Gmail or something similar, then managing your subscriber list can get real messy. It's the times you forget to remove someone from your list and then send them another email that will get you in hot water.
To minimise this risk we use online email service companies (such as iContact, which I'm using to send this newsletter with) that handle automating unsubscribing people from your list.
Check out the bottom of this newsletter to see how this is incorporated into a newsletter. You'll see the info about who we are and a link for people to unsubscribe from this newsletter.
Remember you want people to unscubscribe from your list. Yes you read right, we want people to unsubscribe. No point having people on your list that aren't interested in want you have to say or what you have on offer.
In Part 2 of this series, I'll show you how easy it is to automate adding people to your list.
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A big congratulations to Margurite Howlette from The Renaissance School of Dance and Young Entrepreneur of the Year in Manukua.
The Renaissance School of Dance web site contains a wealth of information about the dance school, including what classes are on offer, photos of recent events, important dates and what events are coming up, plus lots more.
Here are some of the special features used on the site:
On the home page we use an Announcements module. What this means is that Marguerite can schedule in the start and end dates of announcements such as events and important dates. With each announcement, she can include the date, a short description, a picture, and a link to where a visitor can get more details.
Marguerite also required an area of the site to be accessible only by her students, a place where they can download and view info specific to their classes. This means students can log in and view content not visible to others visiting the site.
And like the Ace of Hearts web site showcased in the last issue, The Renaissance School of Dance web site also makes use of the Gallery module to display event photos, click on the following link to see this in action.
http://www.renaissancedance.co.nz/Gallery/Crescendo/tabid/1429/Default.aspx
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www.renaissancedance.co.nz
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Contact Us
If you have any questions about what's been covered in this issue of the Web Gurus newsletter feel free to call or email.
Have an awesome day
Steve Vale
P.S. Consider this, most of our customers have found out about us from someone like you, people we’ve done work for and / or have known for some time. If you’re talking with someone who you think would benefit with help from us here at Web Gurus, please pass on our contact details, and let us know too, so we can help them be successful on the web.
Phone +64 (9) 299 6618
Web Gurus
PO Box 72805
Papakura
New Zealand