Broken images are more common than not in emails, so design your email appropriately. Image: Flickr / stevensnodgrass / CC-BY
An email newsletter may seem like an old-fashioned way to contact customers and potential customers. In certain situations, however, an email newsletter can be very effective. The decision to do a newsletter, or not, should start with content.
The benefits of an email strategy
Email can be very beneficial because it gets directly in front of people. Emails also need to be double-opt-in, which means those who do receive the emails are likely to read them. Per connection, email is also a relatively inexpensive way to connect to people who want to hear from you and can provide additional perceived value to your brand or website.
What to include in your email marketing
Emails should include, most importantly, compelling content. You should also have something special that is included only in the emails. Some of the most effective email marketing is a digest of the content available on your website with links to the full content. You should also make sure you let customers know what they are signing up for.
Staying in compliance with law
Email marketing is not always the easiest form of marketing. The CAN-SPAM act outlines what must be done in order to send marketing emails legally. Staying in compliance with law can also help you avoid built-in spam filters. Your email newsletter should only go to people who are likely to read it, meaning customers must first sign up and then confirm their sign-up. Every email you send must include a physical address, opt-out instructions and to/from/subject information that is honest and clear. You must also identify the email as an advertisement in a clear, conspicuous place.
Multi-platform compatibility
Email can be very difficult to design. There are dozens of different email services that each handle HTML emails differently. Most email services block images by default, and a customer must choose to see any images you include. Design your email to look at least halfway decent without any images. You should also make sure that the important information in your email is in text, so even if the images do not show, your message still gets across.
