Characterize your Email Campaigns!

The protagonist in email marketing is of course, The Email!

Focus has to be on messaging, visual appeal and relevancy. They are essential characteristics of a good looking email. The objective of an email campaign is to first capture attention, and then convey the message.

The Perfect HTML Email Prototype

Here are few pointers to ensure your HTML email newsletter is perfect 

1. Who is the email from? 

Ensure your name or your company’s name is evident in the ‘From’ address tab in order to clearly state your identity to your recipient 

2. Whom are you sending to?

The ‘To’address tab should contain the name of the recipient and not just the email id, as this will personalize your message.

3. Make your subject line crisp

Recipients need to know what the mail is about before reading it. The subject line should be direct and not too ‘spammy’, however it should instill interest.

4. What if the recipient cannot view the message?

Provide a link to enable recipients to view the newsletter / message in a separate browser, in case the message is not view able in the email.

5. Always give the choice to opt-out

Provide a one-click option to unsubscribe from receiving mails. By allowing recipients to choose whether they wish to receive messages or not indicates your respect to their privacy and preferences.

6. Show that you care

Ensure you add a link to your Privacy Policies to provide recipients with information about you intend to protect their privacy and utilize their details.

7. Display your credibility

Providing a complete physical address and contact details of your company will add credibility to your email

The Perfect Plain-Text Email Prototype

It may be plain but it has to be pretty too! Don’t make your plain text mail an afterthought. A helpful tip is to use ‘plain text editors’ like Notepad for Windows and TextWrangler for Mac. 

1. The ’60 Character’ Visual Ruler - A good way to keep your message aligned is by adding a “visual ruler”. Most email applications wrap your sentence after around 60 characters. Therefore a trick that you could use is to type a letter 60 times and use that as a reference for a margin.

2. Divide to Capture Attention – Making a plain text email attractive is a challenge. Creating dividers by using ‘visual markers’ or bullet points helps divert attention to important parts of the email. 

3. The ’60 Character’ Hard Return – As email applications usually wrap the message after every 60 characters, typing in a hard return after every 60 characters ensures the formatting stays in place to the maximum extent possible.

4. Type the Complete URL – you cannot rely on email applications to automatically add a clickable link to the URL you add. Ensure the complete link is typed to enable readers to copy and view the website.

Now that these prototypes give you an idea of how to create that perfect email, get a power-packed database to give due credit to the message!