Email Blast . Do's & Don'ts
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- swollenelbow
Alright, i'm in the middle starting to plan a serious email blast. Anyknow have an recommendations as to what email programs i should be looking out for when designing and programing it? any issues? any help would be great. thanks boys.
oh i was in miami for a while last week. i had a blast! =) fyi or something.
- unknown0
email blast as in spam mail?
- swollenelbow0
well not a blast per say. just an email to our existing clients and vendors to let them know about our new site and new products.
not spam. but maybe my boss will want to spam. i dunno. but do's and dont's is what i'm looking for!
- Nairn0
I seem to remember that 550px wide is good (to account for varying email clients), keep it under 60k, and alway use hi-speed rotating banners with extreme-pulsation colour cycles.
Actually, that last one? Maybe not.
Oh yeah, there's a peculiar addition you can make to your image references - add 'NOSEND="1" ' into your image tag, to [supposedly] prevent Outlook et al forwarding your email's images as attachments.
- monkeyshine0
If you do alot of marketing emails, I'd suggest a program like Emma: http://www.myemma.com/ . It is a service that manages the emails...will automatically determine whether the user can receive HTML email and will give them the appropriate email (which Emma generates). It can also track click through, which is invaluable.
- Nairn0
There's also http://www.mailermailer.com too.
- swollenelbow0
i kinda don't want to get a program for it? what about if i wanted to do it myself? is there steps to go though? should i just code a regular page and wish for the best? hah no right?
- monkeyshine0
Just keep it simple. Keep the page kinda narrow (I don't go more than 600px wide..and more like 550). Don't use too many images. Don't think CSS works.
- Nairn0
Monkeyshine's right - just get out your html 2 spec, base it on that and absolutely reference your images to your web server.
Stick the HTML in your Outlook's Stationery folder, or do with what you will...
- swollenelbow0
hmm thanks guys, doesn't sound that bad. hope we have nor problems, and i hope some of you don't get spammed.
if you do, it's my bosses fault.
i'm gonna test this deal too, can i send it to one of you folks?
- gravityroom0
Email Blast? Does your boss want to shoot lasers out of the server using sendmail?
Just kidding you man - I had a really bad client once refer to them as "blasts". Cracked me up every time... You should see the crap they were blasting.
By the way - be careful. It is illegal to spam.
- gravityroom0
Oh yeah - since you were asking if you could build something yourself...
You can, but (as with any program) - learn about how the server works (is it your own?).
Nothing gets a pissed off phone call from your hosting company faster than running some app on their server that its not set up to handle.
- swollenelbow0
you're right. i'll have to see about that. i think we are using some program. but still we will "blast" a lot of people. hopefully we don't get in trouble.
they like to "spread" the word around.
thanks for the heads up.
- gravityroom0
Yeah man - still... do your homework. There are a ton of programs that work fine if you have a list of a few hundered people, but if you're talking a really big list - check out the program and know how your server sends mail.
You'd be surprised at how bad a lot of pre-made "programs" really are.
- swollenelbow0
is there any disadvantages to just sending an email with a few pictures as your content rather than actual links?
- bellerus0
There are a few disadvantages to having pics as content such as...customers can't copy and paste, longer download time, sliced images may come apart.
I do html emails fairly often to our customer list, and my biggest recommendation would be to target what email clients you want your email to look good and test test test.
We take a look at our emails in yahoo, hotmail, outlook, aol, blah blah blah.
- bent0
I just designed a mailer 550 pixels wide and my boss is saying it isn't wide enough.
Does anybody know which email programs require the table to be so narrow?
- gravityroom0
Not offhand, but that number sounds about right. Have your boss check it out in a few email clients as well - or pull them up and show them to him.
I usually try to design email that will center out so the client doesn't notice it and say things like "its not wide enough".
I feel for you - designing email is a pain in the tush.
- Nairn0
I believe the 550w restriction's also a lot to do with online clients such as hotmail, yahoo et al
- joec0
i recently did my first email blast and heres what i did...
550px wide.... centered in a table... one big image, sliced in to quarters...
css doesnt work, but basic javascript does... (i got the cursor, in the email, to change to the "hand")
as far as sending, i used http://www.safebulkemail.com/ they worked out nice - but i dont know what kind of budget youre looking at. if youre sending emails in the many thousands, youre going to need to use a bullet-proof server so you dont get in trouble with your host.
good luck and let us know how it turns out!!
peace
- joe.c