After reading the whitepaper published by ExactTarget, Email Marketing Design & Rendering: The New Essentials, I decided it was time for a makeover of the Webinar Resources Newsletter template. We are already using a lot of the best practices described by ExactTarget, but there is still plenty of room for improvement.


Here is what our current newsletter looks like - Webinar Resources InTouch, Volume 1 Number 3. The following are things we are currently doing right:


The maximum recommended width for an email is 600 pixels. Ours is now 580 pixels wide.


Webinar Resources Newsletter Screenshot ExactTarget recommends putting your brand and a call to action into a 4-5 inch square (between 288 and 360 pixels) at the upper left corner of the email. This is the most viewed part of the message. Our logo, company name and color scheme are comfortably in the critical area, so I would say our brand is where it is supposed to be.


In order to get viewers to look at the content "below the fold", it helps to include "above the fold" links to the content below, a table of contents, or some other kind of hint of what the newsletter contains so that the recipients will want to scroll down. Our introductory paragraph describing the contents in this newsletter issue fulfills that requirement.


We have kept our branding consistent on the landing pages that viewers will reach if they click on any of the links to our web site.


It hurt to do it, but we removed CSS styles and HTML background images some time ago because many email clients do not support them.


How to Create and Manage Blog Content We do not embed rich media right into the email message, rather we provide an image which links to the rich media content. In the example pictured, the featured content is a Webinar for OneSM Brainshark presentation. This is the best way to email a flash movie or a movie clip.


In my HTML coding, I have had the following habits for a long time, for other reasons:

  • Providing width and height attributes for all images
  • Giving alt and title tags to all images
  • Specifying width and height for tables and table cells, unless there is a reason not to
In HTML email, images without size attributes can expand in unpredictable ways, images might be blocked by the email client making alt and title tags useful for helping the viewer to see what the image is supposed to be, and tables can render in unexpected ways without accurate size attributes. These habits are especially good to have when creating HTML email messages, as apparently email clients are generally a lot less forgiving than web browsers.

It sounds like we have all the bases covered doesn't it? In my next post we'll find out when I take a look at all the improvements we can make in our email newsletter template.