Loren McDonald offers 20 HTML design tips in three key areas: format, functionality and usability. He covers issues that affect how your message appears, including coding, images, message width and file size.

Format:

• Code emails by hand if you can.
• Avoid nested tables.
• Do not use canvas background images.
• Host images on your Web site instead of embedding them in emails.
• Avoid 1×1 pixel spacer gifs.
• Avoid using Cascading Style Sheets.
• Keep HTML Emails to 500 to 650 pixels wide.
• Keep message file size under 100 KB.

Usability:

• Validate HTML content.
• Avoid scripting if you can.
• Link to a Web version of your email message.
• Use image alt tags.
• Redesign the top of your email template so that readers will see your key content, even if they don’t see the images.
• Use horizontal layout rather than vertical.
• Incorporate both text and HTML and use alt tags, color and graphics instead of live images linked to your Web site.

Functionality:

• Provide lots of active links to content at your Web site.
• Navigation through your email should reflect your Web site navigation – don’t use different terms.
• Add functionality such as Send-to-a friend…carefully.
• Add a subscriber-management section to each template.
• Host rich-media functions such as inline audio, video or Flash on your Web site instead of embedding them in an email.

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Many companies risk losing subscribers because they fail to consolidate internal email operations. Here’s how and why to make that change.

I recently read an interesting article in The Wall Street Journal about the selection process for the coxswain for the U.S. Olympic rowing team. One of the competitors for the job had a bit of a problem at the World Championships in Japan in the final seconds of an early heat. The U.S. boat was ahead with 500 meters to go when the Italian team began to catch up. The coxswain responded to this by instructing the eight-man crew, “Blades up. Legs down. Speed through.” As the article noted, “He wasn’t supposed to. ‘Speed through’ tells a crew to angle its oars so they cut through water faster, raising the stroke count. He should have said, ‘Power,’ ordering the same number of strokes, only stronger ones.”

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Over time, all lists are subject to disarray — even yours!

Time passes, people change their email addresses and don’t tell you, emails bounce back, and non-responders pile up. If you’re not careful, ISPs may interpret such behavior as abuse… and flag you a spammer.

Let’s face it, a dirty email list is dangerous. If left unchecked, the fallout can reflect negatively on your brand and drain vital energy from your business.

If your list does get messy over time, it’s wise to recognize the symptoms. Here are a few notorious indicators:

· Drab delivery rates. If successful deliveries regularly fall below 85%, your list smacks of mucky muck. It’s probably time to open the hood and perform a tune up.

· ISPs flag you. Low deliveries go hand in hand with higher bounce numbers-and eventually ISPs will detect and label this as unsavory behavior and flag you. These flags jeopardize your ability to attain and maintain whitelist status.

· Caught in a spam trap. Of course you don’t intend to spam, but dirty lists actually are breeding grounds for spam traps. Without proper bounce management your old outdated lists may contain invalid addresses, which ISPs can covertly reassign as spam traps. Be wary of this-it could cost you.

· You become a “marked domain.” Sans whitelist status, ISPs may simply shun your domain. Here are a few pitfalls:

o Your large deliveries end up in the trash or blocked
o Spam traps tag you
o ISP bots restrict your email batch volume
o Before you know it your e-marketing program is in trouble
The gist: ‘ouch’ in the profits department!

Clearly, a dirty email list can drain your entire business-profit, productivity and public relations. The secret to being clean involves a combination of prevention and plucking.

Quality control
The best source for new opt-ins is always your own customer list. To cultivate cleanliness here, collect opt-ins from all customers and disclose how you intend to use their information through your privacy policy.

Send “Welcome” messages to solidify the opt-in process. This tactic also helps to create brand awareness, set expectations for future marketing communication, and build trust with new subscribers; it is a critical, foundational step in your email program.

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When customers or supporters subscribe to your email program, they are entering what they trust will be a mutually beneficial relationship. They are not sharing their personal information with you in the expectation that you will use it solely for your own pecuniary benefit. All relationships involve give and take, and this includes the most commercial of email programs. To build loyalty, engagement and trust, you must take the initiative to cement the relationship in every email. Here are some ideas for wooing and winning your subscribers.

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