Recommendations to send a newsletter of any kind and increase the response rate and success of the newsletter.
Technical recommendations to send a newsletter:
• Do not use div in the layout for newsletters, they are not well supported by mail clients, via the web and desktop.
• Not using MAPs of links in the newsletters (an image with different links or links), is not supported in most mail clients.
• Do not use forms in newsletters as it is not supported in most mail clients.
• If you use styles in newsletters, you must verify that they are supported by most email clients to send a newsletter correctly.
• Try to divide the layout of newsletters into different tables so that the header is independent of the rest, that makes a sense of loading speed in the client's browser.
• All images in the newsletter or electronic bulletin must be high and wide, as the mail clients block the loading of the images until the user unlocks them. In this way, even if the images are not visible, the layout will have the final structure of the Newsletter.
• Avoid as much as possible in the layout and preparation of newsletters, tables within tables, in addition to the fact that until the entire table is not loaded, it does not show the content, it causes problems in some mail clients.
• Try in the newsletter that validates the HTML by the WC3, in Firefox you have the extension "Web Developer" and "Html Validator" that facilitates this.
• Do not insert any Javascript language in the newsletter, it is not allowed.
• Do not use flash to make newsletters, it is not going well and it is very possible that the client does not see anything or is blocked.
• Avoid making a newsletter that the HTML + images upload more than 150KB, since both the client viewing the email and the server that must send thousands of emails with those KB of text, a bandwidth is needed.
• Use ALT in the images and TITLE in the links within the newsletters, as mail clients normally block the images until it is authorized.
• Publish a link to the original HTML in case they cannot display the HTML well. In case the shipment has parameters this is not possible.
• Do not use the company's own accounts for the proofs of sending and receiving newsletters, it is not reliable due to the anti-spam systems they may have and the tests may not arrive.
• Try sending newsletters in both Gmail and Hotmail. Gmail arrives all the messages and you can see the headers in case there is a problem with the IP from where it is sent. In Hotmail you have to try it in an account that is configured by default, since 80% of emails in Spain have a Hotmail account. It is a very important point to validate the success of sending newsletters to our emails or customers.
• The combinations of Gmail, Hotmail with Explorer and Firefox sometimes you can not see the layout of the newsletter the same, you can try these 4 combinations Explorer-Hotmail, Explorer-Gmail, Firefox-Hotmail, Firefox-Gmail, you could take some surprise. The problem 90% of the time is that Hotmail does not follow the standards. A powerful example in Hotmail is that it centers all the cells in a table, so you have to put Align = "right" or align = "left" to avoid this problem.
• To send a newsletter disregarding Lotus Notes, almost all designs fail because it is very restrictive.
• In all newsletter offers and news bulletins, there should be text and image. If you only send an image, it is possible that the anti-spam systems will reject it when considering it spam. That it reaches you does not mean that it reaches the rest. Therefore, text and images must always be together.
• Avoid words when creating a newsletter: money, win, discount, etc., since spam filters take them into account, especially in the subject of the email. The same happens in English: many of those words are blocked and the newsletter can fail to arrive at its destination.
• If you see that in Hotmail and Gmail the newsletter looks good, you can send it, since you reach 85% of the emails we have. For the rest of customers, if you follow the recommendations, it is usually enough for the newsletter to have great success.
• Do not put symbols in the subject of the email newsletter, since some are not supported by email clients. Example: the EURO symbol is not supported, so you should replace it with the word EURO.
• 80% of openings occur during the 48 hours after the newsletter is sent, and after 15 days of the shipment new openings still occur for various reasons: holidays, trips or pending reading. You have to take this into account, so you should keep a history of newsletters and related files.
• Although it is not a technical recommendation, it is recommended not to send too frequently.
Server configurations and checks:
• When you create a new domain, you have to register the sending IP, because Hotmail may mark you as a spam sender when the sending IP does not correspond to the IP of the domain with which you send.
• It is preferable to send more slowly than everything at once. Hotmail and Gmail have techniques that detect whether many emails are sent from the same IP and can block shipments, so poorly configured sending robots can cause problems.
• From time to time, check the blacklist if you are included. For example, searching for "mimail.info" at http://lookup.uribl.com/ could help detect problems.
• Before changes of versions in Hotmail and Gmail, check that everything is going well. The layout, the reception of the shipment, or other things could stop working correctly.
Companies with which we work externally related to newsletters that may not know the previous points:
• It depends on the company where the design and layout is outsourced, and this can cause a series of problems in the preparation and delivery of newsletters.
• Normally there are many companies that have no idea of newsletter layout, and many times not even for the web, since they usually use the same designers that create graphic pieces. These usually do not know how to design correctly for newsletters, so shipments fail and communication suffers.
• Companies should review all new layouts when they make a newsletter. Normally you have to upload images to the server and place the correct image links.
• Sometimes the creator of the newsletter provides the hosting for that campaign, but depending on the volume, servers may not be correctly sized and could collapse, so the newsletter may not be displayed correctly.
• Some newsletters include games, forms or campaigns where data is collected for future use. It is necessary to take into account the volume of emails and visits to resize the servers, because when a newsletter is sent, the number of visits per minute normally increases and can overload the database.
These recommendations have these effects on newsletters, sales and customer acquisition:
• They help increase the opening rate by making HTML more standard and more compatible with anti-spam systems.
• They help increase the click rate by making the newsletter more accessible.
• These recommendations also help teams decide better when and how to send a newsletter, and they improve results even for delayed openings.
• If the product or service offered is not attractive, these techniques alone will not increase sales. So the design of the newsletter and its content are also very important.
• Over time, the email database grows, but the opening and click ratio can decrease because of saturation. Newsletters must be sent in moderation and must be very attractive to the client, both in design and content. If they are not interesting, they are forgotten or deleted automatically when they are received.
