TIPS AND TRICKS TO SEND A NEWSLETTER WITH SUCCESS. HOW A NEWSLETTER IS PROPERLY PROGRAMMED AND DESIGNED IN HTML.
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 aling = "left" to avoid this problem.
• To send a newsletter disregarding Lotus Notes, almost all designs fail because it is very restrictive
• In all newsletter and newsletter offers and news, 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 them 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 the spam filters take it into account, especially in the subject of email. The same in English with English words, all are blocked and the sending of the newsletter is lost not arriving 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, the rest of customers, if you follow the recommendations it is usually enough for the newsletter or the newsletter have a 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 the 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, pending reading. You have to take this into account, if you have any idea of deleting the files related to this shipment, therefore you must have a history of newsletters so that you can consult both the current and the old newsletter.
• Although it is not a technical recommendation it is recommended not to send.
Server configurations and checks:
• When you create a new domain, you have to register the sending IP, but you want Hotmail to put you as a SPAM user, when verifying that 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 check if many emails are sent from the same IP block shipments, so using sending robots that are not well configured can cause problems when using the same IP Shipping
• From time to time, check the blacklist if we are included, for example in: http://lookup.uribl.com/ searching for “mimail.info” could give us 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, this causes a series of problems in the preparation and delivery of newsletters.
• Normally there are many companies that have no idea of layout for Newsletter and many times not even for the web, since they usually use the same designers that create the pieces, and these usually do not know how to design correctly and much less for newsletters. So we will not succeed in our shipments and therefore we will have difficulties in selling and communicating with newsletters.
• Companies when they make a newsletter should review all new layouts. Normally you have to upload images to the server and put the link of the images where we have uploaded them.
• Sometimes the creator of the newsletter puts the Hosting for that campaign, but it depends on the volume it may not have correctly sized its servers and could collapse, so the newsletter may not be displayed correctly.
• From time to time there are newsletters that address a game, form, etc., where data is collected for later use in future campaigns. It is necessary to take into account the volume of emails to resize the servers, when a newsletter is sent, the number of visits per minute normally increases, so if there is access to a Database and it is not properly resized, errors could occur due to an increase in access to the Database.
These recommendations have these effects on newsletters, sales and customer acquisition:
• They manage to increase the opening rate, by making HTML more standard and behaving better against AntiSpam systems
• They manage to increase the click rate, by making the newsletter more accessible
• These recommendations cause indifference over time to people who decide when and how to send a newsletter, as well as for the late opening of a newsletter.
• If the product or service they offer is not striking, these techniques fail to increase sales. So it is also very important the design of the newsletter and its content.
• With the passage of time the Database of emails increases, but the ratio of opening and clicking by saturation decreases. 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.