What's all the fuss about?

Previously HTML emails (the pretty ones with pictures) were viewed in Outlook using the same rules as they were viewed in Internet Explorer. But now Outlook 2007 uses rules from Word 2007 to view HTML emails. So if you are sending an eNewsletter, you will need to make a few changes to ensure your message comes out as it was intended in Outlook 2007.

The easy fix - don't send HTML

Here's the catch 22. Even though it's harder to get the pretty HTML emails to view correctly for the receiver, they still want them. In fact we have found that barely 2% of opt-in email newsletter subscribers choose to receive plain text emails. Many of the eNewsletters we handle for clients have a database that is a 100% HTML requested database. So we can't throw the baby out with the bath water...

Doing it differently - new HTML eNewsletter design rules

Email marketing has never been easy... you see it's not a static medium. With so many end user factors to consider, a one-size-fits-all email newsletter design from a template just doesn't work. Not only does the template have to be created specifically for your business and target market, it really needs to be massaged to fit for each issue.

What CAN'T you do now

This is where there have been advantages in not being a web designer when it comes to email marketing. There a lot of the high tech fancy stuff that works well on website that is no longer available in emails. Like:

• On-line forms - These are used to get information or to subscribe. Sure, link to them but keep these on the website.
• Flash - Looks groovy on a website - if the viewer has flash installed - but do not use it on email. (I never have anyway but some people are upset about this).
• Animated GIFs - These are the little cartoon type moving graphics. They will appear but only as a static graphic - no movement.
• CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) - Whoa, have I lost you yet? Savvy web designer use style sheets to control the look of websites but seems complicated CSS no longer works in email. So be careful if your web designer is putting together your email newsletter template.
• Styles must be inline - Styles sheets can't be linked or embedded - this is why you sometimes get emails that don't make any sense and are all over the place unless you download the graphics (which also accesses the style sheet).

I'd actually found that many of these new no-nos were always 'bad news' before anyway.

More of what you can't do

There are some of the things that 'need to go' that bring a tear to my eye like:

• Background images allowed us to make eNewsletters look really funky without using too many graphics. They were often not included when an eNewsletter was forwarded in Outlook but in Outlook 2007 they won't be visible at all. Page background images are OK though.
• Background colour for tables doesn't show but background colour for cells is OK.
• No margins or borders around graphics - no big deal here.
• No hover hyperlink (very very sad). This is when you place your cursor over a link and it causes a change of colour or format which clearly identifies a link. Also hyperlinks are all the default blue unless you change it in the formatting.

Stuff for the propeller heads

Some other techy stuff that I've noticed is internal hyperlinks are now displayed when hovered over (so watch out what you put in there), ALT tags don't display when hovered over BUT do when graphics are not downloaded - which makes it even more important to include, and table borders cannot be coloured - they default to black.

What does still work in Outlook 2007?

It's easy to get bogged down in the techy stuff but your eNewsletter will still get great results - we got an unheard of 76% open rate last month! And one of our Cairns clients even got an open rate higher than their database size i.e. an open rate of 106%! How do you get more than 100%? It's the value of the forward button, because a lot of people had forwarded the newsletter so more people read the newsletter than were on the email list)

Why are these outstanding results being reached despite the doom and gloom?

There is a direct correlation between smaller, more relevant lists and higher open and click through rates. My advice to anyone with an eNewsletter, or wanting to start one, is put all your energy into the content!

Email marketing is 10% IT and 90% marketing!

Yes you have to get the IT right but in the end the receiver doesn't care about all that. What they do care about is what you've got to say. Give 'em good relevant content and your open rates will reflect this.

And if you or your newsletter provider hasn't yet made changes to adapt to Outlook 2007, don't panic, you still may have time ... seems the uptake on the new software has been really slow.

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