Above the Fold
KISS: Keep it Short and Simple
Caught in the Spam Filter Net?
Building an email List
Creating Topics and Articles
Checklist for Your List.
Checklist for Great Looking emails.
eTips Past Newsletters
Got Questions???

Above the Fold
Most people don't realize that there is a "fold" in an email. "Above the Fold" is a newspaper term that applies to the top half of page one of a newspaper. In an email "Above the Fold" is that part of the email that appears in the preview window on email viewers that have them, it also applies to the first full screen of an email when it's opened. It's the first, and maybe the last, thing that someone sees when an email arrives.

Online reading is not the same as reading a book or a newspaper article. There's more "scanning" or skimming of the material.

• What's important here?
• Am I interested in this?
• Do I want to keep reading?

Or, just trash the email and move on. "Above the Fold" is especially important for an email newsletter. The goal is to spark some interest and encourage further reading, to be noticed. Ultimately, the goal is for the newsletter reader to visit the website and "buy" something.

Some "Above the Fold" techniques:

• Provide a Table of Contents (TOC) with hyperlinks to the full article or a summary. Examples.
• Use the Subject Line as a headline to announce what's inside.
• Make the headline or TOC entry exciting and intriquing.

What's above your fold?

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KISS: Keep it Short and Simple
It's amazing how many emails show up that are huge, 100K, 200K, and more! It's bad enough downloading these behemoths on a fast connection, like cable or DSL. Think about the poor slob that's stuck with a 28.8K modem. (They're out there still, believe it.)

If your newsletter is too big it might be filtered out at the server level or in the email client. Products like Eudora allow you to only download the first 10K or 20K of the email to see if you want the rest of it. If this is happening to you, watch out, you may be losing readership. The letter may not even arrive and you'll get no bounce notice. Or, it may arrive and be ignored or simply deleted.

Here are some techniques for keeping email short and simple:

• Don't embed images, link to them on your website.
• Don't include the full article; just provide a headline, summary, and link to the complete piece on your website. (The Clickthrough data is interesting in and of itself.)
• Keep marketing "fluff" to a minimum. Remember that the goal is to get the reader to your website so they can buy something.

Keeping email short and simple is polite and considerate. Try it. For examples, see our archives.

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Caught in the Spam Filter Net?
Do your email newsletters actually make it through to your legitimate opt-in subscribers? Or, are they trapped at the server and dumped into the "dead letter" trashbin with no notice or "bounce" to you? Here are some ways to find out:

• Do you get questions like, "I haven't been getting my email newsletter from you?"
• Get a spam filtering tool yourself, something simple and free like SpamPal, install it, see what happens when you send yourself a newsletter.
• Install the RegEx Plugin for SpamPal and look at the text in the sample. Does your text ring any of the alarms?
  

Here are some content hints for avoiding filters:

• Keep your letters short and simple. Avoid grandiose formatting and big fonts.
• Avoid trigger words like "Free" or "Hottest" or "Cash."
• Avoid words the even begin to look like pornography, "Sex" and others.

We're all aware of the problem of real spam, we all get it and we'd all like for it to go away. The problem is that a lot of the filters are really agressive and throw out your baby with the mortgage/porno/HGH bathwater.

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Building an email List
One of the top barriers to implementing an email marketing program is missing email addresses. You might have a database of several thousand names, addresses, and phone numbers. What to do? Here are some steps that you can take now to build for the future.

Gather email addresses as you go.

• Put your email address on your business card. Set the example.
• When someone hands you their business card immediately look for the email address.
  Ask for it if it's not there: "By the way, what's your email address?"
• If you have events or work trade shows be sure there is a place on all forms for the email address. If you ask for the telephone number, ask for the email address.

   

Update your current database.

• Update your records with each phone conversation.
  
• Have whoever answers your phone ask for the email address along with other information.
  
• If you have a web site, use the mailboxes that your Hosting Service provides.
  This will make you look "bigger."

Gotta go! Gotta go!

Of course, if you want to get started right away you'll need to take more dramatic action.
Here are a couple of options:

• Hire a telemarketing service to "update your records." (NewsRoute can handle this for you.) Give them a the questions to ask and have them call all of the people in your database. They can verify addresses, phone numbers, and then ask for the email address. Optionally, ask your customers if they would like to receive a free issue of your new electronic newsletter.
  
• Do a direct mail piece with a reply card asking for the information. Offer some sort of reward for responding such as a free product sample. The results will not be as good as telemarketing but the effort is less expensive.
  
• Whatever you decide to do start now. email is the communications medium of the 21st century. It's like using the phone. Once you get started you won't be able to do without it.

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Creating Topics and Articles
"I don't have anything to say." Most people don't realize how much they know about what they do and, more to the point, how little other people know. The trick to coming up with newsletter content is to think hard about what you can share with others to their advantage and yours.

What are the questions customers and prospects ask you?

• Is there a time of the day or week when I'll get better service?
  
• Are there options that will save me much more than they cost?
  
• How far ahead do I need to plan?

What mistakes do customers make that cost them money?

• What maintenance is required to prevent trouble?
  
• What seasonal reminders are helpful?
  
• When does buying more (less) save money and time?

What are the hot topics in your industry? What's the buzz?

• Is there a major technology breakthrough on the horizon?
  
• Is something about to become obsolete?
  
• Is there a new law I should know about?

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Checklist for Your List.
Is it Spam? Is it Opt-in? Is it Opt-out?
How to tell the difference and what to do about it.

Why should you care about any of this?

• If your domain name is associated with spam you could go into the "Black Hole List" and lots of servers will bounce all the email you send or, worse, simply discard it.
  
• If you violate the terms of your agreement with your ISP, they can disconnect you and, maybe, fine you depending on the terms of your agreement.
  
• It's not a good business practice to Spam.

Spam. If any of this applies, it's a questionable list.

• You don't actually know the person.
  
• You've never had an email exchange with the person.
  
• You got the email from a unqualified list or a web site

Bounces and Unsubscribes are a good indication.

• If you get more than 25% returned mail on the first drop it's a stale and questionable list.
  
• If you more than 1% unsubscribe on the first drop there might be a problem.

What is Opt-In?

• Someone asked you to send them your letter. By email, web site signup, or other means.
  
• Someone responded to a one time email asking them to sign up.
  
• That's it.

What is Opt-Out?

Everything that's not spam or opt-in is opt-out.

Common Sense

• Be sure to include your phone number.
  
• Make it easy for them to get off the list: use an email unsubscribe mailto:.
  
• Use a virus protection package and keep it up to date.

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Checklist for Great Looking emails.

The Basics

• Keep it simple. Don't include too much of anything: fonts, effects, colors.
  
• Make sure you leave enough white space.
  
• What % of your content has value and what is selling? An email with a lot of content will be forwarded to others, creating a viral effect and swelling your list.

Goals and Target Audience

• Who's your audience? Casual / Professional? Adult / Children? Traditional / Modern?
  
• Your look and feel should match the audience.
  
• What's the goal of the email? Web traffic? Purchase? Phone call?
  The tone of the email should be consistent with the goal.

Fonts

• Don't use more than two fonts in the same email.
  
• Use a serif font like Times New Roman for body text. The serifs make it easier to read.
  
• Use a sans serif font like Arial for headlines.

Colors

• Don't use more than two or three colors in the same email. Too many colors can look like spam.
  
• On the other hand if you are marketing children's stuff lots of colors are perfect. See Goals and Target Audience above.
  
• Make sure the colors you use work together and don't clash. The Microsoft Publisher wizard has a panel in the Newsletter wizard called, "Color Scheme" that can give you some ideas.
  
• Be careful when using light colored text, like yellow, on a white background. And vice versa.

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Got Questions???
Call or email NewsRoute. We are happy to help!

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