Fast forward a few months and those relationships and inspiration
are still alive and well. We’re officially on the docket for three
panel proposals and now we need your help to get selected to
present at SXSW 2011. 30% of the panel selection is based...Read More »
Email Design
SXSW is one of the preeminent conferences for interactive marketers
today. After the ExactTarget Design Team attended SXSW 2010, we
arrived back in Indianapolis energized about all the great
relationships we built and inspired by the content that was
presented, but we felt something was missing… and that something
was content geared toward email!
Fast forward a few months and those relationships and inspiration
are still alive and well. We’re officially on the docket for three
panel proposals and now we need your help to get selected to
present at SXSW 2011. 30% of the panel selection is based...Read More »
Fast forward a few months and those relationships and inspiration
are still alive and well. We’re officially on the docket for three
panel proposals and now we need your help to get selected to
present at SXSW 2011. 30% of the panel selection is based...Read More »
Thanks to everyone who was able to attend “Designing For Your
Subscribers: Tips and Tricks to Increase Email Marketing ROI” last
week. We had an excellent turnout and plenty of great questions. If
you weren’t able to attend the session, don’t worry! You can watch
a
recording of the one-hour webinar on 3sixty.
Do you have data on email clients that consumer subscribers tend to use?
While data is available, your mileage may vary. Each audience will be different, and you may see dramatically different segments in your list or even between lists, as we saw in the webinar. Fingerprintpublishes an...Read More »
Do you have data on email clients that consumer subscribers tend to use?
While data is available, your mileage may vary. Each audience will be different, and you may see dramatically different segments in your list or even between lists, as we saw in the webinar. Fingerprintpublishes an...Read More »
Creating a beautifully designed email that displays properly and
consistently across email clients can be a stressful,
headache-inducing experience, especially for those new to email. It
doesn't have to be! You can plan ahead and anticipate display
issues by designing and coding your email with this information in
mind.
CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, is a powerful language that was created to allow web developers the ability to separate content from presentation in web pages. While CSS is a modern standard for the web, it’s history and support in the email world has been rocky at best. There...Read More »
CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, is a powerful language that was created to allow web developers the ability to separate content from presentation in web pages. While CSS is a modern standard for the web, it’s history and support in the email world has been rocky at best. There...Read More »
In a
recent post, we quoted a Nielsen Norman Group study which
indicated that users, once engaged, spend an average of 51 seconds
on each newsletter in their inbox. There is an important
distinction to note here, and that's the "once engaged" portion of
the statistic. How exactly do you engage the subscriber? My answer?
It starts with the preview pane.
What is a preview pane?
The preview pane is a small horizontal or vertical strip in the inbox that allows the user to “preview” an email without clicking or opening the message. When you take both vertical and horizontal orientations into...Read More »
What is a preview pane?
The preview pane is a small horizontal or vertical strip in the inbox that allows the user to “preview” an email without clicking or opening the message. When you take both vertical and horizontal orientations into...Read More »
Written by Kristina Schott
Design is not a deliverable, it’s a process. It’s a way of seeing the world, not the black rimmed glasses on your face or the Chuck Taylors on your feet. Here are a few ideas from ExactTarget’s Design Team on boosting creative thinking.
Always keep a sketchbook handy
You'll never lose a great idea if you write it down. I like Moleskine Pocket-sized plain notebooks.
Write down everything
Don't be shy to write or draw anything that will help you remember it later when it's time to put it into action. An idea can come in the form of a word, color, shape, concept or a...Read More »
Written by Kristina Schott
In a previous blog post, we took a look at one customer’s results with testing some variations on their preheader language to encourage subscribers to “view as a webpage.”
We saw that “view this email with images” outperformed “Having trouble viewing this email? Click here.” language by 33%.
The challenge:
Florida Power & Light wanted more subscribers to open their emails in an internet browser due to the robustness of their newsletters.
Viewing an email in an internet browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.) will allow your subscribers to become more engaged in the...Read More »
In a previous blog post, we took a look at one customer’s results with testing some variations on their preheader language to encourage subscribers to “view as a webpage.”
We saw that “view this email with images” outperformed “Having trouble viewing this email? Click here.” language by 33%.
The challenge:
Florida Power & Light wanted more subscribers to open their emails in an internet browser due to the robustness of their newsletters.
Viewing an email in an internet browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.) will allow your subscribers to become more engaged in the...Read More »
Written by Tana Babcock
Often, the Design Team is approached by customers who need their images resized to fit their newly designed template. Because most templates are created with width constraints, it’s important for whoever builds the email to stay true to those guidelines. Not everyone has access to Photoshop, and so keeping within these guidelines can be difficult when you don’t have the right tools to make necessary edits. A nice online tool for image editing is Adobe Photoshop Express. In order to get started you will need to sign up for a free account.
Today I’m working with a...Read More »
Often, the Design Team is approached by customers who need their images resized to fit their newly designed template. Because most templates are created with width constraints, it’s important for whoever builds the email to stay true to those guidelines. Not everyone has access to Photoshop, and so keeping within these guidelines can be difficult when you don’t have the right tools to make necessary edits. A nice online tool for image editing is Adobe Photoshop Express. In order to get started you will need to sign up for a free account.
Today I’m working with a...Read More »
Written by Kristina Schott
One element of email design that has been receiving increased industry buzz lately is the preheader. The term preheader is used to refer to the area above the graphic header in an email. It may contain prompts to view the email “as a webpage,” add the from address to an address book, or provide a line of “teaser” text about the content of the message.
One element of the preheader that is often overlooked is the language used for the “view as a webpage” link. The use of this link is fairly universal by now, but do your subscribers know what "view as a webpage" means?
We...Read More »
One element of email design that has been receiving increased industry buzz lately is the preheader. The term preheader is used to refer to the area above the graphic header in an email. It may contain prompts to view the email “as a webpage,” add the from address to an address book, or provide a line of “teaser” text about the content of the message.
One element of the preheader that is often overlooked is the language used for the “view as a webpage” link. The use of this link is fairly universal by now, but do your subscribers know what "view as a webpage" means?
We...Read More »
I'll be the first to admit that testing email campaigns not does
rank high on my list of favorite activities. While testing is a
fundamental and absolutely necessary step in the email design
process, it can be time consuming and tedious. I'm always on the
search for new ways to improve and enhance my testing methodology,
and the Firefox Web Developer Toolbar is one
tool I've found to be indispensable.
Here are a few tips on integrating the toolbar into your testing process:
Here are a few tips on integrating the toolbar into your testing process:
- Use the CSS menu function to disable embedded CSS. This view can give you an idea of how your design will display in...
Written by Anna Meier
When viewing emails, we are all accustomed to most email clients blocking images by default. That is the main reason to include "alt" tags in our images. This HTML attribute is added to the <img> tag, and will display in some cases when images are blocked or cannot be rendered. But did you know you can add style to those "alt" tags?
CSS styling for "alt" tags is supported in many email clients including Yahoo Mail, Thunderbird, AOL, Gmail and Entourage. Font-family, font-size, and color are supported when viewing in Firefox, while Internet Explorer is limited to the...Read More »
When viewing emails, we are all accustomed to most email clients blocking images by default. That is the main reason to include "alt" tags in our images. This HTML attribute is added to the <img> tag, and will display in some cases when images are blocked or cannot be rendered. But did you know you can add style to those "alt" tags?
CSS styling for "alt" tags is supported in many email clients including Yahoo Mail, Thunderbird, AOL, Gmail and Entourage. Font-family, font-size, and color are supported when viewing in Firefox, while Internet Explorer is limited to the...Read More »
Written by Andrea Smith
It is well known by now that your brand's email is not simply a copy of your website. One of the most important things on a website is its navigation - ease of use, organization, and placement - all key to getting repeat visitors that successfully navigate what you're offering.
Email however, is a little different. You want subscribers to engage with the information presented, move through the topics relevant to them, and act upon it - all before hitting spam, deleting, or losing interest. As it takes up valuable real estate in an email, consider carefully what...
Read More »
It is well known by now that your brand's email is not simply a copy of your website. One of the most important things on a website is its navigation - ease of use, organization, and placement - all key to getting repeat visitors that successfully navigate what you're offering.
Email however, is a little different. You want subscribers to engage with the information presented, move through the topics relevant to them, and act upon it - all before hitting spam, deleting, or losing interest. As it takes up valuable real estate in an email, consider carefully what...
