Our love for email, our thoughts on it as the amazing channel it is - if only used right.
Sarah and Christopher
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
Personally, I prefer stylistically pure and ”unrefined” newsletters and e-mails. I honestly don’t mind if they are just in black and white, maybe with one or two stronger colors that pop out from the rest. This invitation to Bradman Gala Dinner 2009 is really clean stylistically. It’s also signed with a personal signature, which I think really enhances the quality.
We give this invitation 4 out of 5 hearts.
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
There are some really interesting statistics at Marketing Sherpa. (Every year you can buy a big book full of statistics and figures in different diagrams for email marketing.) It’s really interesting! The most fascinating part is this: modifying or remaking the template/design of the newsletter is the most commonly used method to increase the likelihood of it actually reaching its recipients.
During 2007 it was 59 % who agreed with this statement; during 2008 it was 75 % who agreed with it.
To sum it up, design is crucial – not only because of how the recipient perceives the letter or the company – but also because the design decides whether or not the letter even reaches the recipient. But the problem is, you have to make the newsletter work and look good in about 20-25 different email clients. That’s a challenge. So, this means you have to understand how email clients work to accomplish this consistency. It is also necessary to understand that you cannot use a modern web code.
It could be that some people don’t put enough into the design of the email. But, communication through email is so effective and so profitable that we honestly would be crazy not to put more time and effort into it. We also need to really wrap our minds around the technology behind it and know exactly how the recipient sees the letter.
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
We’ve been doing some testing lately, to send emails with videos included. But since it’s not possible to play a video in any other email client than Mac Mail, the only solution is to include a link to the video on the web.
The real question is, how do you clearly indicate to the recipient that it’s a video you’re linking to? Personally, I think it works best with a picture from the film and a play button, partly because this combination is becoming pretty common, (even if you exclude YouTube) – and partly because everybody knows what a play button is. The video on the website should start to play automatically since the recipient of the email already clicked on ”Play” in the letter.
So far, I haven’t seen a newsletter with a video link that is clear and that differs from other links. For the most part they all seem to be linking to a video with either simple pictures or just a text link.
Personally, I think this is a good video link:
Update: HTML5 and video in email (by Campaign Monitor).
