Email Newsletters Workshop
Hertfordshire Funding Fair 2007
17th October 2007
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Workshop structure
• Session 1
E-newsletters Do’s and Don’ts
The fundamental principles of creating and
delivering successful email newsletters.
by Maria Diaz
E-Communications Manager - CTT
• Session 2
Q&A and sharing experiences.
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Session 1
E-Newsletters Do’s and Don’ts
Fundamental principles of creating and
delivering successful email newsletters.
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Why using email as a media?
Perceived informational value
Low cost to charity
Environmentally friendly
Not intrusive
Quick response to a call to action
Drives people to your website
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Email lists
Have you got permission to email them?
Email and mobile information as well as
sensitive data needs to be collected with
opt-in.
If not, it is never too late to start….
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Collecting permission
Use the ‘tone of voice’ of the charity
Point out that it is “a cost effective media”
Fit the message to the audience
(age/demographics etc.)
Cover all future uses/channels to market
(email, mobile, etc)
Be clear about who is collecting the
information (NB Trading arms/affiliated
companies)
Give them a reason to provide information
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Collecting permission - TIPS
Don’t use pre-ticked boxes. Email permission
is an opt-in.
Include a click through to your privacy policy
on the data collection screen.
Data collected via “viral” promotions may only
be used once to gain future permission.
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Who is your audience?
General interest in your work
Donors/Stakeholders
Fundraisers
Campaigners
Trustees
Other
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
If you don’t know who they are…
… ask them:
–
–
–
–
Do you want to receive emails from us?
What areas of our work are you interested on?
How often do you want to hear from us?
What format do you want to receive your email?
HTML – Fancy version with pictures
Plain text – No formatting
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Write the content
Relevant to the intended audience
Personalise the email
Be concise – Use click through links to
your website for more information
Be clear – What do you want the
subscriber to do – Call to action
Avoid - where possible - spam
words/characters
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Spam words/characters
Avoid exclamation or interrogation marks
as much as possible, in the text and very
importantly, on the subject line.
Avoid spam words like free, software,
save, marketing, click here, etc.
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Template Design
Template - What is it?
Determine your template’s visual identity
- Consistent with your online identity?
- New for the particular online publication
- Similar to your offline publication/s
Design it to work for you
- Sections on the e-news
HTML and plain text version
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Some design tips - HTML
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Template Size
The mean size for screen
resolution is 1024 x 768
pixels
The template width should
not exceed 750 pixels,
ideally 700.
Bear in mind the frequent
use of email preview pane
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Template Size
√ Right Length
Avoid vertical
scrolling where
possible
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Call to Action
Place your call to action
at the top of the enewsletter
i.e. if you want a
donation, place the
donation button/link at
the top.
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Bear in mind graphic blockers
Avoid having the call to
action inserted only on
a graphic (banner or
button)
If you use a graphic
button, remember to
add the same link
within the text too.
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Avoid using tables with thick
borders
X Wrong – Border
thickness is 4 pixels
√ Right – Border
thickness is 1 pixel
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Visual balance
√ Right – Consider
image per text ratio.
In the example,
there is a visual
balance between the
amount of text and
the pictures
included
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Use ALT tags on images
√ Right – Always
use ALT tags
(mouse over text)
on all images.
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Warning - Use of colour
X Wrong – Some
colour combinations
are tiring to the eye
and difficult to read
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Avoid using style sheets
Different email
clients interpret
style sheets in
different ways
To achieve best
results, avoid using
them
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Use a popular font type
Use a popular font type (Arial, Times
New Roman, Helvetica, etc) despite the
font on your brand guidelines being
different.
Most users will not have that font
available on their computers and
substitution may occur.
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Plain text design
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Plain text version
Make it as
attractive as
possible…
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Cheat!
Write a brief
introduction to the
e-news and ask
them to click
through to a link
where the HTML
version lives
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Functionality
Both version should include:
– Personalisation – where possible
– ‘Forward to a friend’ link
– Subscribe to receive our e-news
– Very top – ‘Web Online version’ link
– Automatic change your details
– Comments or suggestions email link
– UN-SUBSCRIBE - Mandatory
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Be original – Experiment!
• Don’t be frightened to try new things
• Fragment your data and send them
different layouts - Note what works best
• Use your email call to action to engage
your audience with other media (SMS,
Video, Audio, etc)
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Test before send
• Send a test to various colleagues and
ask their opinion (share the guilt!)
• Test that all the links work
• Test the same campaign on different
email clients – Outlook, Hotmail, AOL,
Lotus…
• Test all the functionality links
• When possible, leave it for a while and
come back to it
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
When to send
• Regular publications (monthly, weekly,
etc)
• Core days of the week (Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday)
• Core hours of the working day (Mid
morning, mid afternoon)
• Consider just before lunch time when is
raining or when it’s very cold!
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Delivery
The mechanism used to send and
deliver bulk emails
Three types of email tools
- Outlook/Eudora/Lotus/other PC/pop3 based email system
- In-House bulk email broadcast software
- ASP (Application Service Provider) bulk email broadcast
software
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Email tools
OUTLOOK
In-House s/w
ASP s/w
Fit for purpose
X
√
√
Address Books
X
√
√
Subscriptions
X
√
√
Manages
Bounces
X
√
√
HTML and plain
text part send
X
√
√
Templates
X
√
√
Reports
X
√
√
HTML
X
√
√
SPAM
X
X
√
Bandwidth
X
X
√
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Email tool specification
Address Book Address Management/history/export/import
Subscriptions Subscribes and unsubscribes
Bounces
Hard (email not there) and Soft (unavailable)
2 part send
HTML and Text versions
Templates
Design, look and feel management
Reports
Open rate, Click throughs, bounces,
unsubscribes
HTML
HTML email with WYSIWYG editor
SPAM
Being blocked
Bandwidth
Internet Pipe size
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Post send
Clean your data
– Safely remove un-subscribes
– Delete hard-bounce emails – follow up
phone call?
– Manage changes in existing data – Email
address changes, email format, etc.
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Post send
Open rates
Click through rates
Which link was most successful
Make a note of what peak time/s
% Un-subscribes
% Hard-bounce emails
% Soft-bounce emails – Correlation with
holiday period, half term…
Use click through information to further
segment your data – Subscriber retention
Forward to a friend – Who is promoting you?
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
CTTM@il
CTT provides an email marketing
service to charities using an ASP
system that ticks all the boxes.
For a FREE DEMO account
www.ctt.org / hatfield
or email maria@ctt.org
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Session 2
Your questions
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org
Thank you!
Maria Diaz
E-Communications Manager
Charity Technology Trust
Maria Diaz – maria@ctt.org