First time setting up an e-mail newsletter or mass HTML e-mail? The following tips are for the creative who not only has to design, but also slice up, and possibly distribute, a mass e-mail for their client.

1. Use HTML.

Even if the majority of your list recipients are on Blackberries, an HTML e-mail can be Blackberry-friendly without being a wall of text. This means using images where appropriate, using text where appropriate, and giving all images alt tags.

2. Get an E-mail marketing provider or software.

Really push the adoption of e-mail marketing software if your client has the budget. Without being able to look at your e-mail statistics, open rates, click-throughs, etc. you’re flying blind. There are also a host of problems when sending out e-mails through Outlook or Entourage – the alternative.

I personally recommend Blue Sky Factory since they have a really great system and wonderful customer service, but there are other providers with different services and different pricing packages. I posted previously about the topic, but here is the list repeated:

If your client insists on sending out the e-mail without software, they will need Outlook (Stationery) for the PC or Entourage (with SCHWIF2004) for the Mac, bare minimum.

3. “Can’t see this e-mail? View it online.”

It’s fairly standard to have a link at the top or bottom of your e-mail to an online version of the same e-mail. If the HTML e-mail does view incorrectly in the viewer’s e-mail provider, they can see the correct version online.

4. Tonight we’re gonna code like it’s 1999.

E-mail clients don’t read full CSS. This means that all HTML e-mails are created with table-based layouts, CSS applied with the style tag. Script tags in the header won’t work in most e-mail clients, so the class tag is out.

HTML e-mails also need to account for the client the e-mail will be viewed in, so the e-mail will need a small width. Most e-mails don’t have a width larger than 700 pixels. I typically design with a 650 pixel width.

5. Some weird extra notes about HTML e-mail code.

Avoid nested tables. Some e-mail providers will display them incorrectly when they’re nested too deep. I usually nest one table deep when needed, but no further.

Yahoo!mail translates all paragraph breaks into normal breaks. Use two breaks together to make one paragraph break if a large portion of your list recipients are on Yahoo!.

Not all e-mail providers allow for table padding or margins, so set padding and margins to 0 and use a 1px square transparent gif (spacer) to expand rows and columns.

Don’t overuse the spacer if a majority of your list recipients are on Blackberries. The img tag code displays in Blackberries.

6. CAN-SPAM.

Per the CAN-SPAM act, you’ll need an unsubscribe option and a physical mailing address on your e-mail.

7. Testing, testing, one, two.

Have your e-mail tested for e-mail client compatibility through your e-mail marketing service. If the option isn’t available or there isn’t a budget for it, set up dummy accounts on several common e-mail hosts and test the e-mail yourself. Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, and Outlook are fairly common providers.

8. E-mail marketing practices.

Keep your subject line, or the most important part of the subject line, to 50 characters max, including spaces. A lot of e-mail providers cut off the subject line in the preview beyond 50 characters.

Avoid the use of exclamation points, all caps, and common spam words like ”free” in your subject line, which can auto-Junk the e-mail.

The most important article or the call-to-action goes above the fold (i.e. at the top, before the user has to scroll down).

9. E-newsletter specifics.

Named-anchor links to articles in your newsletter allow viewers to both read e-mail contents and jump down to the article they’re interested in. Use them.

Give a very short descriptor paragraph with a link to the larger article online rather than each full article in the e-mail – no one wants to read a 4 page e-newsletter in their inbox.

10. Lastly: don’t use the term blast

You may be shunned in the world of e-mail marketing if you do.

That’s it: all of the weird and quirky things I’ve learned about e-mail marketing!

Have any additions or comments? I’d love to hear them!