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Do you HTML? |
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We are always striving to make CoolerEmail even better. Customer requests for feature enhancements are responsible for many additions. If you have feedback or suggestions, please send them to
suggest@cooleremail.com.
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| June 8, 2006 | |
| Why HTML Templates Work | |
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There are three primary methods for creating a CoolerEmail: (1) Use one of the many outstanding professionally-designed CoolerEmail Templates included with your account, (2) Create your own HTML email using an outside editor (e.g.,
Microsoft FrontPage) and uploading the source file to CoolerEmail and (3) Create, and upload to your CoolerEmail Template Library, a custom template with your company's "look and feel" that you and your team can use over and over again.
Many newer CoolerEmail clients are well-served by the first two methods. But, we have a significant number of clients who are enjoying extraordinary success using the third method. Consequentially, in this CoolerTips we would love to teach you the benefits of creating and uploading your own templates into your Cooler Template Library. Benefit One: Time Many companies rely on multiple people inside a team to write, direct and produce each email campaign. When you have a set template to work from in the CoolerEmail platform, your team can collaborate more effectively. Actions take place in one location and files and changes don't go "missing" while you are shooting changes back and forth. Also, when teams don't all work at the same location, it creates an "extranet" or sorts to allow you to produce a campaign in a smaller window of time. Benefit Two: Brand Control If email campaigns constantly have a different look and feel, subscribers may not be sure who it is coming from. Relationships matter in the inbox and driving and delivering the email to have a consistent look and feel is important. Email is not a one time touch, but a series of touches that impact your brand on a one-to-one level. By using your own custom template, you can control your brand message and build the relationship. Benefit Three: Delivery In a world where we are reading emails in the inbox, on cell phones, Treos, Blackberries and multiple web based email clients, perfect presentation to a wide variety of email clients is critical. Using templates controls the presentation of the email each and every time. Templates allow an instant conversion a HTML message to a text based email (for your subscribers using Blackberries) without needing to upload a text version. See some examples |
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| Message and Template Creation Best Practices | |
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Here are ten quick tips to get you started with your own template layouts. Tips to Better Templates 1. Avoid white text on dark backgrounds. White text can be flagged by some email clients thinking you are hiding copy. 2. Follow your corporate branding and color scheme to ensure a consistent look and feel with your other marketing materials. 3. When using Flash or Video, be sure to use static background images in the event your dynamic content cannot render in some recipient environments (for example Yahoo). 4. Follow the "Three Second Rule". Strive to grab the recipient's attention within three seconds of reviewing the email. 5. Be sure to provide well constructed layouts in order to allow the CoolerEmail system to create and send in multipart to supported message formats: HTML, AOL, and Text. 6. Keep HTML file sizes to no more than 65K, keep Flash files to no more than 100K including a pre-loader and keep Video under 30 seconds in length. 7. Optimize Video for anticipated recipient bandwidth speeds. 8. Generally, the top left quadrant is best for placement of logo/branding elements. 9. Keep email width to 675 pixels maximum to allow for optimal viewing on lower monitor resolution settings. 10. Always run Cooler Preview to find spelling errors and possible sp@m warnings. |
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| The Changing Face of the Inbox | |
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One of our divisions recently installed the new version of Microsoft Office Live. In initial testing we can tell you that there are A LOT of changes from previous Microsoft email products. These range from the preview window, to message
flagging and presentation. As this new software (and other versions on the horizon) are slowly adopted by mainstream Internet users, it will change some ways that email will be read. One great thing is that the new software packages are starting to integrate email and RSS (CoolerEmail was one of the first companies to do this... we did it years ago). You can take advantage of this feature by adding an RSS feed for every edition and list on a all or one-by-one basis. In the List Settings of each list you have a small box on the top right hand side where you can activate an RSS feed for each list. (Make sure you first activate RSS in your Account Settings to see it appear.) In the Archives section you can actually take certain editions out of the RSS feed when you do not want to have them available. This could be for focused/segmented campaigns or internal lists. Make sure that if you don't want a certain edition in an RSS feed, that you first check it in the Archive section as not to add it to the feed. Feeds are real time. Although RSS is not at a tipping point now, we expect it to grow with the recent additions in MyYahoo, Office Live, Gmail and more. This tells us that the inbox is changing based on consumer need of how they want to interact with messages. And as we all know, we need to make sure to stay on top of what is going to drive the best results for your campaigns. |
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| Tracking From Inbox to Conversion | |
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Are you measuring sales based on your campaigns? Did you know that we have always made this possible? We have
CoolerTracks™ ready to help you precisely report on what links and campaigns are converting in sales or actions. Typical web analysis software packages only provide general data such as how many people visit a web page, click on a particular link and abandon their shopping cart. CoolerTracks™ provides data as to WHICH people visit a web page, WHICH people click on a particular link and WHICH people abandoned their shopping cart. The circle is complete. Precise individual behavior data is now available all of the way from marketing emails to shopping cart checkout. The other great benefit of this feature is that you can then create trigger or secondary campaigns based on a sale/no sale action. These actions will help you drive higher conversions and build a closer relationship with your customers and clients. Learn More about CoolerTracks™ |
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