AKA, “Use Your Words, Darling, Part II”

Last week, we talked about the “dirty elephant” that is Outlook and other popular email programs.

This week, we’re going to take a look at the things you can do to work around them, as much as possible.

1. Don’t rely on images. Using images for headlines, or, heaven-forbid, body text, is generally not a good idea. If your images are necessary (like product photos, for instance), add a caption underneath them. This is why in this newsletter (Newsletters in Focus) the nameplate (or flag, banner, or top bit where it says, “Newsletters in Focus” in big letters) is actually text, instead of an image. Sure, it looks boring, but it makes it so the first thing you see is text, not a great big “Danger, Danger” message about images and privacy. This isn’t to say you can’t use images, just that you want to make sure your newsletter doesn’t lose all of its value without them.
2. Always add “alt” tags. Each image you do use should always have an “alt” tag. This isn’t foolproof (some email programs don’t display them, and sometimes they’re too long to display properly after the email program’s “Danger, Danger” scary message), but it does help some of your readers. You can also add a “title” tag to each image which would then display when the reader runs their mouse over the image.
3. Always specify image size. In HTML web pages, it’s common not to specify image sizes any longer. That’s because most images are optimized for the web and generally load pretty quickly. With an email newsletter, however, if your images aren’t going to load at all (and they aren’t, if they’re being blocked), those images will stretch out as *long* as they need to be in order to display the entire “alt” tag. Which, as mentioned above, gets very long with the email program’s “Danger, Danger” scary message about privacy and safety and security. So, your images will generally stretch out wider than the preview pane in Outlook which can cause serious display problems with your newsletter. By simply using the image “height” and “width” tags, you can completely avoid layout mishaps.
4. Don’t rely on CSS for your newsletter’s good looks. Just like they disable images, some email programs disable CSS. (CSS is a way designers use to format text, layout and more–it works great for websites, allowing you to change just one file and have your entire website “re-designed.”) They disable both internal (within the email newsletter itself) and external (from your website) CSS. This means, if you rely on CSS to, say, make your body text white and 12-point Verdana, in an email program that disables CSS, your body text will likely be black and display in the reader’s default. (Which is a problem if your background is also black .) The way to get around this is to go back to “ancient” HTML programming and to actually add the appropriate tags to anything that must display in a particular way.
5. Link to an online version. Some of your readers are going to prefer to read your newsletter on your website anyway, and providing them with a link is considered a best practice. Plus, website newsletter archives do wonders for your search engine ranking, so there’s really no drawback to posting each issue of your newsletter on your website and sharing the link with readers.
6. Offer a plain text version. Sure, it’s a bit boring. But, having it means you can rest assured that your readers will be able to read your newsletter. It’s not hard to make a plain text copy, you can send it along with the HTML version to help your HTML get through more easily (because *spammers* seldom take the time to make both a plain text and HTML copy, having both reduces your overall *spam* score).
7. Rise to the challenge or go with print. Really, you’ve got two choices here–you can accept the challenges of HTML ezines, or you can publish a print newsletter. Plain text isn’t the “good enough” solution it was two years ago–in all but limited cases, plain text just won’t cut it with today’s readers. Plus, plain text has challenges of its own that can, in some ways, make the complications of HTML look easy. So, you need to decide: if you need absolute 100% control, you’ll want to print and mail a newsletter; if you can live with less control, HTML, done well, will work perfectly.

Ultimately, though, getting all this stuff done right is hardly the beginning–without compelling, unique, useful content, readers will hardly care about the packaging. (The reverse, however, isn’t typically true–even the best written newsletters will lose readers if the design is done poorly.)

So, put these 7 ingredients to work in your newsletter, and then get back to work writing wonderful copy .

What do you think? Is a newsletter worth all this trouble?