Internet Marketing
Tools Part One: Email Basics
By
Shelley Lowery
Electronic mail, better known as email, is the most important
tool used on the Internet. It's much faster than snail mail,
less expensive and enables you to instantly communicate with
your visitors and customers.
Although most Internet Service Providers include email
accounts for their customers, these accounts really aren't
adequate for a Internet business -- especially if you get a
large amount of email. Not only do the email addresses contain
your ISP's name, but they are also very limited on features
and options.
There are many email programs available on the Internet.
However, the best program I've found is Eudora. Eudora is a
standalone email program that works with any ISP. It will
enable you to easily organize your email by filtering your
messages into specific mailboxes. This feature alone can save
you a great deal of time. What's more, your email address will
be your own domain -- not someone else's. One of my favorite
features is the ability to create an unlimited number of
personalities. What this means is that you can specify the
"from" address depending on the message you're writing. For
example, if you're answering a support request, you can set up
a personality that displays support@yourdomain.com or whatever
you'd like as the "from" address. Best of all, it's free. For
further information about Eudora, visit:
http://www.eudora.com
Basic Email Guidelines
Although writing an email message may seem simple, there are
some important issues that need to be taken into
consideration.
Subject Line
The subject of your email is the most important part of your
message. Your subject should be short and provide a summary as
to what your message is all about. This is especially
important if you need to grab your readers' attention. For
example, if you send out a mailing to your ezine subscribers,
you want the subject to instantly grab their attention and
intrigue them to open your message. Just because they
subscribe, doesn't mean they'll actually read your
publication.
Formatting
Although there has been a great deal of controversy over the
best email format -- HTML or text, text is still the best
option. HTML messages may look nice; however, not all of your
readers will be capable of viewing your message. If you'd
really like to use HTML, the best way to accommodate all of
your readers is to create two versions and allow your readers
to make the choice.
Line Length
When you begin typing your email message, keep in mind, some
email programs don't automatically wrap the text. What this
means is that although your message may look great to you,
your email recipient may receive your message as one long
sentence or it may look something like this:
Thank you for your interest in our
products.
We are dedicated to providing you
with quality
products to assist you in your
endeavors.
To prevent this problem, limit your line length to under 65
characters per line. This can be accomplished by using a hard
carriage return (hit enter) at the end of each line.
If you'd rather not have to manually format your text, you can
do so online at the following web address:
http://www.web-source.net/format_text.htm
Linking
When placing web addresses within an email message, some email
programs will automatically create live links with web
addresses beginning with "www." However, other email programs
will only create live links when the web address begins with
http://. To alleviate this problem, always include the full
URL beginning with http://.
The America Online email program is in a class of its own.
Their email program won't create live links with any form of
web address. In order to create a live link within AOL, you
must include a complete HTML link. To accommodate all of your
readers, consider including two links for each URL -- one
beginning with http:// and the other with the complete HTML
link code.
When including an email address within an email message,
always include "mailto:" directly in front of the email
address. This will enable most email programs to create a live
email link. AOL will require the complete "mailto:" HTML code.
Another important consideration is the use of punctuation with
web addresses -- especially periods. Some email programs will
include periods within a live link. When clicked on, the
browser will return an error. There are a couple of ways to
alleviate this problem. You can enclose your web address with
brackets and place a period after the closing bracket <http://www.yourdomain.com>.
Or, you can place your web address on a separate line like
this: http://www.yourdomain.com
When including a long web address within your message, some
email programs will force part of the URL to the next line.
When the live link is created, only a portion of the URL will
be live. When clicked on, the browser will return an error. To
avoid this problem, try to keep your web addresses short. If
necessary, you may want to consider creating a redirect HTML
page with a shorter URL.
The appearance of your email message is an important part of
your professional image. If you follow these simple
guidelines, you can almost completely alleviate these
potential problems.
Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design
course, Web Design Mastery.
http://www.webdesignmastery.com And, Ebook Starter - Give
Your Ebooks the look and feel of a REAL book.
http://www.ebookstarter.com Visit Web-Source.net to sign
up for a complimentary subscription to Etips and receive a
copy of the acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net
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