Successful HTML Email Marketing Campaigns, highly competitive, marketers adopted the new technology. It was necessary to send marketing messages and newsletters that were visually appealing. Your attention span is only a few seconds. And the right picture can grab more people’s attention than the right copy. Ask your clients if they would prefer plain white paper over letterhead for offline messages to prospects or customers.
Today, most email clients can display HTML emails well enough to render them. Some notable exceptions include older versions of Lotus Notes as well as pre-AOL per-version 6.0. Although the question may have seemed complicated years ago, the answer is simple today. Studies have shown that approximately 95 percent are sent as Multi-Part MIME.
Read Also: Opt-in, The Key to Effective Email Marketing
Multi-part MIME (an older protocol) allows you to send both HTML versions and text e-mails in one package. It’s a bit like a sandwich. The HTML version of the e-mail is then displayed by the recipient’s program, if available, or the next one, if not.
MIME stands as Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. SMTP MIME format can be used to transmit almost all Internet emails written by humans and a large portion of automated email. SMTP is short for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. Keep reading to learn more acronyms. Internet email is often called SMTP/MIME email because it is closely related to MIME and SMTP standards.
Even though nobody can agree about numbers and stats, people all agree that HTML Email does not work properly for millions.
HTML email breaks in many email inboxes. This is not because you aren’t creative or have poor HTML knowledge. It’s simply because the email program your recipient has installed regularly blocks your message.
This is something that I feel is worth defining. I know people are scared to speak about servers and clients, but they will not admit it. An email client (or as the “big picture” people refer to it Mail User Agent), is a computer program that allows you to send and read e-mails. This includes Thunderbird, Lotus Notes, or Outlook. A mail server (also known as an MTA or mail exchange server), is a program that transfers electronic mail from one computer to the next. Because we don’t have enough time to learn all the terms and acronyms that the “big picture” people use, we just know what a mail server is.
Your HTML images may be blocked, so recipients will see a blank white box. Also, live hotlinks may not function properly depending on which email system you use. AOL 9.0 (and Outlook 2003) are well-known for blocking and/or breaking HTML “for security reasons”.
Mel, who is part of the corporate IT team, is another major culprit for refusing HTML through. Many corporations have IT departments that are anxious to eradicate all attachments. They are unable to accept any other type of text. End users are the majority of cubicle inhabitants. They have to sign a 100-page policy before they get busy with corporate memos.
Lotus Notes is the most serious offender in the world. Lotus Notes is well-known because it refuses to deal with Multi-Part MIME as civilized people do.
You might find it amusing that this definition of Lotus Notes was created by one of the “big pictures”, executives. “Lotus Notes (or Lotus Notes) is a commercial workflow system and groupware package that provides application designers an environment to quickly create cross-platform client/server software applications. Are you still with us? Don’t be intimidated. Lotus Notes can be used as an email client for this article. OK?
Sending newsletters from Lotus Notes is not a good idea if your company uses it as its email system. Apart from the fact I generally recommend to marketers that they use professional permission-based email services, Lotus Notes is an exception to this rule.
HTML email compatibility is crucial if you intend to communicate with the B2B marketplace, particularly large legal firms and law firms. Many Global 2000 companies use Lotus Notes.
These are the main issues
Older versions under R5 of Lotus Notes can convert HTML emails into Lotus Notes Rich Text format. Lotus Notes version R5 does not recognize Multi-Part MIME messages. This is HTML and text combined in one email.
– Some companies might be using older versions of Lotus Notes/Domino servers, such as R6, to deploy their Lotus Notes client. In this scenario, the recipient’s Email client might also incorrectly render an HTML email message.
For a recipient of an HTML email to be able to see it properly, they must use both Lotus Notes client R5 and the server R5 above.
Here are some quick tips for Lotus Notes subscribers:
- In HTML emails, include a link that reads “View Web Version” at the top. The link directs recipients to an HTML hosted HTML version (either on the sender’s computer or on the server of the email technology provider).
- Add an “Update preferences” link to your website and create a form to update it. It allows recipients to choose whether they want HTML or Text.
- You can create text versions of HTML for those who do not wish to receive HTML.
- Option to receive a text version or list tips on opt-in forms.
This is it. Instead, outsource your Successful HTML Email Marketing Campaigns efforts to one of these professional services. These services have the following advantages: They don’t use blacklists. They also have good relationships with major ISPs. This allows for maximum delivery ability. They allow you to easily create, send, monitor, and track permission-based emails.