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Think of the preview pane as your message’s audition, its chance to get its foot in the door.
“If you do something interesting with HTML [in the preview pane], you can really pull people in,” says Jennings, who has successfully used “small, animated GIFs in the preview area. If it moves, it tends to catch your eye. If you can make it tie in with your product, it’s a great way to bring in attention.”
On a side note, the preview pane can wreak havoc on your open-rate. An HTML message that appears in a preview pane—however briefly—but is never actually opened will still register as an opened message. Recall that open rates for HTML e-mails are determined by how many times a pixel embedded in a message is requested from your server.
If your message is well-designed, you can use this type of action to your advantage, says Neil Feinstein, director of creative strategy for True North Inc. “If somebody is [only] looking at [the message] in the preview pane,” he hypothesizes, “I view that as a good, branded experience.”
So along with your offer and call to action, make sure your name or logo appears at the top of your message.
HTML vs. Text
There should really be no debate between HTML and text-only formats at this point, as HTML-enabled e-mail applications have become the norm.
“A more graphic e-mail always beats a text-only e-mail,” expounds Feinstein. “A couple years ago I was working with a B-to-B client who said to me, ‘All my customers are sophisticated tech people. They don’t need a highly graphic e-mail,’ and I said, ‘Oh, really?’
“So we tested two e-mails, one with low graphics and one higher [graphic] concept. I’ve seen it time and time again, a good concept always beats text.”
While incorporating graphics is certainly a good idea, relying too heavily on them can be problematic. Outlook 11, the latest version of the e-mail application Microsoft includes in its ubiquitous Office suite, comes preset to block HTML from displaying in the preview pane. While this measure is intended to hinder spammers’ ability to determine who is and who is not receiving their messages, it has an adverse effect on legit e-mailers, too.
“We are counseling clients that all-HTML messages, or all-image messages are a big no-no,” says Michael Della Penna, chief marketing officer, Bigfoot Interactive. He advises marketers to use “a mix of both text and HTML [to ensure] the entire message is not wasted.”
Make Mine Dynamic
Taking a cue from Web sites such as Amazon.com, which generate page content based on user preferences and prior actions, e-mailers are moving toward specialized formats.
“It’s all about creating dynamically generated creative, making sure a particular segment in the database gets the offer most attractive to them within the first third of the message,” says Della Penna. “We’re pushing clients toward a wireframe design which allows [them] to leverage data on a consumer with a library of creative elements relevant to that consumer.”
Rather than design a single message, marketers design a template into which copy and art are inserted based on a customer’s interests.
“We have clients with some 200 different [creative]combinations that can be put together,” continues Della Penna. “It’s no longer batch and blast. Now, it’s, ‘How many versions do we have to make of this?’”
Getting relevant messages to receptive consumers takes hard work and a bit of luck. But to quote late baseball executive Branch Rickey, “Luck is the residue of design.” Design your messages well, and watch the luck roll in.
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Social Media ROI
Email Marketing that Works (2nd Edition)