Graphical Email

sending to an opt-in email liat

[WebSpinner]

Can anyone shed some light on how I can send "Graphical" email to a mailing list? I know I can build the email in outlook, but I don't see a way to have that email sent to X# of people. I don't want to BCC 2000 people, so that trick won't cut it. Are there any software out there that I can use.

I've been sending text type emails to the group, cause of the issues of a non-html reader. My thoughts are that is kind of over now. AOL 8, MSN, OL, Yahoo, they can all read HTML mail. If there are still programs out there that cant read it, I don't think my "clients" are using it. Plus I believe those kinds of email get a better click response, just based on some folks I talk about the emails they read. Non-techies.

Any input is greatly appreciated.

TIA,
Spinner

[WebSpinner]

Has anyone switched their marketing efforts from a "text" type email to a "graphical" email? If so, can you share your experience with us. Wondering if the "graphical" email generate more sales.

Thanks!

[choster]

If you're asking how to send HTML or other formatted mail to a mailing list, my answer would be to simply send it. How it gets processed depends on how the list software is configured-- some might require text and HTML versions to send out based on user preferences, some might reject HTML, others might send anything and everything through as originally encoded.

Are you asking for specific mailing list software recommendations?

[WebSpinner]

Thanks Choster,

Have you changed your email marketing from text to HTML? If so, did you see an increase in sales/ or hits to your site.

When I send out a mailing, I generally will get about 10% of the people coming to my site, and about 30% of them will usually buy something. So now, I want to try an HTML mail and see if I can 1) get more than 10% to come to the site and 2) convert more into sales.

Thanks!

[choster]

I do not have hard numbers for any of the sites I consult for. I did attend a conference a little while ago in which a representative of Continental Airlines reported a substantial increase in clickthroughs from e-mail once they made an HTML version available.

This stands to reason. You have far more control over formatting and presentation of links. If I'm interested in specials on flights to South America but not to Europe, it will be a lot easier for me to find them when the "Discount Fares to XYZ" headers are distinctive from the "Copyright information" or "How to unsubscribe" headers. It may be much more readable in Verdana 10pt than Times New Roman 12pt, increasing the chance I will have a look. And a Save on holiday travel [example.net] link simply looks cleaner than "Save on holiday travel, visit www.example.com/page/article/0,1360,50078,00.html."

Of course, if your e-mail is going to look like spam from keyword-keyword-keyword.com or contain scripting that crashes someone's browser, then no, text is better :).

Depending on your audience/clientele/customer base, it is probably worth keeping a text-only version. While all the major e-mail clients for the last few years have supported HTML in messages, some people are on slow dialup connections (a formatted e-mail will of course be bigger than a plain text equivalent) and others might be subject to bandwidth restrictions. I subscribe to some mailing lists in digest format, for example, which are 70-80K in plain text but could potentially be triple that size if all the messages were HTML.

[choster]

Here's another good thread on e-mail newsletters: [webmasterworld.com...] .