Don't Let Your HTML Email Newsletter Break! By Jessica Albon
Copyright 2003, The Write Exposure
Offering your email newsletter in HTML frequently results in
higher subscribe rates, greater reader recognition and
impressive ROI. That is, if they're done right. Done wrong, your
reader may suffer broken links, missing images, or worse.
To take advantage of the best HTML has to offer, your HTML will
need to be error-free. Fortunately, that's not as complicated as
it sounds. While constructing and testing HTML newsletters,
we've found six steps that eliminate about 99% of all HTML
errors. You can do them yourself or look for a company that
offers HTML email testing.
1. Perhaps the easiest way to avoid HTML problems is to offer a
plain text version separately (depending on your distribution
system this may mean setting up two separate lists). Though many
email distribution systems do allow you to send both your plain
text and html versions in one message, the technology behind
multi-part MIME can create problems with older email programs.
Because email programs vary, sending both versions of your
newsletter in one message may actually create more problems than
it solves (readers may see both versions, the HTML may become
garbled, etc). Though maintaining separate lists is a little
more work, you'll wind up with a newsletter that's consistently
delivered correctly, because your readers choose the version
that's best suited to them.
2. Write your HTML code by hand. Though WYSIWYG editors (like
FrontPage and DreamWeaver) make quick work of HTML design,
they're also notorious for adding unnecessary codes.
Excess code presents two potential problems. First, it bloats
the file size which results in longer download times for your
readers. Second, these excess codes can confuse email programs
which tend to be less forgiving of HTML errors than are typical
web browsers.
3. Preview your HTML newsletter in a web browser often. Watching
the results of your coding in a browser is the easiest way to
catch HTML errors as they occur. You can use whatever browser
you're most comfortable in, but remember each has its own
idiosyncrasies and isn't identical to an email program.
By checking on your progress regularly, you'll also ensure the
newsletter looks the way you want it to look. This saves you
from going through all the steps only to discover your
newsletter looks nothing like you'd planned.
3. Avoid missing images and broken links by making all URLs and
image locations absolute, not relative. A relative URL for the
index page of a website would be "index.html" while an absolute
URL for the same page would be
"http://www.domain.com/index.html". Get in the habit of typing
the complete location for both links and images.
When your email newsletter arrives in my inbox saying my
computer can't find the images folder (it doesn't know to look
on your domain) and displays a broken image. Microsoft Outlook
does allow you to insert images directly into messages (which it
then sends with the message), but this method is unreliable for
readers who don't use Outlook.
You can also use the base href tag if all of your links and
images will come from one domain. To set a base URL, you'll want
to add a to the very top line of your HTML code (before the ).
Make sure to include the trailing slash. This will tell your
reader's computer where to look for all images and links and
means you can use relative URLs throughout the newsletter.
4. Run your HTML through an HTML validator. Because you've typed
your HTML code by hand, it's possible you've left off tags or
made typos in your HTML. There are a number of HTML validators
available, some that you can use on your desktop like HTML Tidy
(http:/ idy.sourceforge.net/), and others, like NetMechanic
(http://www.netmechanic.com) that you use over the Internet.
They all help you to uncover and fix errors that may cause
problems in your newsletter.
Though these programs are designed to check HTML designed for
web browsers, they can alert you to many common HTML errors.
You'll still need to check things like image links (for absolute
locations) and URLs yourself (they can't tell you if you've
linked to the wrong page, for example).
5. Test the newsletter. Though it wouldn't make sense to test
your newsletter in every email program ever made, you can test
your newsletter in the most popular clients. AOL, MSN, and
Earthlink each offer limited-access or "Bring Your Own Access"
programs for reasonable sign-up fees. Check your subscriber list
to see which accounts are most popular so you'll know which
services to emphasize.
You may also want to set up accounts at Yahoo!, Hotmail and
Excite, if you allow these addresses on your list. Also check
platforms and programs most likely to be used by your clients
(i.e. test it with a Mac if your newsletter goes out to graphic
designers, etc.).
Bottom line: An HTML newsletter does require more time than its
plain text counterpart, but, when carefully executed, the
results more than make up for any initial inconveniences.
About the author:
Is it your job to increase company profits? The Write Exposure
offers the resources you need to do just that at
http://www.designdoodles.com
