Saturday, August 14, 2010

3 Reasons to use only text in your e-newsletter

I'm sometimes asked why our association e-newsletter isn't loaded with a template, graphics, colors, and pictures. In fact, it's only text (and links.)

3 Reasons:

1. Want it to be readable. Many members are now reading everything on mobile devices. Check out what a heavily formatted and imaged newsletter looks like on a very small screen. Not good. Keep it simple so it can actually be read.

2. Want ease of redistribution. We encourage members to take sections of our newsletter to redistribute to their clients/customers/others or into social media. The easiest way to copy and paste a portion of a communication is by having it in a format that is easy to copy and paste.

3. Want it to arrive. Anytime there are embedded graphics and templates there's increased potential it's going to be blocked, land in spam or quarantine, or will be flagged as having an attachment and recipients may not open it. It needs to arrive in order to be read.