In Focus

Email formats: choose or lose

Promotional emails

The primary goal of promotional emails, sometimes called postcard emails, is to drive sales. These messages are short term in nature, utilizing a single call-to-action to trigger immediate conversion. The announcements within a promotional message tend to have shorter-term implications, so if the user doesn't act quickly, the offer and value of the email are lost.

Perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing of email formats, promotional messages tend to use strong imagery and color to attract user attention. Although promotional messages are pretty in theory, they can turn out to be quite ugly if they don't render correctly. What looks good in other media, such as print or web, doesn't always translate to an optimized email. It is imperative to know that by sending an image-heavy email with non-HTML text, a percentage of your subscriber list will be unable to see the message as intended.

Knowing these risks, it is ultimately your decision to send image-heavy messages and see whether or not you generate the appropriate response.
 
Promotional message best practice tips

  • Use HTML text whenever possible and in a darker color in case images are suppressed.
  • Have a clear call-to-action that stands out above the fold.
  • Keep copy short, clear and concise.

A promotional message for Douglass luggage

 

Comments

sri vikas
sri vikas November 8, 2007 at 12:32 AM

exceptionally well written article! as i am in charge of my company's email marketing campaign this artcile helps in understanding various ideas on how to make a email/sms letters engaging and effective. thank you

Sara Johnides
Sara Johnides November 1, 2007 at 10:29 AM

Peter- Thanks for your comment. I appreciate your thoughts. The image I provided was a simple visual example of what a text message would look like on a handheld. In fact, I did some research and the limit of 160 characters isn't even absolute. SMS character limitation is ultimately determined by your network, model of device and carrier. Although 160-characters is a limit most of us email marketers have learned to abide by, there are always exceptions to the rule. – Sara Johnides, Premiere Global Services

sanket tupe
sanket tupe November 1, 2007 at 4:37 AM

it is right, we can not predict what will be future of email marketing, I am into web hosting business, 2 year ago i stared yahoo group now i have 4600 member in it and it excite me when i send one email to my group, people forward it to their friend and those are not member of my group they come to know about my group from email which they receive from thier friend in this way now every week 150+ new member subscribe my group, look into advantage that yahoo group have u dont need to send muliple email just send one email, ur email reaches to all member, some time people heats promotional email, some peopel like to receive funny stuff by email, some peopel intrested in knowing hollywood gossips so what i suggest is let them what they want for example in my yahoo group peopel prefer to read hollywood celebrites picture and gossips but as a email marketer i am targeting my services and at the same time i can not forgot intrest of reader so i provide hollywood celebrities picture and i alos advertise my services with line "low cost reliable hosting: gromohosting.com" after every picture i used in email it really excite me I will recommend yahoo group inorder to promote services using email marketng

Peter Nelson
Peter Nelson October 31, 2007 at 8:36 AM

Good article but the image with the text message is misleading. The example is way over 160 characters. This is giving a distorted view of what one could achieve. Having struggled with crafting the right combination of words, abbreviations, and "substitutions" for broadcast text messaging this strikes a nerve for me. Thanks.