Live from Webvisions 2008 | Portland, Oregon

Posted • May 22, 2008 • Comments Off

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Getting ready for Brad Smith from Hot Pepper Studios to open the Webvisions event.

Brad is opening the event there will be raffle prizes Adobe has offered an upgradeable version of CS3 and MacPac has also kicked in a prize. MacPac

Brad is now talking about blogs and how many different topics are out there. Blogs are a do-it-yourself thing and people are going to in droves. Brad is using Craig’s List as an example of a social networking site and youtube as the big challenge for broadcast television.

Then I am attending Best Practices for Permission-Based Email Communication with Mark Wyner.

Permission-based email communication is not email marketing. But in a virtual world riddled with spam, the gray area between the two is quite large. Mark will help draw a line which narrows that gray area with some best practices to effectively communicate to subscribers. He will cover topics such as deployment frequency/timing, appropriate headers, subscription forms, formats/construct, content preparation and list maintenance. While some technical topics will be covered, the presentation will primarily encompass high-level information appropriate for anyone with a subscriber-based email list.

Mark is being introduced and now taking the stage.

Permission

Where did the email address come from?
Form from the web
Paper subscription form
A business card with explicit permission

Not permission

3dr party email addresses
Personal address book

Good faith invite

Type of content and expected frequency
Announce “from” name/address
Pair subscribe/unsubscribe forms

Confirm Subscriptions – Double opt in

Visual Design
Preview panes = Truncated content
When you design a HTML email always consider the end user will be using a preview pane.

Good rule of thumb 580pxX640px for an email

Mobile devices

Pay-per-kilobyte and generally slow networks
Small screens
Many block/disable images altogether

Spam Filters Love Bloated emails

Image spam” on the rise
Excess graphics raise red flags
Single-image emails

Why recipient is receipint email
Include a web link
Don’t forget web standards
Use semantic HTML
Use CSS
Embed the CSS in the document

Create a simple design
Refrain from nesting tables
Use inline CSS

Don’t use

Flash/video
Forms/javascript
Animated GIFs

Go Viral – Make it easy for your email is easily forwarded.

Sensible Content
Deliver promised content
Brevity is a must
Appropriate Headers
Recognizable “from” name/address
Honest/logical subject line
Spelling counts

So:

Don’t Spam ever
Really don’t Spam ever
Plan for variety of environments
Use appropriate headers and send multi-part
Set appropriate expectations
Communicate effectively
embrace the unsubscribe link
Don’t argue Chuck Norris

late,
gary pool

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@garypool

Heading to Dutch Bros on MLK in Portland for some great coffee. about 1 day ago from Ping.fm
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Bing and Yahoo! Conjugate http://ping.fm/4KlD9 about 1 day ago from Ping.fm
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Chargers! That was a real whuppin! Saints look good. Chargers not so good! :-( about 5 days ago from TweetDeck
Same goes for a football game :-( @CHRISVOSS about 5 days ago from TweetDeck
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