Live from Webvisions 2008 | Portland, Oregon

Filed Under Internet, Marketing |

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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.

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

This is a post from Gary Pool’s Search Engine Optimizician&trade blog.

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