Wondering how to find a good “email service provider” ?
I always wanted to know how to create a proper html email that will be displayed properly by majority of browsers. Now off to code an example.
wow…nicely done…
but i just e-mail them a 1 line simple link that will lead them to their monthly newsletter 
Were these methods tested in HotMail?
I have a question:
How do you send an html newsletter? Do you simply paste the code into the compose window, or is there some other way you have to do it? Whenever I just post the code into the compose window, the output is just code.
First, thanks for the feedback based on your experiences. I tried to write the article in a way that does not preclude me being wrong. 
Some quick comments:
markchivs: You’re absolutely right about including a link to an online version of each of your email newsletters. I did not cover style issues in my article but this is the number one thing you should do. Basically study email newsletters you get and copy their overall style. I find the best newsletters have as their first line “If you cannot read this email, please read it online: [url here]” which not only tells people what to do, it lets them copy and paste the URL worst case (saying “click here” and embedding the URL leaves those cut and paste folks high and dry).
Cam Pitches: I’ve looked somewhat rigorously for info on how to manually embed images into html email newsletters. But I have not experimented as much as I should have by now. I do know DadaMail (http://mojomail.skazat.com), one of the best free tools to send email newsletters if you do it yourself (phpList.com is the other), it offers the ability to embed images. So as I believe I note in my article, you could set up your html email in that tool, send yourself the html email with images embedded, and (in theory!) copy and paste the html code (with the embed references) to send through an email service provider. The alternate way to solve the XP SP2 problem is to have up top of your email, second line, “To ensure delivery and proper appearance of this email, please make sure our email address is in your address book: [email address here].”
Tamara: Recommending email service providers was outside the scope of my article but I do “specialize” (perhaps reluctantly these days) in low cost and no cost tools for small and medium sized businesses and organizations. In this case, I’d both recommend a few services to look at and suggest criteria to evaluate any email service provider.
If you need free, I’d recommend EzineDirector.com which allows you to send some number of emails per month for free. They also have an excellent set of basic reporting tools (e.g. clickthrough, open rates, unsubs, bounces). I’d also take a look at Intellicontact.com, ConstantContact.com, CoolerEmail.com, SimplePost.com, and MailerMailer.com (also have a small number of emails free each month). There are many others. Services I want to try that are a cut above this are MyEmma.com and JustAddContent.co.uk (full disclosure: a friend runs the latter service). In terms of pricing, I like services that charge me based on the number of names on my list, not the number of emails I send.
Perhaps more useful, there are a number of criteria I recommend you use to evaluate email service providers. First, if the site does not have an obvious link called “Pricing,” don’t bother. Either they target bigger businesses with deep pockets and more complex needs, or they’re not to be trusted. Second, you want good tools to build your emails, an html WYSIWYG editor like HTMLArea. Templates are also helpful. You want to be able to paste in your html code if needed. You want to be able to have on the same web page screen a text box for the html version of your email and a text box for the text version of your email. You want the ablity to store drafts, and archives. You want the ability to upload email address lists in batch mode. You want the ability to find and delete dupes of email addresses. On the reporting side, at the least you want open rates (number, percentage, specific readers), clickthroughs (number, percentage, specific readers, specific links), unsubscribes (number, percentage, specific readers), and bounce rates (number, percentage, specific readers, reason for bounce). Tracking “Forward to a Friend” is helpful but often a feature of high end providers. Being able to export your list of email addresses is a must. Exporting your clickthrough, open, bounce, and unsubscribe is very useful. You also want to be able to specify double opt-in (limits “buyers remorse” and ensures your list is as accurate as possible). You also want full control over your sub, unsub, welcome messages. You also want to be able to specify the From/Return email address sending your newsletter (rather than use a generic one used by the provider), both the email address and a plain English alias (e.g. “Your Company” not the raw email address). Last, you want a provider that actively polices email sent from their service, for example, that automatically delays email until they can review or they automatically “approve” your emails after some number of emails. You also might want to email them asking their policies for getting on whitelists and off blacklists, whether or not they have a dedicated person.
Finally, Tamara, if I have not said so already, you should think twice about hooking up DadaMail or do it yourself tool and using your own domain to send emails. These tools work fine if you know everyone on your list and they’re not going to report you as spam. If that is not the case, you should use an email service provider because the reputable ones have active programs to get on ISP whitelists and off blacklists. Of course, if the provider does not police their customers emails, your legit email could be blacklisted along with everything else generated by that provider. Do delivery yourself, however, and you’re the one who has to get yourself off the blacklists.
ckita: Ah, simply providing a link always works. But you avoid the wonderful torment of slinging and testing code. Years ago, circa 1996 or 1997, there was some research that showed link only emails had less views than emails sent with the message enclosed. People were way too lazy to click. That may or may not be true still. Either way, you’re missing the fun by not coding…
Russell James Smith: I have at least one reader who uses hotmail and see they open their emails from me and click links. Beyond that, I’ve not done formal testing. I should though, to eat my own dog food.
c1vineoflife: Without knowing what tool or vendor you’re using to send email, I can only guess that there is a radio button somewhere that toggles between specifying whether to send your email as html or text. Otherwise, I’d email support if it is a vendor, or the programmer/company if it is a do it yourself tool.
Thanks for the comments everyone! I’m a little slow getting back here and for some reason I’m not getting emails notifying me when you post. So I recommend you post here (so everyone benefits from hearing your question) then visit my site and email me from there (something along the lines of, “hey doofus I just posted a question/comment at SitePoint” works fine). My email address is on the right nav of every page on my site.
Tim
Very interesting article.
I think only that the author did not give enough importance to the Eudora BAD HTML rendering that makes of any HTML e-mail a real “confusion”… I am an Eudora user and I hate to receive HTML newsletters because of that.
Actually Eudora needs to be updated on this issue… as soon as possible!
Thank you for a such article anyway, really appreciated and well done.
Fabrizio.
Great article … inspiring and factual - THANX !
Like c1vineoflife I also have that basic problem that I don’t know how I send the newsletter in my email program.
We use MacOSX. I can use Mail, Entourage - right now I’m downloading Moxilla and Firebird.
In Mail I can choose looking at the mail in HTML or text … I can’t really see how I can send the mail in HTML …
Anyway a little basic guidance in this would be greatly appriciated.
Rishi
fabrizio: thanks for the heads up on Eudora. I tested awhile ago but never noticed what you describe. I’ll go back.
rishi/others: Sorry if I’m not clear on sending html email newsletters once you finish coding. At that point, you have two choices: send the email yourself or send it through a third party service called an email service provider.
If you send your html email newsletter yourself, you have two choices: send through your email software client (not recommended) or set up software like DadaMail (mojo.skazat.com) or PHPList (phplist.com). There are terrific solutions that cost money but DadaMail and PHPList are free open source with strong developers and communities.
Setting up software on your webserver is recommended only if you have a small list where everyone on the list knows you, recognizes your email, and is highly unlikely to report you as spam to their ISP. If you have a subscriber who uses AOL and reports you as spam, it’s up to you to work with AOL to get off their spammer blacklist. Lots of luck.
Using your email software client is not recommended for similar reasons. For one thing, your ISP is likely to flag you as a spammer if you send to more than some number of people (they don’t reveal the number, for obvious reasons) on a regular basis. Furthermore, if you send email through your Outlook or Eudora, you have no real way to track open rates, clickthroughs, and other valuable information.
The best option is to use a third party email service provider. Happily there are all kinds at all sorts of prices and capabilities. I listed a few in my earlier response on December 3rd (e.g. Intellicontact, CoolerEmail, EzineDirector, ConstantContact). Some of these offer free emails each month. My December 3rd response went into excruciating detail about the criteria you should use to evaluate the different possibilities.
Once you sign up with an email service provider, typically you use a single web page with a couple big textarea boxes, one for pasting in your html code and one for pasting in your alternate text version (for people who can’t get html). You then send test emails to your test email accounts (set them up at the top most-used domains on your email address list so you can see what your subscribers will see). Once your email displays properly in your test email accounts, and you validate all the links work, then you use your email provider service to send your email draft to a list you define. The service provider provides a mechanism to build your lists (e.g. importing lists of email addresses, putting a signup box on your website) and to see responses to email you send (e.g., open rate, clickthrough, unsubscribes).
Hopefully that explains the process. Let me know if you or anyone else has any questions.
Tim
Thanks so much. I love coding html and css for all my little sites. Now I want to send a family newsletter in a webmail kind of way. You were the first one on the google list and said exactly what I needed to know. Thx!
I found this article helpfull, and simple…
Thank you for the informative tutorial. I am still confused about how I would send this newsletter now that I have it all in HTML code. I have a file “newsletter.html” and I want to email it to our client base. How do I “attach?” it to an email?? We usually use Maximizer to email our clients would we be able to send an HTML email this way? I’m so confused!! :o)
It’s a very helpful article about composing and creating an email newsletter. But I think it lacks the detail about the process of actually “Distributing” it. I read some threads here that are having problems sending it through email. I am having the same problem myself. I know that our email client needs to have an option that says “send as html” or something like that. Well I tried the same thing in Outlook Express and sent my newsletter as an HTML, and I received it as HTML code on my yahoo and gmail account. I am a little confused too.
great article…
but getting outlook to send an html email seems to be quite a feat. Copy and pasta from IE seems to work but the email looks garbled on on most webmailers (hotmail etc.) Mnnnn everything else just attaches the html doc. =(
I must say reading comments to my article has been more educational than the research and experience that went into the article.
I never realized, for example, that sending email newsletters can be such a confusing pain. Let me try to clarify. There are at least two ways to send your email newsletter:
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Send it through your email software client, for example, Outlook. (Using bulk email software has the same effect/result. So does setting up list software on your website.)
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Send it through an online service.
As I’ve noted in a few of my follow up responses, there are steep drawbacks to the first approach, not least the likely risk your ISP (AOL, Earthlink, …) will label you a spammer, yank your email account, and basically make you prove that you’re innocent. ISPs allow you to send some number of emails at one time but never reveal that number. Personally, I would not want to find out.
The second approach is the one I recommend, not least because the online service (if they’re legit) has at least one staff person who actively works to ensure their service is off spam black lists and on spam white lists. Plus you get at least basic reporting tools to see who opened the email and what they clicked.
The only serious drawback to online services I have heard about are that some legit email delivery vendors (e.g. Constant Contact) sometimes get on black lists because a spammer uses their service for a moment before being cut off. So a perfectly good service and their customers get tarred because of one jerk. But I’ve never heard this effect lasts long. And if you send email infrequently, every few months or so, you might never notice.
Since I last wrote to follow up, I have found a few more low cost (and no cost, if your list is small) email delivery vendors worth a look, in addition to the ones mentioned earlier in my responses above. Be sure to look at EZEzine (http://www.ezezine.com), EmailBrain (http://emailbrain.com), GraphicMail (http://www.graphicmail.com), and a “maybe” resource, AWeber (http://aweber.com) (AWeber looks spammy to me but someone legit I trust swears by them).
Hope this helps clarify the email distribution issue. I highly recommend finding an online email delivery vendor that includes some free emails at the least. It’s far less hassle and worry.
And, as always, you’re welcome to message me with specific questions. I do reply as time (work, wife, kids) allow.
Tim
P.S. If you’re going to say something nice about my article (Amy!) do me a huge favor and message me. I collect these comments as a way to prove to my potential clients that somebody, somewhere benefits. If you hate my article, by all means post the reason(s) here and I will respond later if not sooner…
I’ve been reading the posts in this topic and noticed that there are a lot of questions about sending and creating HTML e-mail.
At work I send HTML newsletters on a regular basis. Because of all the issues with HTML e-mail, I wrote two articles that I now use as a manual.
The first article is “Tips for creating and sending succesful and compatible HTML e-mail”. It deals with a lot of obstacles you run into, how to avoid them, a lot of tips and tools you can use to create more compatible HTML e-mail.
The second article is “Send HTML and plain text email with HotCast Mass Mailer”. I use HotCast Mass Mailer to send HTML e-mail. You can send an incredibly huge amount of e-mails, because it doens’t use the SMTP server of your ISP, but it sends your HTML e-mail directly to the recipient. Because of this feature, you get instant feedback whether the e-mail has been delivered or not. The article also describes how to send personalised e-mails with HotCast.
Anand
Those are some good links anandg.
I have had trouble previously with hotmail and HTML email. Primarily a lot of CSS is disabled using this service. For example, my email has many ‘thumbnail’ sized images in it with CSS used to define a shadow using background-image. Hotmail strips this from the displayed email. I’ve found all backgrounds are pretty much useless in HTML email. It’s solid colour or nothing at all.
If you have access to, and skill with, Microsoft IIS 5 or above you can use xmlhttp in some ASP code to read in an external CSS style sheet and display it as inline. The benefit of this is that the css file you use for your website is the same one used for your email, thus removing the need to duplicate each change you make.
It’s such an annoying case of trial and error with these things!
good comments, anandg. where can i read those articles?
thx
I am trying to get a newsletter assembled, which I can email out. I run linux and use Mozilla-Thunderbird for my email client. I have put together a simple html page, and when I paste it into a thunderbird email, the images do not display, but the rest of the text content does. However, if I paste this same information into a new email from Outlook Express, the images show up.
Why???