How To Create and Send HTML Email

by Herman Drost

Until recently text-based email was the most
popular way to communicate, however with the advent
of html email you can now create and send beautiful
graphics, create clickable links and use
interactive forms.

HTML email can have the same appearance as a web
page. You can include your favorite photos, create
colorful newsletters or charts for your friends or
business associates.

It's now often used as a valuable tool in email
marketing campaigns.

HTML email has now surpassed text-based email
in popularity.

Read this survey on email format preferences and
and programs.

Let's first point out the pros and cons of sending
html email before we get into how to create it.

Pros of Using HTML Email

Visually appealing
Able to include graphics, icons, clickable links,
different fonts, interactive forms.
Increased interactivity with your customers.
Mostly used by advertisers, however more consumers
are using html email as they switch to
faster connections.
Ads can be more effective in HTML
Most of the popular email clients now support
html email
(ie Outlook Express, Outlook, Eudora, Netscape
Communicator, Hotmail, AOL, Yahoo, Web TV).

Cons of Using HTML Email

Slow loading due to downloading of graphics
Takes up more space in your email client
Not all computers support html email
Users may not have the required bandwidth or may
have download quotas set by their ISPs.
Hackers can send viruses, trojan horses embedded in
html email.
Users may turn off the option to receive html email,
or use filters to quarantine it.

How to create a simple html email

1. Open your favorite html editor ie FrontPage,
Dreamweaver (you can also use MS Word 97 or 2000,
but it tends to bloat the code a little) to create
your email.

2. Always use absolute URLS for your graphics
(ie http://www.addme.com/images/addme.gif).

3. Graphics (ie images, icons, fancy fonts) must be
stored on a web server to correctly appear in email
software - you could save it as an attachment,
however most folks will not open the attachment
especially (and delete it) if it's from someone they
don't know.

If you don't want to use graphics, you can use
colored tables for different sections
(ie header, masthead, contact information
and footers).

4. Name and save the page you have created
(ie html-email.htm).

5. Open your Email Software - in outlook express
(since it's the most popular) go to
create mail -
insert -
text from file -
scroll to your saved html page.
You are now ready to send your html email.

6. Email a test to yourself before your send it to
your subscriber list. You may want to send it to
your friends who have different email programs so
you can be sure most of your subscribers can read it
on their computers.

7. Once you have created an attractive html page or
newsletter, save it as a template. Now you can just
open the template whenever you want to send html
mail and most of the work will be done for you.

HTML email is still rather new, but it is a great
marketing tool if used properly. The key is to
test, test, test to see if your subscribers prefer
it over text based email. If you are unsure your
subscribers can read html email, then offer both
text-based email and html email, to cater to
both audiences.


About the Author
Herman Drost is the author of the NEW ebook
"101 Highly Effective Strategies to Promote Your
Web Site"
isitebuild.com/web-site-promotion