Church & Web Design

Thoughts on how it all fits together

About Me

Husband, Web Designer, Drummer, Bass Player, Paintballer, Eagle Scout, Dreamer, Sushi Eating, Anime Fanatic, Movie Watching, Music Loving, Geek.

I had originally posted this on another blog late last year and I wanted to share it with everybody with a few changes.

Please Don’t Mark Me As Spam

  • Spam Assasin Criteria, try and stay below “3? on your spam rating.
  • Don’t use ALL CAPS
  • Don’t use exclamation points excessively, one gets the point across just fine :)
  • Use more than just images in your e-mail

Ways to keep users from hitting the “spam” button

  • Keep your Subject relative to the church and what the email is about
  • Send your emails to lists no older than 6 months
  • Include a permission reminder at the header of your emails

E-Mail Campaign Services

Design Tips

  • No wider than 600px
  • Top left corner is the first thing that is seen in most e-mail clients and it is 250×250px

Anti-Virus Software messes up a lot of designs and strips out much of the code that we use when designing a newsletter.

  • No JavaScript
  • No Flash
  • No Dynamic HTML
  • No <head>
  • No <body>
  • No CSS Positioning

Images are the next thing that can vary on different clients. Here are some tips about what to expect when sending out e-mail newsletters with images.

  • Assume that the pictures are not displayed by default and the user will have to click a link or button to show the pictures.
  • Assume that the users will not bother to turn on the images
  • Use ALT text format: “graphic: alt text” so that when the picture doesn’t show they won’t read the ALT text like it’s part of the content.
  • When your customers sign up for your email newsletter instruct your customers how to add your e-mail address to their contacts
  • Attach a vcard, not a must but it couldn’t hurt.

Suggested Websites

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