Tip of the week 58: Crafting email newsletters during the time of crisis

Tip of the week 58: Crafting email newsletters during the time of crisis



In the past month or so, I've understandably received several coronavirus-related emails from the brands I use. Offering moral support to your customers, especially at unprecedented times like this, tells them you don't always mean business. I'm sure most of you are reading this saying, "Yes, I've done it already and will continue to do so. What's the takeaway for me here?"

However, wait, I'm going to discuss how you could execute your email campaigns faster during this remote work period. Also, I'll tell you how to ensure your emails being delivered to your audience's inbox. 

Faster execution of email campaigns 

 

With everybody embracing remote work, knowing a few time-saving methods help you send out your newsletters real fast. 

 

Here are some of them: 


     1. Ask your team to upload the imagery-related content to the Library so you can quickly convert them into newsletters using the Template Editor. Creating a folder (preferably with the campaign's name) in the Library and adding every content element there goes a long way





2. If you already have the HTML code, upload it to the Template Editor and convert it into a template in minutes 




3. Did you know that any sort of announcements you make in your website can be automatically converted and sent as emails to your audience? It's called RSS-to-Email Campaign. If your website has a RSS feed/content block, you can configure certain tags to pull in different parts of your (website) content to your email. A RSS-to-Email Campaign can be created by: entering the URL of your RSS feed, choosing the time zone, and scheduling the date and time 


 

Quick reference: Here's a remote work guide for email marketers prepared by a fellow marketer.  


COVID-19 templates from Zoho Campaigns 

 

Realizing that instant and empathetic communication is the need of the hour, Zoho Campaigns has added a set of COVID-19 templates to its ready-made collection. 




Designed using the industry-advised standards, the highlights of these templates are: 


           1. Usage of web font that's recognized and supported by all email clients 

          2. Lightweight HTML code for smooth rendering 
          3. Emphatetic content crafted to meet different messaging needs 

Other ready-made templates 

 

Zoho Campaigns also has pre-made templates in multiple categories. Simply pick one that suits your need, fit the content, and you're ready. However, you should check off a few things design- and content-wise to boost your email deliverability. 

 

Note: The following checklist is also for those who design their templates from scratch. 

 

Your checklist 

 

1. Maintain a 40:60 image-to-text ratio. 

2. Use fonts that are considered web safe. 

Note: The pre-loaded fonts found in today's email marketing software fall under the web safe category


3. While designing templates on your own, ensure the HTML code is lightweight. The lighter it is, the better your templates' rendering. 


4. Embed your hyperlinks as CTA buttons. 


5. Avoid using too many hyperlinks. 


6. Shy away from using shortened URLs. 


7. Always preview how your templates render across devices and platforms. 

Note: Zoho Campaigns helps you do this effectively with Litmus integration. 

 

Quick reference: Here's an extensive email design guide written by a fellow marketer. 


​

 

Hope this helped! A huge shout out to everyone who's practising social distancing while keeping work intact. 

Regards, 
Aravindhan S



      • Sticky Posts

      • Tip of the week 03 - Sending emails in batches

        Today's marketers not only want their email marketing to be efficient, but also smart. For an email campaign, you may think you have all the essential elements for lead conversion—a big mailing list, an attractive template design, and the most-engaging message content, but after hitting the ‘send’ button, you may not get the expected conversions. Wondering why? Here’s one of the major reasons. Many marketers miss out on sending the email campaign the right way. Did you know that you should not be

      • Tip of the week 04 - Know about your recipients' 'prime open time.'

        In today's market, the importance of customer behavior is astounding, with a vast amount of research and resources going into finding how customers make decisions. The process of persuading your customers to open your email and click on your call-to-action becomes easy when you understand the psychology behind their behavioral traits. Time to turn into a psychologist! Let's get to the basics—you want your emails to resonate well with your recipients. So, what's the primary thing involved here? It's

      • Zoho Campaigns Expert Diaries on SoundCloud, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube

        Hi email champs,  As email marketers, we find great lessons in each other's works—be it the subject lines that worked good, the design that was received well, or the CTA that had the maximum clicks. Email marketing encompasses a wide variety of topics spanning everything from creation and design to development and deliverability.  Here's when we from the Zoho Campaigns team found the need to build an email marketing community comprising of seasoned marketers and email geeks who can help each other

      • Email Deliverability Tip #3: Seal the deal with the preheader

        In the last post, we learned about the subject line. Today we'll be learning about the preheader. A preheader is the short text that follows the subject line in an email. The preheader is designed to hint at what your email message is all about. A good preheader should act as a second subject line and convince your contacts to open the email. Now, let's learn the best way to craft a preheader. Your subject line and preheader should work together and accurately convey the gist of your email. Keep

      • Tip of the week 15 - Add subscription-preferences option. Drive more engagement.

        If crafting content for emails, getting creatives done, and running email campaigns is your love, then unsubscribes are the heartbreakers.  You can save your emails from being unsubscribed/trashed by adding a proper subscription-preferences option in your emails (works best at the time of signup). Giving subscribers the option to choose what they want to receive from you and decide how often (frequency of the emails) your emails should hit their inboxes will increase the reach of your campaigns manifolds.