Deconstructing the email template

Feeling overwhelmed when it comes to newsletters?

We are not all webmasters or designers, so when it comes to designing your newsletter it can be a bit daunting. If you are a new user of Campaign Master, or just looking for some design tips, here is a brief introduction to newsletter templates and a few handy hints to keep in mind when creating your own.

Why create a template in the first place?

With newsletters there are always parts that are the same. By creating a template, you only have to create those parts once. Even if your newsletter only contains the most basic information it is still worth creating a template. What’s more, by adding in all the obvious parts now, you won’t forget them next time!

A simple newsletter structure is made up of three basic building "blocks": the header, the content, and the footer.

Header	This contains all the information that needs to be at the top. It includes the visible header of your newsletter. When you look at our GO! Newsletter – it includes our logo, the newsletter name, date and the goldfish image as well as the contact us and forward to a friend links. Apart from the date, all the content within our Header remains standard for each newsletter.
Content	This is where the "meaty" bit sits. The content changes each time and contains article titles and text, links and images.
Footer	The footer contains information that goes at the bottom of your email, such as copyright, contact information and links to other pages. It also commonly includes the unsubscribe link. Typically this content remains the same for each newsletter.

What does the template look like "behind the scenes"?

All web browsers and email viewers are different, so in order to ensure the layout of your email remains stable and as you designed it originally, create it using tables. Here is a very simple example of a newsletter created with tables.

In this example, there is one outer table and within that, another nested table. Tables are made up of rows and columns. You can change each row and column as required by merging cells together and you can alter each cell’s content, colour and font individually just as you would within a Word table.

Things to consider when designing your template

• To accommodate preview panes, keep your email width to no greater than 550 pixels, designing your outer table to be that width. Use absolute pixel width rather than percentages.
• Keep all text left-aligned. It is difficult to read centred text on screen.
• Logos should be prominent and of good quality.
• Don’t use fonts larger than 20 pt.
• Keep the ratio of text to images high. Spam filters look for images accompanied by little or no text, so when it comes to graphics, smaller images are better. If you want to use a large image, then it should be sliced into smaller jigsaw like portions. Images should be jpg or gif files between 5-15kb in size. Use absolute width. Include alt tags for images for best practice.
• Tables should be simple. When creating nested tables (tabled within tables) they should be kept to a minimum, as it can be difficult for users to adjust or update. Avoid creating tables with thick borders.
• When using columns, two is the optimum number to have. Any more and your newsletter becomes difficult to read.

For more detailed information on creating templates, contact our design team.