Layout and design
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When it comes to the actual look and layout of the newsletter itself, there are two main issues:
- Creating a professional, effective appearance.
- Ensuring your newsletter is displayed as intended.
A big problem for email publications is wysinwyg - what you see is not what you get. As with websites, what you send out for people to view is not necessarily what appears on their screens. Various factors can interfere with the way your newsletter is displayed. Subscribers...
- receive mail through an ISP which strips elements from the email.
- use different email software and operating systems, each with its own peculiarities when it comes to displaying received email.
- change the display settings in their software.
- alter the size of the windows on their desktop.
- use monitors with different sizes (not to mention portable devices like cell phones).
- use different screen resolutions and color depth.
- etc...
It is simply impossible to design a newsletter that will always appear as intended. All you can do is minimize the likely variation in appearance.
What I'm going to do in this section is cover the basics of newsletter layout, and pass on some of the tricks you can use to ensure the newsletter is displayed as closely as possible to its intended look.
For more detailed advice, try the design section here at Email Marketing Reports.
Need more email marketing guidance? Try the email newsletter.