Forget email design, what about URL design?
Latest posts | Feed | By Mark Brownlow on March 29, 2007
There's more to a web address than meets the eye. One issue skipped over in pretty much every discussion of email design is that of URL design. How might the look and feel of a link impact on the reader? Especially in text-only messages.
Turns out there's a whole science dedicated to this. A good URL can:
> Reinforce a brand message
> Help orientate the reader
> Provide text clues to the destination page's content and value
> Indicate important content relationships
> Remain relevant and recognisable over a long period of time
Compare, for example...
http://www.brandk.com/land.php?123456
...with...
http://www.brandk.com/rings/coupon/
With the prevalence of third-party tracking links in email, URL design gets a little tricky and limited. But at least it's worth remembering in the context of landing pages.
What if we could personalize that landing page URL in a more meaningful way? Could the landing page be:
http://www.brandk.com/rings/coupon/justformark/
How does that compare to:
http://www.brandk.com/land.php?123456 ?
Much of the discussion around this topic centers on website navigation, but a lot is applicable to email. Try these resources for some tips and ideas...
Design patterns for URLs
Making URLs accessible
A BBC presentation on what makes a good URL
URLs as UI
URL principles
User-centered URL design
If anyone has their experience to pass on, I'd welcome it. Looks like a niche topic worth exploring...every little bit helps.
Update: Mike Schinkel takes the above post and makes some insightful comments here. His whole blog covers URL design, so if the topic tweaks your interest, be sure to bookmark that.
More on email design | Tags: email marketing, email design, url design, landing pages
Turns out there's a whole science dedicated to this. A good URL can:
> Reinforce a brand message
> Help orientate the reader
> Provide text clues to the destination page's content and value
> Indicate important content relationships
> Remain relevant and recognisable over a long period of time
Compare, for example...
http://www.brandk.com/land.php?123456
...with...
http://www.brandk.com/rings/coupon/
With the prevalence of third-party tracking links in email, URL design gets a little tricky and limited. But at least it's worth remembering in the context of landing pages.
What if we could personalize that landing page URL in a more meaningful way? Could the landing page be:
http://www.brandk.com/rings/coupon/justformark/
How does that compare to:
http://www.brandk.com/land.php?123456 ?
Much of the discussion around this topic centers on website navigation, but a lot is applicable to email. Try these resources for some tips and ideas...
Design patterns for URLs
Making URLs accessible
A BBC presentation on what makes a good URL
URLs as UI
URL principles
User-centered URL design
If anyone has their experience to pass on, I'd welcome it. Looks like a niche topic worth exploring...every little bit helps.
Update: Mike Schinkel takes the above post and makes some insightful comments here. His whole blog covers URL design, so if the topic tweaks your interest, be sure to bookmark that.
More on email design | Tags: email marketing, email design, url design, landing pages
[This post brought to you by Campaigner Email Marketing]
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