Stationary doesn't mean standing still
In the beginning, there was text, and it was good. But soon it became passé as everyone used it to broadcast marketing messages. Then came graphical e-mail, and it was better, or at least brighter. It stood out from the crowd, since it was able to Graphical e-mail's higher on the marketing food chain. Using graphical messages -- typically composed of HTML code -- you can display everything from images and colors to distinctive fonts and logos.
Using graphical e-mail for marketing carries a risk. Many of your recipients won't be able to view the message because a) they're not using an e-mail client which supports HyperText Markup Language (HTML), the standard for composing Web pages, or b) they are using such a client, but they haven't set it up so that it will read HTML.
But it's increasingly likely that customers will see your graphical message. The reasons: the spread of HTML-enabled clients, such as Eudora, Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express, Netscape Messenger, and now, AOL 6.0. Add that to the wide availability of graphical, Web-like newsletters, which have made HTML mail familiar, sometimes even expected, and you have some solid grounds for shifting to graphical marketing messages.
The easiest way to get started with graphical mail is with Microsoft Outlook's stationary (which also works with Outlook Express), which provides minimalist graphics, essentially pre-packaged HTML backgrounds and sometimes including audio. Outlook includes several stationary styles, and you can download others from a host of sites, including Microsoft's and a place called CloudEight. Unfortunately, few stationary styles are appropriate for business -- most lean toward the cute -- and none, naturally, focus on your firm. You'll want to build your own.
That's not a tough task if you're comfortable coding in HTML (for a few tips, check out this Outlook Stationary how-to from Internet Tips & Secrets). But for those of us who think HTML stands for "Hard To Make Lovely," there are programs like Paper Maker 7, a stationary creation tool. You can download Paper Maker, then try it for 30 days before you must fork over the US$24 registration fee.
Stationary is, however, just a stop-gap. For really interactive marketing messages with Web page-like links to your e-store, you need to move up to a more sophisticated messaging format: HTML. I'll spot you some starting points in the next step.
Graduate to HTML
The ultimate in graphical e-mail is a full-blown, Web-style message which includes, among other things, live links that take customers to your e-store (or even to a specific product you're spiffing).
You need to create a Web page, essentially. HTML hand-crafting skills come in very handy here, but if you're a klutz at coding, there are other ways to build a page which you can e-mail to customers. In fact, you probably have the necessary tools already in hand: Microsoft Word 2000 and/or FrontPage 2000. The former comes with every edition of Office 2000, while the latter only appears in the highest-priced Premium version. If you don't have FrontPage, you can try it for 45 days by ordering a trial CD from Microsoft; you pay US$6.95 for shipping and handling.
I've found these step-by-step instructions have found one that works for me on the Web. Take a look at Web Marketing Today's guide, "Formatting Dual Text and HTML Newsletters" for a how-to on creating and mailing HTML marketing messages. (Although the article highlights e-newsletters, the process is the same for smaller, simpler messages.)
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