I've come across some really great and creative e-blasts and some not so hot ones in my inbox. What makes a great e-blast? Why do we use them? What companies are best? I think every arts organization uses e-mail to communicate to patrons, but what seems so simple can be oh so complicated.
Hopefully some of you will comment with your design experience or programs that work for you but this week I learned some exciting and not so exciting news about e-blasts. I am most familiar with Constant Contact (http://www.constantcontact.com/) as an easy to use web based design tool. However easy it is I have also found it's templates to be limiting and technology a bit outdated. This week we received a stunning template from an outside design firm and we were trying to decipher how to upload or copy it into a not so sophisticated system. Until we called tech support.
We learned that you can, in fact, copy in not only your own template, images, and backgrounds, but flash as well. This was so exciting. They told us it would be very easy to do and sent us a word document with simple steps to upload our own design. Finally I thought "this is what I've wanted to do with this program for years!" Then I read the instructions.
Sure it was easy, click on a bunch of links add the subject line and then copy paste your own code into the space provided use html or htmx. Aye there's the rub. Not only do I not know how to really design something in html or htmx I don't even have a program that I could design in and convert to those formats. I suddenly realized, those e-blasts I had turned my nose up at in the past because they looked boring or unprofessional were probably created by people either as tech savvy as me or who lacked the budget and resources to really make something beautiful. The most important advice I have on e-blasts is find what works, make the best of it you can, and remember once you hit send you can't take it back so make sure your information is correct.
Easy is relative but hopefully I'll have the chance to learn something new and some more polished and exciting e-blasts will be coming to an inbox near you.
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1 comment:
Lesley - there is also another thing called virtual response that someone told me was cheaper, provided you with more photo options, and was all around better at tracking things.
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