Comments on: How Does Gmail Affect Your Mailings?

By: Javier

Javier — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:24:58 +0000

We are having a similar problem with our Newsletter… It works fine in Outlook, but not in Gmail where it gets quite messed up… especially the links are not working and the font format are all wrong.

I hope somebody can give a hand. Thank you.

By: liya

liya — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 07:17:29 +0000

I created a html version newsletter, it works just fine in Novell GroupWise, Thunderbird, Mac’s buid-in email but not work in Gmail, Outlook neither Webmail.

The CSS layout completely not working in Gmail, Outlook neither Webmail. it is just a pile of images and text put on top of each other. In addition, all the images used in the newsletter are stored as attachment with the email, pretty mess!

Can someone point me to the right direction?

By: Dawud Miracle

Dawud Miracle — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 12:15:08 +0000

I hadn’t really thought about this. I’m going to get my GMail account today so I can begin testing. As always, Justin, thanks for the great topic.

By: Pete

Pete — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 09:55:24 +0000

Being a subscriber of Jim Cockrum’s for a good while now, I always wait for the link to the live web page version. It’s just so much easier.
I adopted the same tactic myself recently and I’m very pleased with the results.

It seems all the major players are also using this delivery system now as well.

Though I do have to say, that it appears if you put MORE than one live link in the ‘linking’ E-mail it sends the SPAM filters into high alert because of the small amount of TEXT content.

It might pay to include an innocent article below if you need MORE than one link.

Pete

By: Rebecca Beasley

Rebecca Beasley — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 15:29:57 +0000

I always include a hyperlink for response
that has the subject line so my readers can
reply and not have to type anything.
Then I filter the subject line to go to a new
folder.

For instance, if I want to have them respond
to a specific question, such as "How am I doing?"
I put a link like this one in the letter.
mailto:myemail@mydomain.com?subject=satisfied
or mailto:myemail@mydomain.com?subject=unhappy
Most people want to be able to contact me directly
and even if they send me ads, I don’t care. This
gives me a chance to visit their site and make
comments, thus increasing my ability to gain trust.

Even bouncebacks can be a goldmine if you know how
to use them.

Rebecca Beasley

By: What is Gmail?

What is Gmail? — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 22:00:56 +0000

I’ve actually stopped sending out the newsletters in HTML, and I’ve found a huge response. While my advertiser was getting about 7% CT in the HTML newsletter, the plain text newsletter has about 12% typing the addresses into the address bar. Amazing, as it’s actually more work for the reader.

In any case, not using CSS or XHTML (that means tables, folks!) in HTML newsletters helps them display properly across mail clients. And include all your images, as most mail clients block automatic image download.

By: Scott Shubert

Scott Shubert — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 20:41:12 +0000

This is interesting news to me. In order to build a list of opt-in subscribers I created a visually appealing set of lessons with graphics and video in html format in the e-mail this creates more of a sense of value than a text only e-mail. If this causes G-mail to filter the e-mail mayabe I should just send an e-mail with text saying, "here is the link to the next lesson."

What do you think?

By: Rob Toth

Rob Toth — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 02:37:09 +0000

I’ve used Gmail for over a year now. I have been using a domain forwarding email and though I used to check it in Outlook, I’ve had it forwarding to Gmail for nearly as long as my account has been live.

I test my mailings in Hotmail, Gmail and Outlook but I read my subscriptions and all my incoming email in Gmail.

Gmail’s spam filter is fantastic. Hotmail can be tricky as it’s more frequent to find valid emails in Junk and vice versa. My ISP’s email filter system is similar.

Gmail combined with Gmail notifier and now the Thread Update (and then add on the built in Google Talk) makes it a very high efficiency tool.

In short… I think their user base will grow more and more especially in the business community as Gmail offers a lot of bells and whisltes (easy access to their online spreadsheets, over 2 GB storage space, etc).

The more of my subscribers that use Gmail, the happier I will be… especially if they’re coming from AOL!

By: James Salmons

James Salmons — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 05:24:05 +0000

Thanks for all the good info. As a new site and newsletter publisher I was glad to be tipped off to this issue. Fortunately I think I have worked out an effective solution, at least for me.

After learning how all these services mess up css I searched and found that a number of programs and sites offer help in the way of instructions and templates. I chose to get High Impact Email and used a template which I personalized to the extent it doesn’t even resemble the original. The underlying structure is still there, however. Primarily it uses tables (so much for standards) extensively.

I have tested my first newsletter, to be distributed next month, and have found that it works great (images and all) in every test including g-mail.

By: Ty Cohen

Ty Cohen — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 16:19:27 +0000

Jim do you think that having both the text version of your newsletter as well as the online html version is whats causing the 30% inccrease or could it be the fact that your subscribers are receiving TWO emails from you?

I say this because I see that the more often I email my list the same message the more responsive they are.

Ty Cohen