Dear <Insert Name Here>

Here is a template that you can use in your mailings if you like. It's a basic template that illustrates some very basic HTML capabilities.

How to use a template

The best approach is to use your favorite HTML editor to do the editing directly. Since you will likely have to upload the images to your own webserver anyway, this is a good, safe approach. You can verify that the layout and images load properly in your browser before trying to customize the content of your message. Just follow these simple steps:

1. Save this web page to your hard drive.
2. Edit it in your favorite HTML editor as though you were going to upload it directly to your own website to publish there. Customize the content, but not the field tags. (You can do that too if you already know the scripting syntax, but your webserver may get confused and think the scripting syntax is for your webserver and not for Mailer).
3. Upload it to an unpublished location on your webserver.
4. Use M5 Mailer's HTML import capability by pasting the URL to this page into the Import window. Mach5 Mailer will automatically convert the image tags to complete URLS for you, and will also insert a BASE tag so that other resources than images will load properly.
5. Customize the fields in your mailing by selecting "<Insert Name Here>", clicking on the Insert Field button, and choosing the Name field in your database.

Alternatively you can import the template directly into Mailer's HMTL pane and then customize it from there using these steps:

1. Use M5 Mailer's HTML import capability by pasting the URL to this page into the Import window.
2. Upload your images to your server. Open JUST the image in your web browser by typing the URL and pathname to the image.
3. Replace the image tags in the template with the URLs to the image from your server by cutting and pasting the complete URL into the image tag. All image tags should look like: <img src="http://www.myserver.com/path/to/my/image.gif" width="whateverwidth" height="whateverheight">
4. Replace customized text by selecting it and clicking the "Insert Field" button.
5. Customize the rest of your message

Additional Tips for HTML mailing

Below are a few tips you may find helpful in order to improve the professional appearance of your mailing.

• Keep your HTML simple. Complex HTML will overwhelm the email systems of many recipients. Many email programs that your recipients may be using aren't designed to handle features like javascript, animated GIFs, Flash plugins, forms, or tables with merged cells.
• Only attach small and critical graphics. Avoid attaching many graphics, especially if they are large. All of your attachments should certainly be well under 100K in size.
• Pull large graphics and files from your webserver, and don't send them as attachments at all. They may clog your recipient's mail connection, particularly if your recipient is using a modem.
• Stay away from ALL CAPS and bold red text! . That kind of text will likely annoy your recipient and may also cause a false positive with spam software.
• Avoid putting an unsubscribe link into your emails with the recipient email address on the link. Links with variables on them (text after a ?) can increase the spam score of your email.
• Send both plain-text and HTML messages simultaneously unless you know what kind of email your recipient prefers. Compose the content for the plain-text and HTML messages separately to make the best use of each presentation style.
• Always include personal reply information

We hope you find our collectoin of templates useful, and that these tips improve the effectiveness of your email campaigns!

Sincerely,

Mike Landis
Chief Manager, Mach5 Development
http://www.mach5.com/