Creating an email with an html- based layout 1

[muchAppreciated]

Hi, I have not dealt much with email marketing and a client needs me to create an email with a graphic and some text. It sounds simple enough but I just want to ensure that I am going about it correctly. Do I create it in my graphics program or in Dreamweaver? How do I figure out what size to make it so it fits an email window width wise? Do I just play around until it fits or is there a set size? and then once it's created, what is the next step? Just insert it in an email window and email it to my client? Pardon my ignorance but I really am clueless in this area.

Also, if I want to make sure that ppl. who have their graphics "turned off" in their email program will still see something normal.. Do I just use the regular alt tags?

And finally, is there anything important that I missed out that will flop the whole project???

thanks a million for any forthcoming tips!

 

[HowardMarks]

You can create a HTML Email in dreamweaver in the same way you would create a regular web page. The only difference I would suggest is that the img sources are set to complete URLS such as

http://www.mysite.com/images/image.jpg

so that you don't have to send the images along with the email.

There are a couple of ways you could send the email. The first most simple, is to open the page in an i.e. browser window and go to File>Send>Page By Email. If you are using Outlook Express this will open the page in an email message window, and also allow some rudimentary editing of the page before it is sent.

The other, more complicated (but much more flexible) way is to send the email using a component such as JMail, from within an ASP script. You can use the XMLHTTP object to 'grab' the html from a URL and send it to one or more people. Alternatively, you can build up a string which contains the HTML for the page, meaning you have full control over the content and could change it according to various situations.

If you need any further clarification just ask,

I hope this helps you a bit! Nick (Software Developer)

http://www.retrographics.co.uk

http://www.retrotest.co.uk

nick@retrographics.fsnet.co.uk
nick.price@myenable.com

 

[flasher]

Thank you! I will try the first method which is so simple. I appreciate your help.