Newsletter Creation Advice?

**devinej1** · 4 Mar 2010, 08:40 AM

Hi everyone,

Just wondering what everyone here use's to create their newsletters with ? And i am after some advice as i am not to crash hot with HTML etc. Maybe there are some programs out there that are worth a shot to create simple, but effective newsletters with ? any suggestions, advice would be greatly appreciated i have tried making one in the ZC admin but just cant get them to look the part with my current HTML skills.

Thanks in advance

**schoolboy** · 4 Mar 2010, 06:29 PM

Technically it is possible (and permissible) to use almost any HTML editor to compile "page content" for any place in the zencart schema that stores descriptive text based on html formatting.

(This mean, anywhere where the little HTMLArea editor is made available).

Though I am extremely embarrassed to admit it

, I sometimes use MS FrontPage to compile such HTML content, and on more detailed stuff I use Dreamweaver...

... BUT ...

You have to know what you can include and how it must be included.

Many of these html editors will append styles along the way, then auto-create an associated external stylesheet. (They assume you're building a flat html page for a domain, and therfore structure the schema for you).

However - for html that is e-mailed, the styles need to be "embedded" into the html page itself.

To see how this is used in a standard ZC page that gets emailed, FTP to your local drive, any one of the files that are located in the email folder in your zc installation.

Open it for editing in a plain text editor.

You will see how the page's styles are declared in the page header section.

Now... basically, you need to get your proprietary HTML editor to do the same for you, so see if it allows the option to embed styles in the header when you create your pages.

Once your page is created in the external editor, you can bring in the html code to the zencart page.

If it is for an INTERNAL page, then you use only the code that exists between the <body> and </body> tags, and it is best to create an external stylesheet, because this won't use the header. (Or use styles that are already in your existing stylesheet)

For EXTERNAL pages (such as emailed pages) you should be OK bringing in the entire page code... eveything from <html> to </html>

**data_digger** · 4 Mar 2010, 06:49 PM

I'm pretty much sure that You shouldn't use just any HTML editor to make HTML email. HTML support in mail clients is very variable. Some clients support styles, some don't, some only accept styles defined in "style" attribute of HTML element. Take a look at:
Css support in HTML emails and Guide to CSS support in email clients
You can quite safely bet that You'll have to make custom changes to HTML code.

You should test Your email on at least few clients:

Thunderbird
Outlook Express
Outlook 2003
Windows Mail
Gmail
Yahoo mail
Live mail
Email agents specific to Your customers

It's pain in the a.s, especially when You find out that Gmail does not display Your email properly and You have to test all email agents again. If You have money take a look at http://litmusapp.com/ They check how Your email looks in various mail agents. Unfortunately I'm unable to get results from Gmail from them - I tried for two weeks and always get 'There was a problem' error.

You should check if:

Your email displays properly, even without images
is it treated as spam? Does it land in Spam folder?

**devinej1** · 5 Mar 2010, 11:07 PM

Wow, sounds more technical then i thought it would be. Damn i really need to start sending out newsletters! But i dont think i have the HTML skills, i tried creating one in my webpage creator and then copying the HTML of my created newsletter into the ZC newsletter creator and that never worked. Hmmm thank you both for your reply's and input on the matter. I searched for a fair while on the forums to find out what others use for their newsletters but had no luck. So hopefully this thread becomes a place where people can share there ideas and how they do them etc. as i am sure there are other people out there like myself who are struggling with there newsletters. For now ill keep tryin and do some more research thank you once again for your replies. And if you have created and sent out newsletters feel free to leave your ideas and suggestions here as it will help me out and hopefully some others to! :)

**data_digger** · 6 Mar 2010, 08:55 AM

If You don't want to use litmusapp or something like that check Your emails only under few most popular mail agents. Checking HTML newsletter under 10 mail agents by hand is overkill.

Use WYSISWYG to create concept of newsletter, then translate it according to list of supported CSS features from links I gave You. Make sure that You don't use unsupported selectors, attributes and styles before You test the newsletter in mail agents.

Provide unsubscribe link in footer/header - it's must be visible.

Google for "html email writing guidelines". Mail chimp has series of good articles on the topic.