HTML in eMarketing and creative opportunities

[Jigsaw CCS]

Hello, I would like to request some advice on a project I have.

The project I'm working on at the moment requires sending out a 'ransom note' (which will be a scan of a hand-made ransom note, you know, bits of newspaper letters glued on paper).

There will be nothing else except one big image (the note scan) in the email, but it seems a tad boring. It's not absolutely vital, but is there anything else I could do with it - I know that most email clients don't support 'image swap' and things like that. Is there any snazzy coding tricks I could try, maybe so the letters load one by one or if they fade on to the page? How limited am I when it comes to emails?

Thanks in advance and I hope I've made the problem clear!

Dan

[PhilipDixon]

If you create a html email you can do pretty much anything. running javascript to fade-in icons wouldn't be a problem.

[Jigsaw CCS]

If you create a html email you can do pretty much anything. running javascript to fade-in icons wouldn't be a problem.

Yes, it's something I could look into. I have reservations about being 'too' creative (is there such a thing?) with javascript - some people don't even allow images in their incoming mail - and I'm worried it will take ages to load and they will immediately lose interest.

[PhilipDixon]

with all html emails you would require somewhere to host the image content. So depending on the clients having decent broadband and a decent hosting company this shouldn't be a problem. One aspect to be cautious of is the fact that clients block content. so you would be relying on them enabling.

I dont see this as a problem as lots of big companies regularly send html emails out and people are getting used to them.

Its worth a try, not much to loose..

[JElder]

Note that if you send a HTML email with only an image on it, many spam blockers will block it as 'image spam'. It was used for a while by spammers as there was no text for the spam engine to check, it it got passed,. Many now block emails if there are less than X characters of text and one or more images - although it will depend of the recipients filter settings.

[Jigsaw CCS]

Note that if you send a HTML email with only an image on it, many spam blockers will block it as 'image spam'. It was used for a while by spammers as there was no text for the spam engine to check, it it got passed,. Many now block emails if there are less than X characters of text and one or more images - although it will depend of the recipients filter settings.

Thanks this is a really good point, I will look in to it and try and get the minimum (X) number of characters needed.

[PhilipDixon]

Note that if you send a HTML email with only an image on it, many spam blockers will block it as 'image spam'. It was used for a while by spammers as there was no text for the spam engine to check, it it got passed,. Many now block emails if there are less than X characters of text and one or more images - although it will depend of the recipients filter settings.

yes however a html email does not actually mean you are sending the image so wouldn't be blocked by this type of filer but some email clients do classify 100% html emails as spam.