Talking of Design
And his black and white email newsletter design service
“Early in the morning, just as day is dawning, Kev feels he can offer a high quality e‑mail newsletter design, development and send-out service.”
Over the past 10 years working as a freelance web designer and developer, I’ve also been offering an e‑newsletter design, coding and management service to my clients.
As a result, it is an area that I’ve become quite skilled and knowledgeable in.
In this post, I go into more detail as to the service I can provide, and also show some of the designs I have created during my time providing this service.
Firstly, I treat the process much like a regular web design and development project. With this in mind, I apply the following stages of planning, design and development, which are much the same as those I would apply to a regular web design and development project:
- A list of the on-page elements required, based on discussions with the client, and/or a supplied brief
- A wire-frame of how these elements are arranged on the design
- A visual of how the newsletter will look
- The HTML and CSS coding of the newsletter (based on the agreed planning, wire-framing and design from previous stages listed above)
- Special elements to allow the client to add and edit content and items themselves — via an easy to use web based system
- Set-up of the newsletter management system ready for the client to use and send-out campaigns
Designs are created with client branding in mind, so the newsletter is a seamless part of other project material.
Features of the system
As mentioned above, I have a system that allows clients to securely log-in and manage their campaigns via a web browser. Once an account is set-up and any templates have been added, the user has a variety of features at their disposal, which include:
- Send-out personalisation
- Send-out archive
- Spam checks
- Authentication
- Comprehensive monitoring and stats
- Subscriber management
- Subscriber segmentation
- Social sharing
- Integration with your website sign-up forms
- Bespoke client branded templates (as described above)
- Ability for client to edit content (headings, text, images, links, repeating blocks)
- Send-out previews
- And more
And the cost of this service?
The cost for the design and coding of templates is based on the needs of each client and their requirements. It is usual for either a brief to be provided by the client, or established via communication between myself and the client, of-which a proposal of costs and deliverables is then emailed for approval.
There is also a cost per send-out and per recipient, which is governed by a combination of quantity of subscribers and frequency of send-outs.
Like Postman Pat, I can deliver
^ That’s not a line from one of those contemporary rap music songs all the cool kids listen to, but what is true is that my E‑newsletter service is part of a “sack-full” of web based services I can provide clients with. Dare I say a “one-stop-shop”? Well, I just did :) Or to continue with another postie-pun: The complete package? Yeah. “Return your jokes to sender”, is the heckle I hear from the back.
Jess-ting aside, if you would like to enquire about contracting me to provide you with this service, feel free to contact me.