Constant Contact Newsletter WIP - opinions welcomed
Romola Chrzanowski
This is the 1st Newsletter I've worked on. I'll welcome any feedback,
and have a couple of questions.
*http://tinyurl.com/yhdzgqp
*Fonts in 2009 Design Awards and main body all need improvement. The
Times New Roman project titles sort of match the Dauphin in the logo;
the rest of the body text could be anything that works. Fonts are not my
strong point by a long shot.
Links to the company site - the entire header is a link to the home
page. Does that seem appropriate?
Each "read more" goes to an individual project page on the company site,
opening in a new window. Appropriate?
Header image quality - I know it could be better, but does it require
more effort? The white is a little blurry.
Photos - is the quality ok?
Footer - the client suggests that the entire footer be a link to the
company home page. Currently only the www.cbbld.com is a link. If I make
the entire footer a link, then the lack of a hover change on the
www.cbbld.com could be confusing. Any thoughts?
Where to put a greeting/salutation. There should be an opening sentence,
and possibly a "Dear firstname," Would you put that in the orange margin
above the first photo, or above the header? Is is ok to have no
salutation, or opening sentence. In the print media, it would be
something like "Francesca .. and Stephen ... are proud to announce that
CBBLD is the recipient of several awards in 2009."
Background - I don't like the grey - it could be black, or white. And,
should it be left justified, as are some newsletters that I receive.
Meta tags - are they necessary or recommended for a newsletter?
I don't expect anyone to address all of my questions, but I will
appreciate any feedback.
Thanks.
Romola Chrzanowski
Chris Luksha
pleasing. On the nitty gritty - I am only giving my opinion of course - not
based on any lovely in depth study from the great and powerful OZ....
Fonts: I agree with the 'need work' but I think simply increasing the font
size may help you enough. I would certainly clean up the header a little.
If you are simply using one image in the header like that - then you can
easily clean up the graininess of the text and white lines. One thing I
noticed is that the header is a jpg image. You may find yourself better
served using a gif there - not sure.
Links: I think linking the whole header to the home page makes sense - I do
that on every site that has no real links in the header. If it is just a
logo in a header - I always link the whole header
Photos: The quality looks fine but certainly remember that your client may
not be 'safe' to all the readers so the images may be off on many people
viewing it. I would think by the clientele you seem to be sending this too
- the size of image and number will not be too much of an issue - looks like
most of the recipients will NOT be concerned with download speed on their
end :)
Footer: The client is always right - except in this :) There is mucho text
that is not for linking - so don't make it all linkable. people receiving
emails don't expect the whole footer to be linked - they expect the link to
be linked. Just my humble 2 cents of course
Salutations: I agree with you that it should be in the orange area and only
use the dear xxxxx if you have enough first names in the system. If the
majority of your list does not have the name - don't use it - use a generic
announcement type opener as you mentioned.
Background: I like the white myself or a brighter grey like #ececec. I
like the centered look for this email as it lends itself to that when it is
all enclosed as yours is.
Meta Tags: ALWAYS. If this is going online anywhere (which it will be
archived in CC - then you want SEs to know what this is all about. There is
never a waste of energy using meta tags IMHO.
Now- click your heals together 3 times and chant. I made a great email I
made a great email I made a great email.....
Nice job overall.
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e-tegrity consulting llc
Like your blue backgrounds top and bottom, but the footer info is really difficult to read - the white font seems to adopt the ripple of the blue background - for me anyway. perhaps you need to space the letters further apart, espec. the various numbers.
The font down the right for each section are very small and hard to read enjoyably.
A greeting/salutation serves to personalize - highly desirable. I'd place it beneath the logo bar and above the "2009 Design Awards"
That's my 2 cents! Good luck!
Tina
Tina DuBosque, M.S., Internet Strategies Management
etegrity consulting llc
PO Box 102
North Stonington, CT 06359
860 705 3151
Meg McCarthy
Romola Chrzanowski
Thank you so much for the encouragement and specific recommendations. I
will implement all, including trying the greeting both in the orange and
below the logo bar.
Gratefully,
Romola Chrzanowski