HELP!!Suggestions on HTML Email Design

[emailtoarpit]

Hy Guys,

I have set up a web-design firm website. Now I have plans to send out HTML email to potential clients. Initially I plan to target School and Restaurants in my local area.

As of now, I am half way in designing a school themed HTML email targeting school principals/ owners/purchase staff. I have attached the design for your reference.

I would like help in getting the banner done for this email. In the picture you would see teens holding a banner. However, for this theme, I prefer kids holding the banner instead of teens. The banner will have text www.my-school.com (if pic is of kids holding the banner) or www.your-school.com (if use the existing image). What I would like to know are the following:

1. Where can I get a pic of kids (psd, jpeg,gif etc) holding the banner for free.

2. What fonts should be very effective for the text on the banner for this theme. If you are suggesting, pls provide the font name

3. In "my-school" in "www.my-school.com" will be on a strip of paper as shown in 2nd picture (attached), Where can I get to learn a photoshop tutorial on creating such a strip/block as shown in the 2nd pic.

4. Any suggestions on improving the email in terms of overall design, content i.e what ideally should be in an HTML email.

5. Any suggestion on design(banner), content for a similar marketing email targeting Restaurants owners and hotels.

6. Any other suggestions/ marketing tips for such target group (schools, restaurants, textile mill owners & traders).

Thanks for your suggestions guys.

[freecrm]

html e-mails are a nightmare if you want them to look good.

I have a few things for you to bear in mind.

1) I have done many e-mailshots. My first were just simple html plain text, with image banners. The response rate was OK, but I felt that the image they were representing was poor. My second batches were more complex and sent using the phpmail function (as per my website). I included table design (because tableless designs break up when css is removed.) and gave the mail a very pro look. The response to these again was OK, but nothing special. I have since learned that many e-mails that take a pro look are immediately deemed "junk" and rapidly end up in the junk mail folder.

My third attempts went back to a more basic approach, but blending tables in cleverly so that the overall look was better than a word-created document, but not oo slick to appear junky.

2) If you register on my site, you can play with your e-mail templates if you need to. There is a section where you enter all html and preview (incuding merge fields) before sending it to all selected contacts.

3) Be VERY careful when doing e-mailshots. Any number of recipients not wanting it could report it as spam and potentially black-list your e-mail server - effectively stopping you from sending more effectively. X10's servers are blacklisted with several servers and it is very difficult to get this lifted. Keep a track on MPS (Mail preference Service) contacts and make sure you don't bother them.