Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) email has gotten a bad rap for many years. However, when used as part of a well-designed email campaign, it can be welcomed by its recipients and can provide measurable results for organizations.

Patterson paraphrases the benefits of email campaigns outlined in The email marketing kit [1]. Some of the benefits include the fact that email provides timely results, is quick to produce results, and accommodates hyperlinks.

Creating a well-designed email campaign requires planning. Questions that need to be answered as part of the planning process include: What is the main reason for sending the email? Who will you be sending the email to? Do you have permission to send the email to the recipients? What type of email will you be sending?

Measuring the success of an email campaign can be done through specialized software used internally or through an email service provider. Success can be measured by the open rate, click rate, and conversion rate. The conversion rate is the number of people who click through to perform the action to be tracked.

To avoid the email being quickly sent to the trash, it needs to show the recipient that it is of value. This starts with a subject line that identifies the sender and the offer that the recipient will find of value. To keep the recipient’s interest, the email needs to be as short as possible. For a content-heavy email such as a newsletter, it should be limited to two or three screens. The email should generate enough interest so that the recipient clicks the link to the full article stored on a Web site.

The author believes it is best not to buy or rent an email list. There is no way to confirm that the people on the list did actually opt in or that the list is up to date. Spam filters will check things such as the subject line, the body of the message, and possibly the “from” address. Testing against as many filters as possible will help limit problems.

Unlike Web sites that are usually viewed in a large browser window by default, emails are viewed in a preview pane encompassing less than 20 percent of the screen. A successful email will have the content that will entice the recipient to continue reading in the first few hundred pixels. Patterson recommends limiting the width to 600 pixels for HTML emails and 60 characters for text emails. By default, some email clients (such as Gmail) do not display images. So, during testing, the email should be checked with images turned off, to make sure that it is still readable without the images.

The author discusses four essential elements of an effective email: a permission reminder, recognizable sender details, an unsubscribe link, and compliance with the spam laws of the country of the sender of the email.

Even with limited space, there are many layout options. Two- and three-column formats can be very effective. Patterson provides a gallery of more than a dozen emails for inspiration. He also provides a list of Web sites that can help the reader find inspiration for email design. When it comes to actually coding the email, techniques used to create Web sites in the last century need to be used. Having the most consistent display of the email across most popular email clients requires the use of tables for the layout. This is because email clients either do not support cascading style sheets (CSS) layout techniques at all, or they do so inconsistently. Some email clients (such as Gmail) strip styles from the head of the email and ignore external style sheets. CSS can still be used with inline styles. Therefore, each element will have to be styled individually. The author provides several tables that show the CSS properties supported by today’s most common email clients.

According to Patterson, the most important lesson the reader should take from this book is to always test the email before sending it out, with as many email clients as possible. Or, one can use one of several services listed in the book to do the testing. The author recommends testing with Outlook 2007 and Gmail, as the email is being developed. These are two popular email clients that are frequently the cause of problems.

A whole chapter is dedicated to discussing permissions. Included is what should and should not be sent, and who should be receiving the email. Companies must comply with the spam laws in their country. The final chapter walks the reader through selling email services to clients. It discusses the why, what, and how of email services.

I highly recommend this well-written book to Web professionals who are looking to expand the services they offer to include email services.