colorful email brochure - howto?

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2old4this

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Hi to the S/w fundis, please advise? I wish to design/send our company brochure via email, that looks nice, attractive & appealing to the eye and also at the same time, keep it small in size.
Now I did a nice one (or thought I did) in MS Publisher & converted it into an email brochure, sent it to few of our office pc's (win xp /ms office 07/2010 & it did look the way I wanted it to.
Then a client replied with the mail & it looked horrible - format had gone! No pictures, lots of >>>signs, etc.
So, my question: is there any kind of app I could use that when the recipient opens it (whether in Gmail, Mac, Linux, Unix, thunderbird client, etc)the formal remains same?
Thanking you in advance!
 
I suspect it is because different customers will be using different e-mail client programs that all handle the received e-mail in different ways... Plain Text/HTML/Rich Formatting/Etc.

There is no way you can account for all those different possibilities. The best you can do is to try and make it at least compatible with both Rich Text Formatting and HTML.

How to do that though, I cannot advise you.
 
I usually send a static JPG picture via email that links off to a website (landing page). That way everyone sees the same brochure in their browser. It requires an extra step from the recipient, but at least you dont damage your brand image.
 
Tks Gary & Stricken
What if I first print the brochure in color & then scan it into PC, save image & then email that.
Could that work?
 
our company database would enquire from customers whether their email is receives html or not.
I haven't seen what the non-html mails look like but all newsletters I've received usually have a link at the top saying something to the like sof "if this does not look right/cannot be viewed correclty, click the link" and takes you online
 
Mantis said:
our company database would enquire from customers whether their email is receives html or not.
I haven't seen what the non-html mails look like but all newsletters I've received usually have a link at the top saying something to the like sof "if this does not look right/cannot be viewed correclty, click the link" and takes you online
Click to expand...

You should be catering for at least ...

People that like all the frills and pretty pictures: For these people you can send rich emails / embed html into it, etc, etc.
People that can't view online images / links: For those people you need to have a text only version of your email available.
None of the above: Friendly text based email with a link to your site and brochure.

It's almost impossible to have a standard 'flyer' reach everyone looking correct. If this is the route you need to go, I would print it as a PDF and include a link to my website where people can view the PDF online.

Hope this helps: Definitely just my personal opinion.
 
Convert it to a .jpg or alternatively use something like free primo pdf to "print" it to .PDF format.
 
.PDF would be your best.

Also, look at mailchimp.com. Amazing free newsletter and campaign service.
 
Tks to all advisers for replying, will try out some of the advice given! Have a great day!
 
AstroTurf said:
Convert it to a .jpg or alternatively use something like free primo pdf to "print" it to .PDF format.
Click to expand...

seanyp00h said:
.PDF would be your best.

Also, look at mailchimp.com. Amazing free newsletter and campaign service.
Click to expand...

Would also go the .pdf route. Try PrimoPDF - it installs a virtual printer, so you can convert anything you can print to .pdf. Play around with the quality settings and whatnot, and you'll get it down to a tiny size without sacrificing too much image quality as well.
 
I suspect that a few things may be happening:
(1) The enriched email is referencing images on your local network, so when you send it internally and a guy next to you gets it, he has access to the same network and can see the image. OR
(2) The reply is doing the same thing, although this time to the outside network so the reply looks broken but the original message was just fine. OR
(3) Email client does not like enriched message.

If you want to do this, first be very honest with yourself: because you posted and I see you using MS-Publisher and wanting to scan and send, I can only assume that your literacy in these matters is minimal. Does it really look good? If you are not a designer by trade (which I suspect, MS-P above) perhaps consider at least bouncing the thing off a pro. Remember, email enriched messages should have an utter maximum width of 650px (some say even 600) because you need to cater for the reader's viewport, the narrowest of which can be that little (their resolution does not come into play, as the side panels etc eat away at the 1024+ pixels).

Now, go ahead and download SeaMonkey (a Mozilla / Firefox diversion). Set up a mail account in SeaMonkey

If you are really satisfied with your product, export the HTML and open in a text reader. Then, copy the HTML and switch to SeaMonkey:
(1) SeaMonkey->Window->Mail and Newsgroups.
(2) Click Compose
(3) When you have filled in the recipients etc, click in the body space then Menu -> Insert -> HTML and paste.
(4) Now, make sure all the images are there and if not, click each to reselect it.
(5) Send

What this process does it quite unique to a few mail clients and SM does it best. The images are pasted as part of the message and identified as such within the message. I suggest serious testing first though because this can go horribly wrong. Alternatively, hire a pro.
 
GreGorGy said:
What this process does it quite unique to a few mail clients and SM does it best. The images are pasted as part of the message and identified as such within the message. I suggest serious testing first though because this can go horribly wrong. Alternatively, hire a pro.
Click to expand...

+1. Pretty much everything people have advised in this thread is true (although sending a PDF brochure sounds like a terrible idea). There are plenty of things that can go wrong when sending out a mass mail and having any of these go wrong can be quite damaging to your companies reputation. I know the idea is pretty simple, something along the lines of "Well I sent it to my friend and it looks fine, so I just want to send it to these other 1000 people too" but in reality these days designing HTML mails probably has more pitfalls/incompatibilities/etc than designing websites. You may also want to track deliverability, read rates, click through rates as well as offer a (working!) unsubscribe feature for the people that don't actually want the mail.
With regards to images it's generally better to link in the images from an external host because some mail clients like Gmail will only show linked images within the mail. Embedded images are all just shown at the bottom in Gmail as attachments.
 
rorz0r said:
With regards to images it's generally better to link in the images from an external host because some mail clients like Gmail will only show linked images within the mail. Embedded images are all just shown at the bottom in Gmail as attachments.
Click to expand...

Not in my gmail - I just sent a test now and it shows up the way it should. I find myself divided between the two approaches, tbh. Linking to images will be defeated by people like myself (I accept my kind are not the norm) who deny port 80 links in their email. The SeaMonkey method above works for many clients though, including people like me who block that port. And like I said, works in Gmail...
 
I had similar problems in the past with newsletters etc. I found the easiest solution is to use an online email marketing site such as GraphicMail although that obviously comes at a cost.
 
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