Rules of thumb for email lists

Email is an effective (and cheap) way to get the the word out about whatever you're trying to communicate. But, there are plenty of ways to do it wrong, and thereby ensure that your message falls on rocky soil (or, worse, annoy people). I thought I'd write down a few rules of thumb for improving email practices. I'm aiming my thoughts at small organizations (businesses, non-profits, churches, etc) who are looking to improve their email communications practices, in part because larger organizations tend to have departments who specialize in communications and therefore don't need my little list o' rules.

Rule #1: Use a Mailing List

How many times have you gotten an email with dozens (or hundreds) of names in the "To:" field? This is fairly common, but there are a number of downsides:

• You're forced to maintain a list of recipients in some other place -- like a Word or Excel document, then copy and paste them into the email.
• Everyone's address is visible to each and every recipient. This isn't very respectful to your audience, as some of them might not want their address shared in this way.
• You've taken the control out of the hands of your audience. They don't have a clean and easy way to unsubscribe (except, by mailing you and making you change the info in whatever file you're using to store stuff). And, it can cause your little email operation to venture dangerously close to spam (as in, unrequested email) territory.

One common way to handle the "visibility" issue is simply to enter every address in the "BCC:" field of your mail program. This nicely hides everyone's name and email. But, it doesn't ease your management burden or give your audience any additional control.

The solution is to use mailing list software. (Some old timers might call mailing lists "listservs", after a well-known example of the software.) A mailing list neatly solves all three of our problems:

• You can store and manage recipient names and emails.


• Emails sent to the list are delivered to each recipient individually, and the entire list's addresses are hidden from users.


• Your users can easily remove themselves from the list, if needed. And, as an added bonus, it is quite easy to set up a way for them to easily subscribe to your list, if that makes sense for your organization. Most mailing list software packages make it fairly easy to incorporate web subscribe/unsubscribe forms into your website.

If you have a website, chances are your website host offers mailing list software. The host I'm using for this very site (Dreamhost) offers users access to Mailman. Mailman isn't the easiest thing in the world to use, but it'll get the job done. And, if it is included with your website hosting package, it could save you some hassle and money.

Both Google and Yahoo have mailing list services, but those are really more geared towards discussion, not distribution of newsletters and the like.

There are also a plethora of for-fee services out there. I haven't used any of those, nor have I researched them, so I'm not going to recommend a particular one. A web search will likely turn up hundreds of options.

Rule #2: Time for maximum impact

Think in terms of "windows of opportunity" -- your goal is have your message arrive at a time when the user is most likely to read it and act on it. For a business audience, avoid the weekends (no one is working), and Mondays (catching up) and Fridays (on the way out the door). So, send messages on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursday. Shoot for mid-day. The morning rush is over, and folks are likely around mid-day (say, 10am to 2 or 3pm). If you're aiming for a non-business audience, maybe time your emails to land in the evening. Still, it is best to avoid the weekends.

Oh, and remember that not everyone checks their email obsessively, so if you want to make sure your message makes it, figure that it'll take some people a few days to actually open and read your message. Time your sending accordingly.

Note that some mailing list packages will let you "time" your message, so you don't have to actively send the message. Just queue it up and tell the software when you want it to be sent, and it'll handle the rest.

Rule #3: Keep it short

As with pretty much any form of communications, keep it short. Tell 'em what you need to tell 'em, then get out. 'Nuff said.

Rule #4: Go easy on the graphics

I get lots of fancy HTML-formatted emails these days. These are fine, but keep this in mind:

• Your message is more important than the design. If you don't have the time and the resources (read: talent) to make a fancy newsletter, don't.


• Many email clients (including mine) don't show images by default. So, your fancy design could end up looking far worse than a plain text message.


• Email clients are all over the map in terms of what they support and don't support, and how they display stuff. What looks good on your screen might look terrible on someone else's. It is worse than the old wild west days of web browsers. Check out Campaign Monitor's info on email design for more.

Okay, now that I got the "old crusty internet guy" rant out of the way, I will say that we do use HTML-formatted emails at work. But, the template is pretty conservative, and not at all image heavy. Keep it simple, or, better yet, keep it just text.

Rule #5: Don't bombard 'em

You'll need to figure out, depending on why you're communicating, the best timing for sending messages. It could be monthly, or weekly, or somewhere in-between. Send too often, and people start ignoring your messages. I get frequent messages from a few large internet retailers, and I tend to not even bother reading them at this point. So, respect your recipients, and don't load up their in-box!

That's it for now. If you have good tips to share, send 'em my way.

Backups

I recently talked to a couple of people who lost data because -- wait for it -- they didn't have a backup strategy in place.

While I'm running the risk of being one of those smug techies who prattles on about the need for backups, I do fell compelled to say back your stuff up!.

The key to backups is that anything that requires either thought or action is doomed to fail. It needs to be automatic and foolproof.

You have two main options: local or off-site. At the simplest level, a local backup could mean just buying an extra (usually external) hard drive and using some simple software to back up your data. But, this doesn't meet the "automatic" test. And, if you're extra paranoid, you'll note that your data isn't safe in case of a fire, theft, or natural disaster. So, while this is the cheapest option, it isn't the best.

Another local option is Apple's Time Machine and Time Capsule. These are basically automatic, set-it-and-forget-it solutions (albeit, just for those with a Mac).

The other way to go with an off-site, internet based backup system. These programs back your data up to file servers in the "cloud." You don't need to buy an extra hard drive, or worry about the physical security of your backup disk. But, you will pay for it in either monthly or yearly fees. The programs run in the background, and (depending on settings) constantly upload your data to the service in question. The big downside (outside of the monthly costs) is a long initial backup run, as all of your data gets transfered up (subsequent backups will cover just the stuff that changed). But, there are two types of users who won't have a good experience: anyone still on dial up (yes, I know some), and anyone collecting a ton of data (think: professional photographer or videographer). For everyone else, this seems to be the way to go.

I'm currently using Jungle Disk -- a backup program that uses Amazon's S3 for storage. You pay only based on what you transfer and store, so if you don't have a ton of data, it might be a pretty good deal. (I'm getting to the point where I'm wondering if I'd get a better deal elsewhere.) I've also set people up with Mozy, a nice little service that charges $5 a month for unlimited space.

Of course, if you really want to make sure your data is safe, try a combination of local and off-site. I bet Time Machine + Mozy would put you in a pretty good spot.

Oh, and check out a recent post from Dan Benjamin on the topic. His take is a bit more technical than mine, but driven by the same desire to keep the baby photos safe!