E-mail Marketing: What Works Now

Brady advises that initial e-mail contact contain only a small amount of HTML code to test the receiving ability of each customer. Some e-mail programs, such as Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes, both of which ostensibly accept HTML, often have difficulty displaying graphical information correctly.

With that said, implementing HTML has virtually no upfront costs and can drastically improve sales, as Ken Ellingsen can confirm. Ellingsen is president of Improvements, a catalog specializing in home furnishings and fixtures. A year and a half ago, his company looked to Fairfax, VA-based full service e-mail provider Shop2U to create better e-mails than the wimpy text messages it had been using.