Many of our customers asked whether they were able to recycle or reuse their brochure as an email marketing message (hereafter EDM) so that they can save time and cost. Some even hope that by converting their brochure into Adobe PDF format; it can safely send out as an attachment without any hassles. Unfortunately, the answer is no due to the following reasons.
Wrong Format
First, the correct format for an EDM should be in html format with proper links to images or to relevant web pages. Any other formats are not able to be imported into the email marketing system. Therefore, even you have a nicely-done brochure prepared in Adobe Indesign or Microsoft Word, it still cannot be used as an EDM. You need to convert your brochure into html ready format for use.
Wrong Dimension
Even if you are able to convert the brochure successfully into EDM but the width of the brochure is way too wide to fit into most email clients’ viewing panel. Nowadays, besides using the commonly known email clients like Microsoft Outlook. Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail, there are recipients using iPhone and iPad to read their EDM so the screen will be even narrower. The recommended dimension of an EDM should not exceed 600 pixels and 200 pixels or less for mobile phone screen, anything more than that will require recipients to scroll horizontally which is a unfriendly interface to the recipients.
EDM converted from Graphic-Heavy Brochure causes Problems
Brochure tends to be more graphic heavy as it is designed to be eye-catching and appealing to its targeted audiences. However, when it is converted into EDM directly, it will lead to problems such as slow delivery and browser viewing as graphics takes time to load. In addition, brochure tend to use a lot of fanciful fonts to enhance its appeal but not all email clients supported fancy fonts so your recipients may not be able to see the same fancy fonts as you see in your PC. As a result, it may cause misalignment of your EDM and bring negative impact to your company image.
Not Utilizing the Full Capacity of EDM
Brochure and EDM are totally two different media and they are created differently for their purposes. By converting an offline brochure into an online EDM, one may not utilize the full capacity of online media for example the linking, tracking, forwarding, sorting and organizing features of the email marketing system. In order to take full advantage of such features, the brochure will has to be recreated.
Sending PDF as an Attachment is not Allowed
If you are thinking to convert your beautiful brochure into PDF format and send out directly to your recipients, unfortunately, this is not allowed in the email marketing system. The main reason is most people view attachment as spam or some kind viruses that can cause harm to our PC so email marketing service providers forbid sending out attachment.
Nevertheless, there is a workaround. You may store a copy of PDF file into your server or the email service provider’s server and then add a link to it to access the PDF file. However, doing this way, you are taking full advantage of the email marketing features as mentioned above. You will not be able to track who is clicking what links and how many times they click on the links.
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Hopefully you can see now that recycling the brochure for EDM to save time and cost is not a way to go. To ensure a successful EDM campaign, you need to re-create your EDM according to its guideline. Having a well-designed EDM will definitely help to increase your delivery, open and click through rate. You will eventually see that the extra efforts and money spent is actually well worth the effort.