Best Practices for Bulletin Content

We've said it before! Your club bulletin is an excellent tool for engagement with both your own membership and the world at large. How can you ensure that your newsletter doesn't get caught by spam filters and that all recipients see the same formatting? We often get asked for tips and tricks and some best practices to keep in mind for bulletins, which is why we thought we'd share our first of many articles on the topic and start with what we're asked quite often.

Videos and Animations: Why cannot we add videos in our newsletter?

This is a question we get asked a lot. While many desktop and web-based email clients used to support video in email, as security tightened and spam became a bigger problem, video support became a thing of the past. The following items cannot be sent in the body of an email:

• Videos
• Flash
• Quicktime
• Windows Media
• Java Applet
• HTML5

However, here are some options you can use instead of video:

• Use animated gifs
• Take a screenshot of the video and then make a clickable link to where the video file is stored

Forms in Bulletin: We want to collect feedback and want to add a form. Why can't we?

Most email clients consider email forms to be a security risk. While some email clients simply warn you of potential  danger, others outright disable the forms. Below items are not permitted when sending an email:

• Cannot use Forms (ex: < form >, < select >, < input >, etc.)

As a result, we recommend using a link to the form so the viewer can just click on the link and be taken directly to the form to submit.

Choosing a Bulletin Font: What font and font size is recommended?

When you are sending an email message, it's important to use a font that is clear and easy to read. Be sure to make your font large enough so that the reader doesn't have to squint to read your message, but not so large that the reader has to scroll a long way down to read all the message.

It's also important to use a plain font, because like we mentioned earlier, not all email programs view messages the same way. You don't want the content of your message to be jumbled or strangely formatted because the reader's email program didn't view the font the same way yours did.

Basic fonts like Arial, Verdana, and Times New Roman work well. Depending on how much content you have in your email message select a 10 or 12 point font size for legibility.

Have tips of your own you'd like to share? Comment below! We'd love to hear them.