Today a typical company uses email for over 85% of its written communication. Sending black & white, text only, generic email represents an important missed marketing opportunity for most companies.

The use of branded email letterhead, or stationery, as Microsoft calls it, is every bit as important as traditional print letterhead. Email stationery, like that shown in Figure A, actually provides advantages over paper letterhead including the inclusion of full color graphics and active links, as well as its unlimited availability.

FIGURE A


In this example, you can really see the contrast between a standard email message and a message using stationary. Roll over picture for a larger image.

The reasons to utilize professionally designed email stationery include:

• Strengthen brand awareness and identity
• Generate increased website traffic
• Make key contact information immediately accessible
• Reduce the costs of communications
• Deliver personalized messaging to customers and prospects

[To be fair, email stationary (actually HTML email) also has some disadvantages, the most significant being that some filters block HTML email and some readers specifically don't want it. Also, different mail readers render HTML email differently, or not at all. We're still big fans of HTML email, but if you use it, know the limitations. -- Ed.]

What it is
Email stationery is actually a small HTML template file, roughly 2 kilobytes in size. This HTML template has references to various graphic elements that are served dynamically from an Internet server. These graphics, typically a header, background, and footer, are rendered on the monitor when a message is composed or read. When rendered together, the graphics combine with the text composed by the user to form the electronic equivalent of a letter typed on printed letterhead.

The design of email stationery usually takes one of two directions. Because it can easily be rendered in full color, and because it can contain embedded links back to a Web site, it is often makes the most sense to design the stationery to mirror the look and feel of the company's website. Alternatively, it is generally possible to design email stationery that very closely resembles a company's print letterhead. Of course, like with any Web page, your design is limited only by your imagination.

How it works.
Microsoft's two email client programs, Outlook and Outlook Express, directly support the use of email stationery -- although Outlook 2003 now defaults to turning the graphics off unless you specifically select "show pictures." With Outlook or Outlook Express configured to use email stationery when you send a messaeg, the actual use is not unlike placing a piece of print letterhead in a typewriter and beginning to type. Quite simply, a blank piece of stationery appears when you go to compose a new message, or reply to an existing message. All you need to do is to place your cursor in the "paper" and begin typing.