Here's a checklist to consider when revising:

1. Delete redundancies. Say it once. That's enough. If you're repetitive, the reader will stop reading and start skimming. (Like you probably just did.)

2. Use numbers and specifics instead of adverbs and adjectives. "The project is currently way behind schedule on major tasks," is not as clear as "The project is 3 weeks late delivering hamburger buns to Des Moines."

3. Add missing context. Does your reader know that hamburger buns in Iowa are required for the company to collect $37 million? If you're not sure, remind them.

4. Focus on the strongest argument. Should those hamburger buns get shipped because the delay is embarrassing for the company, because it's costing children their lunch, or because it's costing the company tens of millions of dollars? Maybe all three, but one of those reasons (and it depends on your reader) will be enough to get buns on the road.

5. Delete off-topic material. The best emails say one thing and say it clearly. One-subject emails also make it easier for the recipient to file the message once they've taken action, something anyone who uses Outlook to manage tasks appreciates.

6. Seek out equivocation and remove it. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" works for Dickens, not status reports.

7. Kill your favorites. Is something in your text particularly pithy, amusing, or clever? Chances are, it's not. If it sticks out, it's probably a tap-dancing gorilla in boxer shorts — hilarious when you thought of it, embarrassing when it gets in your manager's inbox.

8. Delete anything written in the heat of emotion. Will this sentence show them who's been right about the hamburger buns since the beginning? Yes? Cut it.

9. Shorten. Remember the reader struggling to digest your message on the run — a BlackBerry or an iPhone gets about 40 words per screen. What looks short on your desktop monitor is an epic epistle on their mobile device.

10. Give it a day. With time, what seemed so urgent may no longer need to be said. And one less email is something everyone will thank you for.

Do you agree that even late-night emails sent from the bar should be revised before sending? (Have you ever seen one the next day?) Have you bravely sent something unrevised only to have it come flying back at you? What's your best advice for revising?

Many thanks to David Silverman

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/silverman/2009/04/how-to-revise-an-email-so-that.html

Data collection guidelines for UK email data

1. Not adding a greeting or salutation

2. Not adding a signature file

3. Using html only

4. Sending large attachments

5. Not including previous messages

6. Expecting an immediate reply

7. Replying to the wrong person

8. Not using a spell checker

9. Using capitals - SHOUTING

10. Using CC: rather than BCC:

11. Marking the email as "urgent" when it is not

12. Not using http:// in url links

There are eight enforceable principles of good practice when it comes to storing data. These are related to the processing of personal data.

The 8 principles of the Data Protection Act state that the data must be:

1. Fair and lawfully processed
2. Processed for limited purposes
3. Adequate, relevant and not excessive
4. Accurate
5. Not kept for longer than necessary
6. Processed in accordance with the data subject's rights
7. Secure
8. Not transferred to countries without adequate protection

The dangers of storing your data in the US

Safe Harbour is the data protection agreement between the US and European Union, which allows the data owner to store their company data off shore and outside of the EU. It is based around a company's privacy policy which needs to be consistent with the EU principles for data protection.

The agreement itself is a compromise stemming from US-EU wrangles over the European Directive on Data Privacy. This requires that companies exporting data on EU citizens meet EU privacy protection standards.

Safe Harbour allows US companies to register and get certified as clean, without it being necessary for the US itself to change it's current approach to privacy protection. But the most important thing to remember is this 'Safe Harbour' is self regulated, so if something was to happen to the integrity of your data while it is stored in the US, it is the responsibility of the data owner and not your supplier.

Here is a summary of the checklists your data will go through when it is stored in the US under the Safe Harbour scheme. Please note that most of these break the UK Data Protection Act:

Notice: Notice involves informing online and offline users, in a clear and conspicuous manner, about the purpose(s) for which information about them is collected and used; the choice mechanism(s) available for limiting use and transfer; the types of third parties to which data is transferred; and how to contact the organisation for enquiries or complaints.

Choice: Choice involves offering users a clear and conspicuous opt-out mechanism for any secondary uses of data and for disclosures to third parties. Opt-in choice must be available for sensitive information such as medical or health conditions, race or ethnic origins, political opinions, or religious or philosophical beliefs.

Access: Access involves ensuring that individuals can obtain reasonable access to personal information about them held by the organisation. With some exceptions, organisations must provide consumers with the ability to correct, amend or delete information that is inaccurate.

Security: Security ensures that an organisation takes reasonable precautions to protect personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, unauthorised disclosure, unauthorised alteration and unauthorised destruction. This involves technologies such as
encryption, access controls and physical security of the data.

Enforcement: The enforcement mechanism requires the existence of a readily available and affordable independent recourse for individuals, as well as consequences for the organisation when the principles are not followed.

Onward transfer: Onward transfer dictates that an organisation disclosing personal data to a third party must adhere to the Notice and Choice principles, unless the third party is acting as an agent of the company; and either the third party specifies, by way of a contract, that it provides at least the same level of protection as is required by the relevant principles, or the third party subscribes to the Safe Harbour Principles or is subject to the EU directive or another adequacy finding by the EU.

Data integrity: Data integrity means that personal information collected must be relevant to the purposes stated in the notice, and that reasonable steps should be taken to ensure that the data is reliable, accurate, complete and current.

The main areas where you will find yourself in breach of the Data Protection Act:

Data Privacy Law: Under Data Protection Principle 7 of the Directive, the person supplying the information to you can rightfully assume that you, the data owner, will look after their information in line with the DPA. Unless you specifically informed the individual that their data will be stored outside of the EU and have a written agreement from them, then the data MUST be stored within the DPA regulations, such as with a company who fully complies with the Safe Harbour process. It is your responsibility to ensure that the company who are managing your data have suitable security measures in place.

EU Data Privacy Law: Data Protection Principle 8 prohibits any export of personal data from the EEA (European Union, plus Iceland, Liechenstein and Norway), unless one of six complaint "gateways" is available, as listed on www.dpa.gov.uk:

1. The importing state has "adequate" data protection laws. US laws are not regarded as "Adequate".
2. The data subject has given "unambiguous consent" to export "any freely given, specific and informed indication of the data subject's wishes by which he/she signifies his/her agreement to his/her data being processed".
3. The export is "necessary" for the fulfillment of contract between the data subject and data controller… Commercial convenience will NOT qualify.
4. The importing entity is in the US and has signed up to "safe harbour".
5. The exporting and importing companies are members of the same group of companies and the group has opted for the "Binding Corporate Rules" gateway.
6. The import is governed by a contract between exporter and importer which includes EU approved model clauses.

In summary, it is a political minefield to store your data outside of the European Union. Even if your data is B2B, should you have anything stored which reflects the individual as a person then you could be breaching the laws of the DPA. This does not just apply to your Email Marketing data lists, but all of your company's data storage, such as your CRM system.

For those of you who feel faint now, there is one bit of good news - Microsoft has adopted the European Union guidelines and as such are fully compliant with the European Data Protection Act. 

See www.dpa.gov.uk for more information.

Designing with images

Simple rules for the use of images in your emailsFirst optimize your images. Just taking a few minutes to reduce them in file size will improve your results - the images will download faster, more people will be able to see them, and your brand and message will be delivered quickly and reliably.

Use gifs for logos and Jpegs for images and pictures of things. And test your email – to ensure the graphics render in all the main email clients that your database contains, e.g. outlook express, outlook 2005, 2007, hotmail, yahoo, tiscalli etc

Designing for Outlook 2007You need to consider the requirements of Outlook 2007 carefully

For a start background images are not supported in Outlook 2007 so any text you place over these will also not be visible.

For backgrounds, use colours rather than images to maintain visual impact and ensure proper delivery and that the email looks how you designed it.Image height and width size tags are not supported by Outlook 2007.

Best practice is to size your images before uploading them.Outlook 2007 doesn't support animated gifs and will only display the first frame of an animation. So make sure your first frame, even if it is only displayed for a second in your animation, is the frame you want outlook 2007 to display. 

Careful with the use of style sheets

The wrong use of style sheets is a common problem that many web designers fall into when designing for email.

Style sheets, including CSS and inline styles should be avoided in email design as there is no guarantee they will be supported by the email clients you are sending to. And if the style sheets aren't supported you will lose your formatting. 

An ALT tag is a word or phrase that describes the image to people who can't see it. ("Our company logo", "Our head office") etc. Remember, email clients aren't like web browsers. Many of your recipients may have set their client to disable images being displayed - in which case they will see the ALT text instead.

For this reason you should make your ALT tags as descriptive as possible, and not rely on images to convey information that users cannot get from the text. If your descriptions work well, the recipient will engage with your message and will be more likely to enable images for your mail, to see it in all its glory.

The word 'free' in emails has many problems, including legal issues. Using the word 'free' in your campaigns will generally cause your emails to become flagged by spam filters, but whats more is that it can lead to your marketing being in breach of the CAP Code.

In general, using the word 'inclusive' is much better than the word 'free' when you need to describe a package deal.