Lymphedema Resources, Inc. Redesign

Lymphedema Resources, Inc., a non-profit educating and assisting patients and at risk persons about the symptoms and treatment of lymphedema, launched a redesign of their web site in August 2010. An integrated blog started to keep users current and the content of the site was organized to better direct the various users of the site to relevant information.

The growing organization is reaching patients nationwide who need assistance in purchasing the necessary medical garments for treating lymphedema, which are frequently not covered by insurance or medicare.

Papyrus Document & Design is proud to assist their mission by presenting their organization for the first-class operation that it is.

1. Useful Subject Lines

The subject line of your e-mail is the most important thing you write, and there are several things to consider when writing a good one:

a) Think ahead: Two months from now, when you or the recipient is looking for this e-mail amongst thousands of others to clarify a detail, think about a subject line that will actually identify the contents. Let me tell you something, “FWD: RE: Project” will not be helpful. Re-write the subject line of replies and forwards to reflect what is in that particular message.

b) Think focus: If you are broaching multiple topics, either mention them all in the subject line and visibly divide up the content of the e-mail by topic (using bold headers) OR better yet. Send seperate e-mails for different topics. Crazy? Again, think ahead two months. Will you remember that you sent the change to the price estimate at the bottom of the e-mail about color choices? I think not.

c) Think branding: mention your company name, the project name or some other unique identifier that will immediately identify the project. I make web sites – so a lot of my clients send me e-mail about “my web site”, because they usually only have one. I work on many. So it would be more helpful to write a subject line like “Widgets-R-Us web site change”.

d) Think action: Inboxes are often used as to do lists. So what is it you want the recipient to do? Mention it in the subject line. That way, your task is constantly staring them in the face and they will do it just to be able to move your task into a “done” folder.

e) Think Duplicate: Repeat all information in the subject line in the body of the e-mail. Don’t leave important info only in the subject line. Some readers seperate the two and make it hard to connect them visually. Don’t make the reader work any harder than necessary.

2. Actionable Bodies

a.  Think Outline. People don’t really read e-mail. They should, but they don’t. So knowing that, you need to make your e-mail easy to scan.Many e-mail readers allow for at least the use of bold formatting. Take advantage of it and structure your e-mail in outline form. Separate topics by headers (or send them as separate e-mail). More complicated formatting like bullet lists and html may not show up. Keep it simple.

b. Thick Sticky. Place links at the bottom of the e-mail. This may seem the opposite of helpful, but if you bothered to write information in the e-mail, you want them to at least scan it. If they see a link at the top of the e-mail, they will click on it, meaning to go back and read your e-mail later, but they won’t. So, if it’s important, like “This is a rough draft”, then make it clear and bold and well before they actually see the link.

c. Thick Call to Action.  Communicate the needed (or desired) response first, then fill in with the reasons why. Readers scan, usually the first paragraph and good luck if you wrote more than that. Don’t bury the response at the bottom of a long missive. Write it first. If they then care to know why, they will read more to find out.

3. Attachments and Includes

A long time ago I made a commitment to never finish typing the word “attached” in an e-mail without first attaching the file. It has saved me many a useless e-mail referencing a non-existant file. Attach first. Write e-mail later. If you still manage to forget the attachment, try going to your send box, forward the e-mail you already wrote (so you don’t have to retype it, and send from there.)

Also, it works best to attach files rather than include them in the body of the e-mail. Readers that disable images may hide the image entirely, and some popular e-mail readers make it difficult to copy and paste an image out of the e-mail itself. If you really want to include it, then also attach it.

4. Informative Endings

If you don’t already have a signature for your business e-mail, start there. Include all your pertinent contact information. Then add it to all your e-mails. Even the quick answers to a long thread. Seems redundant? Maybe, but again, if someone is referring back to an e-mail in order to respond to you, they should be able to find contact info on each e-mail. I can’t tell you how many time people have sent me e-mails to “call them” and don’t include any contact info whatsoever. OK – maybe I should have them as a contact in my contact list. But effective business e-mail, and good customer service, includes easy to act upon contact information.

5. E-mail Address Last

Another trick I learned early on was to wait until the e-mail was proofed and ready to send before entering the recipient’s e-mail address. This prevents the accidental e-mail sent before it was ready. Instead my e-mail program saves it if I get interrupted and refuses to send until I have the address in the to line.

As far as copies go, if you do copy an e-mail to someone else, make sure they are going to understand two things: a) they are not the primary recipient, and b) why they are being copied.

6. Sent Mail

While not all e-mail programs do this automatically, I recommend keeping sent copies of e-mail. Or blind copy an e-mail address designed to archive mail. Perhaps not all e-mails require this treatment, but not only does sent mail often serve as a back up to mistakenly deleted originals, but can be incredibly useful in tracing when information was sent, responded to, etc.

Kim Dailey is a webmaster with Papyrus Document & Design, LLC a company with experience creating web sites and stores for commercial, non-profit, and public sector clients throughout the United States.

To succeed in any business, you have to view your business from the customer’s point of view. Your -to them will be unwelcome unless it meets one or more of the following criteria:

• it was requested
• it addresses a need of theirs (not just their market segment)
• it is appropriate to them at this moment in time
• it is not too frequent that they get annoying
• it is not too rare for them to remember their relationship with you
• it is difficult for them to view, use or unsubscribe from

Even if it meets these criteria, it still may not be welcome. They may just be having a bad day. Any whim on your customer’s part can cause them to click the “This is Spam” button; and that’s bad.

When they (or you) do that, it sends a report to the Internet Service Provider that you are a spammer. If enough of your recipients do this, your provider will block your domain to all their members. This is bad.

How do you avoid being reported as a spammer?

1. Don’t send spam
   • send only to opt-in emails,
   • send appropriate, carefully timed emails, and
   • remove unsubscribes instantly
2. Don’t use your e-mail account to send e-mails,
   • use a professional service (see below)

Professional Services

There are companies that will not only send the e-mails for you, they will:

• handle the unsubscribe requests,
• provide templates for professional looking results,
• gather statistics on how many people opened and clicked, and
• dipense advice on how best to word, time and send your e-mail.

These companies exist based upon their good relationship with the ISPs (Internet Service Providers) that receive their mail, so they negotiate on your behalf to make sure your mail gets through.

One company that has worked with my clients is iContact, which allows user to send personalized text or HTML messages, RSS feeds, and surveys from any computer, and automatically keep track of their subscriptions. They allow a great amount of flexibility in designing your own look and feel to match your company branding efforts, which is important to me as a designer. Other leading companies are Constant Contact and MailChimp.

One of the major benefits of an online investment is the almost unlimited reach of your audience. While a brick and mortar store provides possibly a regional impact, an online presence is available anywhere your language is spoken. And shopping carts which support multiple languages are easily implemented.

For non-profits, an online storefront may be the only storefront you need. Why waste donated dollars on office space that can only be staffed a third of a day, when an online site can accept donations, answer questions, and educate users all day, every day.

If you are testing the waters of a new business, online is the most affordable way to see if a product or service will fly. Low overhead and the flexibility to make instant adjustments provide security and freedom in trial and error. If you already have a business, why not expand your geographic reach by marketing and selling to buyers thousands of miles away?

You really can launch a web store for under three grand. While that is not petty change, it is also nowhere near the requirements of a physical location.

Papyrus Document & Design can provide a no obligation, custom estimate on what it would take to sell your product or service online.

Kim Dailey is a webmaster with Papyrus Document & Design, a company with experience creating web sites and stores for commercial, non-profit, and public sector clients throughout the United States.

There is, of course! Trade journals. But wait, I hear you saying, trade journals are expensive. Why yes, they are, if you subscribe directly from them. But there are ways to receive journals at no cost.

Freebizmag.com is the portal I use to receive magazines at no cost. (I am not a reseller, affiliate or paid reviewer - just a happy customer.) While you do have to provide a decent amount of professional information about your trade and business buying influence, this is understandable for what I get in return. They match me to journals in and around my industry which offer free subscriptions. Then they offer additional magazines that match my profile. I get emails periodically with offers, some of which are more on target than others. All subscriptions have no strings. There is no automatic renewal with a charge. I do sometimes get phone calls from publishers trying to keep the contact info up-to-date. I consider this the cost of the subscription and deal with them politely. And they do link to a site which offers free “trials”, but you don’t have to click.

I especially like that I can expose myself to related industries and skim some surface knowledge on what’s available without much time or effort on my part. I am primarily a designer, but knowing what printers and exhibitors are dealing with these days helps me when designing print or exhibit pieces.

Added bonus! Once you have given up your demographic information, publishers of non-trade magazines may also be interested in sending you publications. I have received travel magazines, women’s weeklies, entertainment magazines, and even motorsports subscriptions. Since I love magazines in general, this is a terrific perk for me.

Why would they send you free copies of magazines when they normally charge? Journals sell advertising based upon recipient counts. Advertisers don’t always care whether a reader paid to view their ad or not (although many journals will reveal the difference in the fine print). So it’s worthwhile to give away copies if it makes the publication more attractive to paying advertisers.

In addition, lots of journals are available electronically from their web sites. If you have a pda and like to read pdfs on it, that might be a great way to utilize your commute or queue time. I prefer hard copies, myself, so I opt for the magazines that will mail me paper.

Are there other ways to connect with free subscriptions – sure there are. I’m just not personally familiar with others. Type “free magazine subscriptions” into a search engine to get a list. Just be sure to read the fine print and I wouldn’t enter any credit card numbers – it shouldn’t be necessary.

How could that happen? It’s as simple as changing your e-mail address and failing to notify your domain name registrar*. When they try to notify you that your domain is expiring, you don’t get the message. Before you know it, your web site isn’t showing and you’re jumping through hoops and paying unnecessary fees to get your domain back. Or worse, you can lose your domain to squatters who pounce as soon as a domain exits its redemption period.** (I’ve had at least one client who lost their domain this way.)

So – check your contact info today. Better yet, go in and enter multiple e-mail addresses in your contact info (at different domains, please). Find your domain name registration login and keep it safe. Enter Papyrus as your technical contact if you don’t have another e-mail address. And while you’re at it, check your expiration date. The latest search engine optimization news says that Google prefers a domain name that is registered multiple years in advance. It’s a sign of committment. Just don’t forget to update your contact info in the meantime.

*Domain Name Registrar: the company you paid in order to use the domain. Common registrars are GoDaddy, Network Solutions, Register.com, 1and1.com et al. If you paid me to register your domain, I’ve already entered at least two different email addresses in your domain account.

**Redemption Period: you have a small window of time (e.g. 30-45 days) to renew a domain after it expires and before it is available to the open market. Domain “investors” watch lists of domains about to expire and will pounce if one comes open. Don’t think that your domain would not appeal to them. If it was valuable enough for you to register it, they are willing to bet you will pay them to retrieve it.

“Non-profits would collect much more from their websites if only they’d clearly state what they are about and how they use donations. Our new usability studies revealed considerable frustration as potential donors visited sites and tried to discern various organizations’ missions and goals — which are key factors in their decisions about whether to give money….Well-designed non-profit websites are particularly suited for attracting new donors and efficiently supporting small-scale impulse giving. Websites are less effective at sustaining long-term donor relationships. For encouraging customer (or donor) loyalty, e-mail newsletters remain the Internet tool of choice.”

“What donors want:

We asked participants what information they want to see on non-profit websites before they decide whether to donate. Their answers fell into 4 broad categories, 2 of which were the most heavily requested:

• The organization’s mission, goals, objectives, and work.
• How it uses donations and contributions.

That is: What are you trying to achieve, and how will you spend my money?

Sadly, only 43% of the sites we studied answered the first question on their homepage. Further, only a ridiculously low 4% answered the second question on the homepage. Although organizations typically provided these answers somewhere within the site, users often had problems finding this crucial information. “

“The donation-killers:

• 47% were usability problems relating to page and site design, including unintuitive information architecture, cluttered pages, and confusing workflow.
  • Amazingly, on 17% of the sites, users couldn’t find where to make a donation. You’d imagine that donation-dependent sites would at least get that one design element right, but banner-blindness or over-formatting caused people to overlook some donation buttons.
• 53% were content issues related to writing for the Web, including unclear or missing information and confusing terms.”