How to Create an HTML Newsletter & Send it Via Email

An HTML newsletter is a visually pleasing way to inform your subscribers. The HTML newsletter is simply a webpage that can be send to an email address. It is better than a plain-text email newsletter because it keeps the reader more interested and engaged. You can incorporate images and text into the newsletter and format it in a way that looks like a regular, professionally created newsletter. All you need is a basic knowledge of HTML, a word processing application and email account.

Things You'll Need

• Web-authoring application
• Email client

Instructions

1. Open your web-authoring application and create your newsletter as if you were creating a simple web page. Set up your columns, and add your wording and images. You can create the newsletter in the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) window or in the code window if you know HTML.

2. View the document in an Internet browser by clicking on the "Preview" button in the web-authoring application. How it will look in the browser is how it will look in the recipient's email.

3. Save the newsletter as a web page in a folder on your computer.

4. Open your email application, such as Outlook or Thunderbird. Start a new email message based on your newsletter. Click on "File > Create mail > Insert > Text from file." Scroll to the newsletter saved on your computer, click on it and click "Open." Enter in your recipients in the "To:" field, make any changes to the message body you want, type in a subject line and click "Send."

Tips & Warnings

• Examples of web-authoring applications are Dreamweaver and FrontPage.

• You can also create the newsletter in a word processing program, such as Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word allows you to email the newsletter right from Word by clicking on the "Email" icon on the Standard toolbar.

• The recipient will need to enable HTML in their email reader to view the newsletter as an HTML document.

References

• "Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 Plain & Simple"; Jim Boyce; 2007
• "Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Inside Out"; Jim Boyce; 2003