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July 10 2003

Publisher's Note: When 'Perfect' gets in the way of 'Good Enough'

Years ago a highly-paid consultant told me something I try never to forget: "You can get a lot of good done with B+ work."

She was trying to make me feel better about a management report she had asked me to create -- I didn't feel I was being adequate time to do it properly. In case you didn't already suspect this, I'm a bit of a 'Type A' personality -- that old joke about wanting to know if 'anal retentive' has a hyphen in it (it does not according to the Oxford American Dictionary) certainly applied to me back then. I was (and still am) a bit of a perfectionist.

But when this lesson really began to hit home is when I entered the e-mail realm. Here are a few things I see myself and my clients worrying way too much about; areas where a B+ really is 'good enough' and where 'perfect' takes excessive amounts of time, energy and sanity that is probably better spent elsewhere.

Formatting for Different Email Clients
As Silverpop reported back in November 2002, 42% of the HTML e-mail messages they studied contained one or more errors when viewed. The large number of e-mail clients out there (Outlook, Outlook Express, AOL, Pegasus, Lotus Notes, Netscape, etc.) make perfection in HTML coding a moving target. So you have to choose your battles wisely.

On a recent project, the folks sending the e-mail were having trouble optimizing the HTML to Netscape 4.5 (they're now on version 7.x). It looked fine in new versions of Netscape and in all the other e-mail clients they tested it on, but they keep trying to get it to work for Netscape 4.5. Bad idea? Not necessarily. But the HTML code we had wasn't cooperating and after spending much time we decided to send it as it.

Turns out that was the right decision. When our client checked his web logs, he found that only 3% of his website visitors were using a Netscape browser. Add in that (a) most are probably using a newer version than 4.5 (which was launched more than 5 years ago) and (b) many are probably using something else to read e-mail, and he agreed it wasn't worth the time or effort to optimize back to that version.

Lesson: Don't get too hung up on perfecting your HTML for older e-mail clients. The vast majority of your audience will be using recent versions of common e-mail clients. Optimize for these and don't worry too much about the rest.

Being Flexible on Your Content Formula
There have been instances where I've held up on publishing The Jennings Report because I did not have a Publisher's Note to include -- either I didn't have time to write it or I just could not think of anything to say (my friends will find that hard to believe but it's true!). But that was silly. While I like to think this note adds value to the publication, it's not that the publication has no value without it. And publishing without a publisher's note beats not publishing at all. 

Lesson: Don't get too hung up on things that have only a small impact on your readers. Keep the big picture in mind; if you usually publish two-to-three pages but today you've only got one page worth of solid content, then keep it to one page. Don't hold off because you don't 'have enough' or, even worse, add lesser content just to fill space.

Sticking to a Regular Publishing Schedule
Last December I was speaking with a colleague and mentioned that I would publishing my next issue the day after Christmas. He asked why. Because, I said, I publish two issues a month, second and fourth Thursdays, and it's a fourth Thursday.

Good reason to publish? No. Probably not a time when many people are going to be reading e-mail newsletters about e-mail marketing. He convinced me to hold off on my next issue until after the New Year. And I 'm glad he did. The 'A' Student in me felt wrong about skipping an issue, but he was right -- there wasn't much benefit to publishing that day.

Lesson: Don't do things if the costs (in time and energy) outweigh the benefits. Don't be driven blindly by your publishing schedule.

Keeping it All in Perspective
Keep a firm grasp on the reason you are sending the email. Is it a subscription newsletter that people paid for? A free e-mail newsletter to drum up business for your company? A reminder about an upcoming event? A e-mail soliciting direct sales?

If the readers are paying for it, you have a higher standard of content (in terms of value and volume) to meet than if it's a free e-mail. If you've got paid advertisers, you surely don't want to miss your scheduled publication dates.

If you are a free e-mail newsletter to drum up business and you're too swamped with business to publish one issue, that's probably okay. Just don't make it a habit.

If you have an upcoming event that's a set date, you better be sure you meet your publishing date or you'll miss your opportunity altogether. This may mean compromising a bit on the creative execution, but as long as your message gets across you'll be fine.

Are you trying to sell something with your e-mail? If your secure online payment system isn't up yet, it probably does make sense to hold off on sending it rather than mess with something less than secure or less than user-friendly for your recipients.

Lesson: Never forget the end game, the bottom line. If you can't accomplish it with the e-mail you've got, then don't send. If you can accomplish it with the e-mail you've got, even if the creative execution isn't perfect, do send. And if you're too busy managing your bottom  line success to send, it's okay to miss an issue (or maybe two!).

Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear what you have to say. Feel free to contact me with any thoughts or questions about this publisher's note.