Five “Fast Friend Tips”
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Email Labs study conducted last October indicates that 52% of at-work users "always use the preview pane" and 17% frequently use it. Think about how many of your subscribers might be looking at your email in the preview screen and then try to design so that your email can be identified at warp speed and with images turned off. Remember, your emails are competing for eyeballs, yes even if they love you and have asked you to keep in touch with them.

Example of preview screen in Windows hotmail

• Windows Hotmail is becoming Windows Live. For e-mail marketers these findings are significant for email marketers.

Email clients including Microsoft's WindowsLive TM mail slated to replace MSN and Hotmail within the next year are preparing to adopt default image suppression.

• Consider moving your admin text (whitelisting, view online, etc) further down below "the fold". Keep it in a stable place where readers can get used to using it, but remember probably fewer than 5% of your readers routinely use this messaging. You shouldn't get rid of it, but you shouldn’t waste critical real estate on it.

• Replace large images (if possible all images) in the top left corner of your template with text. “ add an illuminated light bulb as in Hint” “think preview screen and image suppression

• Never ever never ever use a black background for your newsletter unless you have a lot of experience working with black. We continue to see emails coming into our inboxes with black backgrounds and white font. It’s a “no no” in most cases unless you’re experienced with this “super cool effect”