Server Downtime We would like to sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused by the recent server downtime. Our upstream provider was severely affected by Telkom line maintenance. We are however assured that everything is up and running again.     We’re all going on a Summer Holiday Ah, what a lovely earworm… It’s been a long year, hasn’t it? As we can all do with a break, RMB Services will close at 13:00 on 24 December 2014 and reopen on 5 January 2015. Please try to send us your final email design requirements by 17 December 2014 to assure timely completion of your work. Keep in mind that we’ll be able to schedule your messages to go out at any time during the festive break, as long as you send us your requirements before the 24th December.     The Importance of Sending us your Final Draft One thing is a given: You're very busy. Then you get an email from us reminding you that it might be time to send out another email campaign… Brilliant idea! Now comes the important bit… Every minute you spend on fine tuning your text, evaluating your photos, and scrutinising your material, might result in better responses from your campaign. However when you send us that content, please make sure that it is your final, proofed and approved version, as very time you chop and change after we’ve done the design, could result in unforeseen time delays and costs. It is also very important that you know that your assigned designer puts a lot of time and thought into the layout and design of your email. When you change text, especially when this results in more or less text, it could result in an imbalance in the design, or in the design losing its effectiveness (yes, that’s a word, we looked it up).     Campaign ideas: Here are some ideas for email themes for November and December: The basics: Summer Heat Holiday Festive Local (SA) Holidays/Observances: (Source) Dec 16 Day of Reconciliation Dec 21 December Solstice Dec 24 Christmas Eve Dec 25 Christmas Day Dec 26 Day of Goodwill Dec 31 New Year's Eve International (UN) Observances: (Source) 14 Nov World Diabetes Day 16 Nov International Day for Tolerance Third Sunday in Nov World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims 19 Nov World Toilet Day 20 Nov Universal Children’s Day Third Thursday in Nov World Philosophy Day 21 Nov World Television Day 22 Nov Africa Industrialization Day 25 Nov International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 29 Nov International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People 1 Dec World AIDS Day 2 Dec International Day for the Abolition of Slavery 3 Dec International Day of Persons with Disabilities 5 Dec International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development 5 Dec World Soil Day 7 Dec International Civil Aviation Day 9 Dec International Anti-Corruption Day 10 Dec Human Rights Day 11 Dec International Mountain Day 18 Dec International Migrants Day 20 Dec International Human Solidarity Day   Other Important News: We have updated our user manual! Click here to download our latest user manual. Keep your spam score low! Click here for some useful tips on how to keep your spam score low. The lower your spam score, the less the risk of your message ending up in a recipient’s junk mail folder. Special characters in subject lines: When special characters are used in the subject line or email template name, it causes problems when sending/uploading. Please refrain from using special characters like ‘ (It’s; we’re; I’m etc) when uploading. This does not apply to the body/content of your email, only the subject line when sending, and “email name” when uploading your template. Please ask your CA for further information in this regard. Email Design of the Month: