This article is intended for the individual at your organization responsible for designing all your HTML emails. I would strongly suggest sending this article to them, if you are not that person. With that out of the way, lets begin.
Building a rock-solid HTML email
There are a whole host of factors that contribute to a successful email marketing campaign. Permission, relevance, timeliness and engaging content are all important. Even so, the BIGGEST challenge for designers is building an email that renders well across all the various email clients. There are some uncomfortable facts that those new to HTML email should know about. Designing an email is not like designing for the web. While web browsers continue to improve and move towards industry standards, many email clients have not. Some have even gone backwards. For example, in 2007, Microsoft switched the html email rendering engine in MS Outlook from Internet Explorer to MS Word. Add to this the quirks of the major web-based email clients like Gmail and Outlook.com, sprinkle in a little Lotus Notes and you’ll soon realize how different the email game is. So what do we need to do as designers to ensure that our email is going to look good in all the different email clients.
Luckily it can be done, but not without its challenges. Here is a great article from our friends over at Campaign Monitor, that covers all the details.
I’d also recommend checking out these handy field guides that can walk you through the entire process of building effective email campaigns.
