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Tip: Creating SM2 Email Marketing templates |
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 Coding templates for any newsletter can be a
daunting task, especially considering the number of email clients
available today. In some ways since HTML newsletter began, coding HTML email has become easier - several email
software clients, such as Google Mail, have improved their support
for CSS.
However, at the same time, Outlook 2007 has taken HTML email backwards! Last year Microsoft substituted the original HTML rendering engine used
by Outlook for an engine that is inferior in terms of CSS support.
The following is a list of tips and resources for
"Best practice" coding of templates, to get the expected result when using SM2 Email Marketing.
Tips
- Design width: Generally speaking there is NO
standard width for a newsletter, but a narrow design is always safer
than one that is too wide. The best design is one that uses a
liquid/elastic layout which can stretch to accomodate the recipients'
viewing pane.
- ALT tags on images: 99.9% of the
time images will not display until the user selects the option to
download them. This is shakey ground, as if the company that the email
is coming from can't be quickly identified, you're beautifully crafted
email will end up in their spam folder.
- Progressive Enhancement: It is very important to use a Progressive Enhancement approach when coding a template as not all XHTML / CSS elements and selectors are supported by email clients. (see resources for more information on this subject)
- Testing: Always check your designs in at least the top 5 email clients (i.e. Outlook, Thunderbird, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, etc...)
- Serving images:
Make sure that if you are going to use images in the design that they
are in a publicly accessible folder and are as small as possible.
- Use HTML Tables for Layout: Web standards may have
become the norm for coding pages for display in web browsers, but not in email. Mail clients are years behind in terms of CSS support, which means that you must resort to using
tables for layout if you want your newsletters to display
consistently for every reader.
- Code for Google Mail, Lotus Notes and Outlook 2007: Google Mail, Lotus Notes and Outlook 2007 present their own unique
coding challenges. Outlook 2007, has significantly
less support for CSS than previous versions of Outlook!
- Test: Test, test and test again!
Resources
More Tips on SM2 Extensions
Find more helpful tips like these in our Knowledgebase.
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