Email campaigns

Some useful tips on how to create and send a successful email campaign

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 14:32:08 +0200

Images in html email campaigns

Most email programs now block all images in your HTML email by default.
You've probably noticed how you have to right-click on an email, or push some
button, to make images show display in the emails you receive. How should you
design around that?

Design Guidelines

Here are some pointers for designing your email. Early warning: If you're a seasoned web designer, you're not going to be happy with all the compromises and hacks you'll have to make when designing for email applications.

Set your width to about 500-600 pixels.

If you've ever worked on a website, you're probably used to designing pages to fit in
800x600 pixel resolution screens, or maybe even 1024x768. But that won't work when you design HTML email. Most recipients will be looking at your email through their “preview pane” which is usually a small portion of their available screen.

Simple Layouts and Tables Work Best

You wouldn't believe all the different ways email applications garble up HTML email.
You'll need to keep your email designs nice and simple. Avoid complicated layouts, too many embedded tables, and tables with too many rows and columns. A simple two column table with a row across the top is about as complex as you can get.

If you're a CSS ninja, you're probably rolling your eyes in disdain with all this "TABLES" talk. But trust us you're not going to be able to use all that cool, timesaving CSS stuff in your HTML emails. DIVs and CSS-positioning don't work.