Email Marketing 

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"Email marketing can be an extremely cost-effective way to directly promote your product or service. But it needs to be done right. And doing it well is far from simple, as there are several elements to it, each with numerous pitfalls."

This is first in a series of detailed articles containing straightforward information intended to help people wishing to understand and implement email marketing for themselves (i.e. a more DIY-inclusive, independent approach, instead of leaving it all to an agency). There is a legitimate need for agencies, especially for larger organisations.  But pricing structures can mean individuals and smaller businesses may find it cost-prohibitive and/or inflexible.

The Aim of this article

The objective here is to shed light on just one important aspect of performing email marketing: Namely, to make sure that when your email is successfully received by recipients on their various devices, then the email will always display professionally, and as you intended it to look.

An attractive, properly-formatted email that can viewed correctly is essential in today's modern business world.  A poor-looking communication can only have negative effect on any campaign, if not also reflecting badly on the sender, even if the original message may have been good. My experience over much time indicates that while a 'bad email' can result (even before this 'wonderful world' of social media :-)) in some 'angry responses' for various reasons, that many more recipients of a poor emails will just keep 'a dignified silence', i.e. 'keep stum' and say nothing.  In any event, you do want your email communication to be as professional as possible for everyone's benefit.

The sending of email began in the 70's and 80's with 'plain text' emails (vs. the 'HTML-stylised' designs with intricate layout and images we see today).  But 'a picture has always been worth a thousand words', and in the 1990's with the introduction of HTML, CSS-styling and MIME (Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extension technology) it did not take long before email marketeers started to use pictorial HTML emails with graphical layouts to help convey their message.  So although it can still be important (for reasons coverered in a following article) to also include a 'plain text-only' alternative version of an email, HTML email is clearly the best way to communicate a business product or service.

In theory, email marketing could (or should) be super simple.

Surely you can just click to launch your email client software, design and format your HTML email message the way you want it to look, and then click again to send to your multiple-contact email list?

Well, No.  (A Super 'Big Fat' No!)  i.e. definitely not.

The Main Problem

If you have ever designed a web page using languages such as HTML, Javascript and CSS style-formatting, then you will know there are accepted standards between the web page you design and the browser software that will display (render) the page. These agreed standards help ensure a properly-coded web page will render well on all main browsers and all devices of all sizes. It works well. There are exceptions in the case of lesser-used, and older Microsoft Internet Explorer browser versions where it becomes more complex. But in general, a web page can much more easily be designed to display well across all browsers in common use. So no problem there!

Unfortunately the situation is completely different when it comes to email client software on computers, smartphones and other devices (i.e. when displaying a final email on email clients such as Apple Mail, Microsoft Outlook, Gmail,  etc.)

There are many differences between email clients in the way they display (render) emails with the same HTML content and CSS styling. Yes a marketing email is still often coded in HTML, but email standards are less rigorous, only inline-CSS styling is used consistently, there is less recognition of advanced browser-type features, and the use of HTML tables is still commonplace to achieve consistent layout across all email clients.

(Early browsers used this 'table technique', but only Microsoft email clients still insist on <table> element use.  Otherwise the more flexible <div> elements could be used on their own.)

This means that if your email template design needs to support Microsoft email clients, then you do need to use tables (or otherwise use <div> HTML elements enclosed by tables, coded with conditional statements in such a way that only Microsoft clients recognise the <table> elements. These are called 'Ghost tables', which describes the way they are 'sometimes there, sometimes not', depending on the actual client software the email recipient is using.)

Microsoft Outlook over time has used the Microsoft Word rendering engine. It is great for Word processing, but is more geared towards tables than the more modern, open, and flexible types of responsive HTML.  This unfortuantely makes the design of all email templates to cover and send to all email clients more complex.

With email clients there is no javascript for dynamic control, and the allowable size of delivered emails is very limited.  It may be fine for a web page to deliver a larger image and choose which resolution will be delivered. But emails commonly need to use a different technique whereby the email is delivered first to the email recipient's client software, followed by an option to display images fetched separately online from some related web space.

There is also light and dark modes for viewing emails on recipient clients, again with yet more potential inconsistency.

To describe it another way: The look of your final email when rendered on a receiver's device, has much less certainty and consistency than when retrieving a web page to a browser.

And to make mattters worse, as well as the many different email clients, there are countless different devices that can display an email, ranging from a small smartphone to a large desktop, each commonly using different methods to render emails using these different, less-universal standards.

It is therefore almost impossible to design an email that will render decently on all email clients and devices WITHOUT BEING ABLE TO TEST and preview what your email will look like when it is received on each type of device and email software client.

It surely must be better to know before you send an email communication, who 'is going to see' your email displayed in a terrible, unprofessional way? 

As already mentioned, there is one common type of email client that treats email code very differently to other email clients: Microsoft Outlook.  But does it matter? . .  when most users have stopped using older versions of Microsoft browsers anyway, and Microsoft did 're-joined the club' to align with accepted browser standards for web pages. So does it really matter now?

Well it does. Microsoft email clients are not only still popular (Outlook alone has 5-10% market share overall, more for desktops), and even the latest Microsoft email client versions still need different or more involved email template code to render all received HTML emails correctly. (Not that I matter in the 'grande scheme of things', but I also use Outlook, at least on a desktop computer.)

(You could ask why Microsoft do not just align with the 'majority standard', render as most email clients do, not make things proprietary, or reduce complexity here to make life easier for everyone?  Well, you can spend some 'happy productive time' answering that one!  'We are where we are', and yes, this article could have been shorter and perhaps someday, all email client software will conform to a universal standard.)

Logical Solutions

Theoretically, there are several possible solutions (some of which are commonly impractical) to the 'thorny' problem of trying to correctly format an email template for receipt across all email software clients and devices:

  1. Just format your emails for contacts who do not use Microsoft email clients?
    (Not feasible. Many people are still using Microsoft email client software and you really do not know what client software an end-user recipient in your email contact list will be using at any one time.)
     
  2. Code your emails (or adapt pre-designed templates) for all email clients (including Microsoft clients) in such a way that only Microsoft email clients recognise the code elements it needs to render properly, whilst it ignores elements it cannot properly render, but other non-Microsoft clients can.

Well solution 2. is actually feasible and the only current practical solution. But designing an email template in this way is not 'particularly' easy. And if you use a pre-designed template (of which there are many free ones on the web) then it is difficult to know how any template (and your adaptions to it) will look when displayed by all the various emails clients and devices.

The only effective way to know how your email content and design will look on the many different email client/device combinations is to have some way to properly test it!

How to test an email design

Well obviously, and it might seem quite sad in this article here to only communicate with oneself 🙂 but seriously, you could send your final email design to yourself on your very own device, or a secondary device, or a friend's computer or some other device (e.g. smartphone or tablet).

But that alone would only test how your email appears on a few email clients/device combinations. i.e. it would not really tell us much.  So you can see the problem!

The real options are:

  1. Send your test email to every type of email software client on every main type of recipient hardware device. And then appraise them all and make corrections.
    Well, that is unlikely to happen, unless you have all the time in the world and you own (and have easy access to) very many working devices! It would invariably also not be cost effective to set up such an infrastructure for a single entity's email project.

  2. Use an agency. Well, we are not going to do that here, since they may use some of the tools we are going to suggest in 3. anyway. And our aim is to have our own more flexible, less externally controlled solution, at lower cost.

  3. Use a testing tool/service to quickly preview how our specific email will render when displayed across a large range of the most-used devices using all the main email clients. So we can quickly see problems, possible improvements and make adjustments before sending the live email campaign by whatever means we choose.

Option 3. is a sensible solution and is described in this article. It will enable you to test and improve your current email design, next week's email design, all while changing the email template content and format. It will make sure we have the best chance of all our emails being received, looking professional on all main email clients for the vast majority of devices.

Key testing services

My experience of email testing over time has highlighted the following services (listed in no particular order). Yes there are other services (and you may have no problem being presented with them), but I 'cut to the chase' here, and this is 'my take' on the best tools available. I have not received any money for providing this view. If you really know about another service or tool you think covers nearly 'all bases' in terms of the subject of this article, then you are welcome to contact and advise.
(Please note: I have already investigated this matter over time 'quite deeply'. i.e. 'drilled-down like a dentist'.  But I am always happy to be enlightened and learn something new, especially when it can help others.)

It may be that many agencies as part of their service, and also larger organisations, mainly use one (or both) of the first two services listed below.  However, the newer Testi.at service in my view provides a more cost-effective solution, at least for smaller businesses and individual requirements.

This article only takes account of the email template testing part of the services listed below, on the basis that there are many enterprises who require only that particular element at reasonable cost.

My current personal opinion is that while all three services do the job of email template testing as outlined in this article, that the first two services listed below may be overpriced for smaller customers and projects, especially if only the template testing part of the service is required. (But you are free to access the relevant websites, services and web reviews to make up your own mind. And that is what I recommend before you choose any service.)

The services listed (and owners) and prices may be continually changing over time. So do investigate the latest packages, functionality, availability, and pricing directly from the services themselves (i.e. do not take my view 'as gospel'). All packages are outlined on the basis of one main paying user accessing the service.

So 'my take' with brief overview notes in Feb 2023 is:


  • LITMUS
    Originated via PutsMail, a free service launched by Bazilian, Pablo Cantero in 2011. PutsMail was purchased by Litmus in 2014 and PutsMail still remians free. After you provide PutsMail with your own email contact you can receive any email you send to the service tool at ten different email addresses of your choosing. Ten is obviously not enough for serious work (with all the email clients and devices available) and you still need regular access to all those devices/clients to get some indication.

    Litmus's main Basic package service for email testing costs about £65 per month (if paid annually) and allows about 1000 email previews a month. (Packages beyond the Basic seem to be much more expensive.)

    Be careful because email preview numbers can quickly mount up if a preview is counted as 'per email client and device' for every edit of an email template version tested. i.e. make sure you know exactly what is being provided.

    Email previews are provided for over 90 email clients.

    Trustpilot.com    : There seems to be only 2 reviews there, with currently no review later than 2019. But the profile is unclaimed (i.e. the supplier may not know about the review record). That surprises me on a number of counts. However, I do know the Litmus service is used by many individuals and organisations.

    Useful links:

  • EMAIL ON ACID

    The Email On Acid service for email testing costs about £60 per month (billed annually) and allows unlimited email previews each month.

    Email previews are provided for over 90 email clients.

    Trustpilot.com    : There seems to be only 64 reviews. The profile is claimed (i.e. the supplier knows about it, and can be seen responding to some of the reviews). You can judge for yourself as to the feedback on the review site.

    Info: I understand Email on Acid is now part of the Sinch AB organisation (sinch.com), a large cloud communications company with headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2021, Sinch agreed to purchased Pathwire (a leading email delivery platform, including Mailgun, Mailjet and Email on Acid). This means Sinch can offer everything for email campaigns including template design, email template testing, email sending and campaign management. (Although in terms of this article: it is only the template testing component which is dealt with because many smaller businesses may only wish to use email template testing and deal with 'the rest of it' themselves.)

    Useful links:

  • TESTI.AT

    The Testi.at email testing service created in 2016 costs about £16 per month and allows unlimited email previews each month.

    Email previews are provided for over 90 device platforms.

    Payment terms seem to be more flexible. i.e. it is non-subscription and you can pay for testing only when you need it. The Testi.at service is geared towards purely testing email templates and there are some helpful videos on the site for each aspect of the service.

    Trustpilot.com: There seems to be no reviews and no profile yet. This does not surprise me since I originally found it hard to even find the Testi.at service on the web. I do not take this as any negative reflection on the Testi service offered. The individuals I am aware of who use this service seem to like it and I have also personally tested the service. In my view it is good, especially for the cost.
    (Perhaps being able to easily find a useful service on the web depends more on how much an entity pays the search engines, rather than how good or useful the service will be for a majority of users?)

    Useful links:

Testing with Testi

Below are some notes and screenshots of my personal experience with the Testi.at service while testing and developing a reasonably sophisticated, real email template layout:

  • Testi help videos are useful but in my view could be clearer and with sound narration. But many useful parts of the service are illustrated.

  • The main testing web app interface is nice and is intuitive, . . functional while not overly complex. It is easy to choose the email clients for which you wish to test your email project, and then save and reload that setting as a named email client subset. You can choose to test for all available clients, one by one, or any subset and can also select or deselct a group of email clients with one click! All very flexible. (e.g. you can edit your test project by selecting or deselecting a whole group of email clients, like the group 'Outlook iOS 13' which includes previews for iPhone 11, iPhone 8, and iPhone SE dark mode, all in one 'group click'. These 'quick selection switches' are even available at an overall higher level on a Desktop, Mobile and Webmail basis.

  • All testing is arranged around distinct 'logical projects'. I like that because it is the way most of us work. Any Testi project can be edited live in terms of the HTML template code and the chosen email clients to be tested with it. To start a project, you just choose the 'New Test' button, and then 'drag and drop' (or select, copy and paste) the email template code into the main window. It could not be simpler.

  • I like the fact that some other useful functions are available within the Testi service such as spam testing . . . all while supporting the main quick and clear testing interface for a large range of email clients (as large as other more expensive services).
    Any email client preview render that fails for any reason can be clicked individually for refresh on its own and all previews can be clicked individually to show more with a vertical scrollable selector box to zoom on individual sections within longer emails. There is also an option in the top-left of every preview to show all previews in 'full length mode'. I particulary like that feature, and when emails are in full length preview you can still quickly toggle-click on any preview to zoom bigger (and back again).

  • If you wish to obtain off-line jpeg image previews of all the email clients under test (maybe for reference or to show a colleague or customer before sending a campaign) there is a useful 'zip' function button near the top right of the web app interface to quickly download jpeg images of all previews.

In my experience, when you first use a service like this, you can immediately be surprised (I have been) as to how the email message you intend to communicate to 'the many' will variably look on different email client devices, BUT BEFORE you send it! That is probably the most useful thing I can try to convey to you here, in terms of any true message during its 'complex journey' can be 'distorted', for whatever reasons.

These tools can really help you see how your email messages will be seen BEFORE they are sent and delivered in the future. Perhaps more like having a crystal ball or watching a great film with a great actor like Michael J Fox, in a great timeless car like a DeLorean? 🙂

Conclusion

  • To achieve good email formatting across all email clients and devices is much more complex than designing a web page intended for browser software. Email design is presently a simpler (i.e. less powerful) format so you are not going to have all the features, bandwidth and power of a web page.

  • It is essential to test an email design on all main email clients and devices before sending any live email campaign.

  • The most efficient way to test marketing email is to use an email template testing service.

  • Testi.at is a service that in our view can test email templates well while being more cost-effective than other services available.

What next?

There are several other elements you need to get right when performing any email marketing campaign and the intention is to explore those aspects not covered here in future articles of the series.

We plan to cover subjects such as:

  • Email design options, template sources and techniques.
  • Options for sending email effectively and legitimately.
  • Email deliverability and how to decrease the chances of your emails being deemed as spam.
  • Suitable email contact sources.


If you do not want to deal with all the complexity of email marketing yourself and are searching for a dynamic service to manage and help with your marketing email needs, then you can contact us directly at AmazingWebDesign.co.uk or email at info@amazingwebdesign.co.uk

Article by Miles Hitcham - 25 Feb 2023

Miles is main developer associated with AmazingWebDesign.co.uk, other websites, 35 years development, coding and business experience, developer of the FairOption App since 2014 at FairOption.com, and in 2023 merited with the 'Innovation in business' Martech Award for best website creation and management service in the UK. If you find this article informative and would like to be kept up to date, then please subscribe to our mailing list.

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