Email marketing seems simple, and for the most part it is. Yet, many companies and clients create their emails and fail to browser test or email client test to make sure their emails are rendering consistently across these platforms. This results in an oblivious and convoluted customer experience that leaves the customer asking “Why does this email look like this?” Delete. Mark as spam.
Email service providers are no cake walk either. Many of the most popular ones with large marketing budgets to acquire customers fail to meet best practices when it comes to delivery.
Sending a successful email marketing campaign relies on 3 things:
1. Clean HTML code that renders consistently across the major email clients
2. A reputable email service provider like Campaign Monitor, ExactTarget
3. A solid testing plan cross-browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari) and email client (Outlook, Yahoo!, Gmail,Hotmail) Each has its own quirks to deal with.
To help create a successful email campaign, Campaign Monitor published a guide that allows email marketers to see the various elements that affect how emails are rendered across 24 email clients. They learned that support for even simple CSS varies considerably between clients, and even different versions of the same client.
Thank you Campaign Monitor!
Note: Outlook (27% of total market share) and iOS Devices (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) (16% of total market share) are the most popular email clients.