Sending HTML email can be a real pain because it forces you to do so much extra work just to make sure your message is delivered and properly displayed to the recipient. This is the price you pay for having graphically appealing mail that grabs the interest of your readers. The truth is that when HTML is involved, there is really no set of definitive guidelines you can follow to guarantee your mail is delivered and looks good when every subscriber opens it. However, the following are some examples that will that will let you know when HTML email works, and when it does not.
The Notorious Spam Filter
Even if your HTML emails display just as beautifully as you intended, there still could be major problems you need to address. Depending on how your message was designed, it may not even reach the recipient. Excessive use of capital letters, large images, and red text might result in your mail being marked as spam. You really need to be cautious of spammy terms because words such as "subscribe", "opportunity" and "guarantee" seem pretty harmless, but are not.
It is critical to know that the more spam-like characteristics the message portrays, the more points it will be given by a spam blocker. Plain and simple, if these points exceed the threshold set on a given mail server, your message will be automatically denied access to the subscribers inbox. This example should give you all the more reason to design, format and write your HTML email carefully.
Know Your Limits
As far as your email campaign goes, you may want to hold off on incorporating rich features such as Flash animation, JavaScript rollovers and PHP scripts. You would be lucky to get the content to display correctly and even luckier to get your message through a sensitive spam filter. If you plan to go beyond plaintext, it is highly advisable to stick with good old fashion HTML and leave the advanced technologies to the expert web developers. CSS on the other hand, is a technology that can be used for visual enhancements. Even then, you must be very careful with style sheets and commit to inline coding. Most email readers will not call style sheets included in external files, so they should always be inserted in the code embedded within your message.
Get Your Backup Plan Together
If you want your message to contain enhancements such as images, graphics and clickable links, using HTML is the obvious solution. With that said, it is advisable to always send a plaintext version along with it. This can be achieved by using a multi-part format. When sending email in this way, your message will be automatically interpreted in two versions by the recipient's mail client. So if their program is configured to display all messages in plaintext by default, they will get a decent text version with the important content still intact instead of jumbled, unattractive raw source code. This backup plan is considered by many as the most reliable way to send HTML email.
HTML Email - The Good and the Bad Check For The New Release in Health, Fitness & Dieting Category of Books NOW!
Check What Are The Top Cooking Books in Last 90 Days Best Cheap Deal!
Check For Cookbooks Best Sellers 2012 Discount OFFER!
Check for Top 100 Most Popular Books People Are Buying Daily Price Update!
Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection
Gary San is a best practices activist and advocate for a leading Web and permission-based mass email service.
cell phone watches Buy Best Workcentre 013R00662
