Quick tips for HTML emails

HTML emails can be a real pain to successfully create since the standard used by email clients are more varied and many years behind standards used in today’s web browsers. Below is a short check list to help you create a usable HTML email template:

• Use UTF8 encoding and declare the ISO 8859-1 Character set.
• Make sure the HTML code is good and clean. Poor code is a major trigger for SPAM filters. Check your code at http://validator.w3.org/.
• Don’t use CSS tags/styles. Use html tags instead. Many email clients still do not support Styles/CSS.
• Use tables to layout your design, not CSS Divs or frames.
• Slice large images into smaller combinations of images.
• Large images are likely to trigger SPAM filters or get rejected by the recipients mail server.
• Include text within the body of the document.
• Using 100 percent images is likely to trigger SPAM filters and stop your email getting through.
• Use Bold font and coloured font tags sparingly, these increase your SPAM score.
• Background images and colours do not always work well within emails on different email clients.
• Do not use ‘Forms’ as ‘JavaScript’ can be seen as a potential security threat and stop you email being received.
• Avoid inserting ‘comments’ between the tags. Using ‘comments’ will add to your Spam score.
• To help get your message across quickly without being lost, ensure your main ‘call-to-action’ is positioned near the top of the email.