Shocking Email Design Challenges for 2007
(and how to beat them)
By Kelly Rusk, Communications Manager

It seems 2006 was the year for revamping all the most popular email clients. That makes 2007 the year for email marketers to seriously rework HTML templates for optimal rendering results.

Before you’re in the thick of your 2007 email marketing design strategy, it’s time to get updated on the top 5 email clients and how they’ve changed. Screen shots add to the power of this article! Keep reading…

MSN Live Mail - Images off, unknown sender (click to enlarge)

MSN Live Mail - Images on, known sender (click to enlarge)

The new MSN Live Mail email client will soon replace Hotmail, making it one of the biggest email clients for consumers. The beta version is very different from the traditional Hotmail, including features like a new preview pane (either vertically or horizontally). But, unlike Outlook's current preview pane which we’re all familiar with, the MSN preview pane is even smaller! This smaller surface space makes more room for Hotmail to sell ad space and less room for email marketers to “make their point”.  

Hopefully, you’re already considering the preview pane in your design - but if not, now is the time! With this new, tiny pane, you must test how your emails render in MSN Live Mail, and be ready to do some tweaks.  One gleaming positive about MSN Live mail is its inclusion of an "unsubscribe" button for reputable senders.

This means it's more important than ever to get recipients to add you to their address books. And it means these MSN Live email users will never have the option to haphazardly hit the "This is Spam" button. The new "unsubscribe" button replaces the “This is Spam” button thereby allowing users to unsubscribe without increasing your spam complaints and damaging your sender reputation. Amen!

Microsoft is also releasing Windows Live Mail Desktop client - which will replace Outlook Express. So far it looks very similar to the web version - but users will be able to use multiple addresses through the desktop version. Bottom line: Make sure your emails render properly in Live Mail!

The release of Outlook 2007 is already shocking the email marketing world. Previous versions referenced its HTML support using Internet Explorer. However, the new version uses Word 2007 - and if you've ever tried to convert a Word doc into HTML, you know how horrible it is!

In a nutshell, Outlook 2007 doesn't fully support CSS (cascading style sheets) - previous versions did. Also, Outlook does not allow animated gifs (it displays as a static image), background images, or forms. As the most popular B2B email client, and one that’s also used by consumers, it’s definitely important to take these restrictions into consideration.

However, to make your life a little easier, Microsoft has posted a list of what is/isn't supported, as well as an HTML validator. Definitely something to check out!

Yahoo! Mail Beta

Like the new MSN Live, the Yahoo Beta makes room for ads. Depending on screen resolution, the preview pane’s width is fine, but the height is only 100 pixels. In other words, it’s teeny-tiny.

Also, Yahoo! Mail has cut down the length on subject lines. Previously, keeping sub lines to a maximum of 50 characters was a pretty safe bet. But with the new Yahoo! You get about 29 - 35 characters.
 
Now before you go and try to cut subject lines down to five or six words, focus on making the first five or six words the most important and able to stand alone.

Yahoo! - Images off (click to enlarge)		Yahoo! - Images on (click to enlarge)

Gmail

Gmail Ok, no real changes to Gmail's interface recently - however, in 2006 Google introduced "Apps for your Domain". This allows you to use your own domain email address through Gmail. Gmail is particularly funny with HTML emails. For example, images are blocked by default and you can't change that setting (though if your email address is added to the address book, this will override image blocking). Gmail also doesn’t like script, forms, CSS, and a whole long list of potential email bells and whistles. But since Gmail is still only a small player in the email game (though growing fast), there was a time when you could sort your database for Gmail addresses and if there were none, you could ignore Gmail's finicky rules. However with “Apps for Your Domain”, it means anyone could be using Gmail. So unfortunately you can't be certain anymore!

AOL

AOL mail used to only be available to AOL users, but in 2006 they announced free webmail for anyone. So far the impact doesn't seem to be major - but who knows what the future holds!

As for designing - AOL's webmail doesn't seem to have any major issues, but many minor annoyances- some paragraph breaks don't show up, background images can create problems, etc.

This all may sound a little tough - but it's a new year and the right time to make some positive changes! Don't give up on HTML messages – just be more strategic.

Pick your battles - there will be minor differences in each client, and sometimes you just have to live with it. Don't be discouraged - HTML is still more captivating than text and offers real-time measurable results. It is possible to create emails that render properly in all email clients - it just takes a little more patience, care and attention.

Tips to beat these new challenges:

1. If you haven't already signed up for an email address with all the popular webmail clients, put that on your to-do list. Sign up for MSN Live, Gmail, AOL and Yahoo! Mail. Send test emails to each of these email addresses and it will give you a chance to refine and tweak your email campaigns for optimal viewing pleasure.  
   
   
2. Always position your company logo in the top left corner. Then no matter what the preview pane is like, your logo will be visible in the first place most people look. Also make sure there is coherent text nearby so when images are blocked, the recipient can still get the gist of your email and make that crucial decision to keep reading.
   
   
3. Don't forget a text version - ideally you should be sending Multipart/MIME messages which automatically detect user's preferences for text or HTML messages. However, this technology is not perfect - remember to keep a low ratio of HTML to text, in case mobile users receive a mangled HTML message - they can still understand your email. And remember: a low ratio of HTML to text keeps spam filtering to a minimum.
   
   
4. Include an “Add me to your address book” call to action at the point of email sign up and on every email you send. Having your email address in the “safe sender” category helps improve deliverability and ensure emails are received.
   
   
5. Segment lists based on email clients. If you have a large list, you may consider segmenting based on email clients. For example you can have an MSN Live, Yahoo! Mail, AOL, Gmail, and other (assuming the other category is smaller webmails, Outlook, and other desktop clients like Lotus Notes (ugh!), Mozilla Thunderbird (ugh again! etc.). This type of segmentation makes it easy to tweak each version for optimal rendering in each client.