Build Email
Subject Line
- Must be less than 54 characters.
- Do not use quotation marks “…” (apostrophes are fine).
- Avoid using dollar symbols “$”, ALL CAPS, or excessive punctuation.
Structure
- Use tables
<table>…</table>
, table rows<tr>…</tr>
, and table columns<td>…</td>
(or "table data" cells). - Use both images and text in the HTML email.
- In some cases
<div>
tags are useful somewhere inside a Table.
Text inside images should be used sparingly (e.g. for logos and branding) because it's not searchable, not handicap accessible, and can't be reflowed for small displays. For marketing copy, it's much better typed as actual text in the HTML.
Styling
- Use inline styling. (This is the most reliable way to style HTML emails.)
- Do not use CSS stylesheets.
- Try to rely less on CSS styling in the
<head>
of the HTML to style the email.
Images
- Host images and include the full web link to its location.
- Do not leave
alt="…"
attributes empty. - Include
border="0"
on image tags. - Example:
<img src="http://www.example.com/images/image01.jpg" alt="Image" width="580" border="0" />
*note: keep image sizes under 180 kb/image as much as possible (360kb for images that target Retina displays)
Fonts
- Use standard fonts such as: Helvetica, Arial, Georgia, Tahoma, Verdana, Serif, Sans serif, etc.
- Font sizes should be between 12 px and 39 px
Videos
- Working video players cannot be embedded inside emails. As a matter of security, most email clients intentionally block both
<iframe>
tags and Javascript. - If you want to advertise a video, include a screenshot of the video that links to wherever the video is hosted. This simple trick works so well that it's sometimes mistaken for a real video embed.
Recommendations
- When styling text, use span styling
<span>…</span>
over paragraph styling<p>…</p>
. - Do not use Javascript, 1x1’s, or tracking code snippets.
- Clearly communicate the main part of your message in the top 20% of the design.
- Avoid using too many words. Short, concise content is best, with a clear call-to-action (or "CTA").
- CTA examples: “Order here”, “Get Tickets,” and “Learn more.”
When You're Ready
Send us the following:
- URL (link) to the HTML email, with hosted images. In some cases, HTML file attachments are okay instead. Please do not forward the HTML as an email; in the forwarding process, your email client will destroy the markup source.
- Subject line.
- Plain Text version of the email.