Who doesn’t want to distribute beautiful emails with eye popping graphics and attention-grabbing rhetoric?  But before you hit that send button, be sure you know how ISPs, spam filters, preview panes and blocked images will impact your deliverability and rendering. 

A failure to design email appropriate messages is one of the most prevalent reasons email campaigns underperform, usually because pieces render poorly or have non-functioning links. Here at PWR, we test every email prior to distribution to be sure your email will perform as well as possible. In fact, while your average email-to-inbox ratio is about 75%, ours is 96%.

Test your email IQ by guessing which of the following emails will get through and look good.

If you chose the image on the right, congratulations!  The plain text links on the version to your right will render properly even for viewers with images turned off so everyone will know what fabulous content is inside.  The buttons on the left might look better, but over 50% of recipients will block them so viewers won’t be aware that the rich collateral material exists.

Which one did you choose? The excessive caps in the version on the right will trigger spam filters and firewalls, delivering lower open and click through rates.  By using caps more conservatively, you will reach more people, making your email campaign more effective.

Yep, that swimsuit is pretty cute, but is it as important as the call to action?  Keep in mind that when working in email, the upper left quadrant of the image is “above the fold.”  Most preview panes are configured to either show the top of the email or the left side.  The image on the right will display the call to action and key text even to people viewing it through a preview pane with images off.

Gotta love that cute script on the left, don’t you?  Well actually, no. Using interesting fonts might seem like a good idea, but many computers won’t read the font correctly. In addition to losing the aesthetic impact you’re going for, uncommon fonts can result in fragmented text and push elements out of their proper place. Plus, when browser fonts aren't used, the text must be imported as an image. And those readers that don't have images turned on automatically in their email browsers won't see the text at all. Stick with simple fonts for maximum effectiveness.

When it comes to email communications, all research points to one thing: everything is connected! Delivery, design, preview pane view, content, subject lines, timing and rendering all matter because the elements of “good email” don’t exist in a vacuum. A truly successful email campaign marries great looks with a high deliverability rating and great content!