A well crafted email layout can drastically increase the readability of your marketing emails. Unfortunately, email marketing templates are not all created equally. While many are created with high design standards, compatibility across different email clients is almost non-existent. What looks great in Gmail may be virtually unreadable in Outlook.
To make sure that your HTML email templates stand the best chance of being seen in all their glory, they need to adhere to some basic rules. If you are hand coding your html email templates, make sure to keep these tips in mind when you are designing the email layout. If you are looking for email marketing templates online then you should make sure that the template chosen also lives up to these standards. If need be, enlist the help of someone that has some basic web design skills to take a look at the HTML for you.
Tip 1 – Use HTML tables in your email layout
Tables are avoided when designing websites but for HTML email templates they the norm because most mail clients don’t handle CSS DIV tags well. Tables, while antiquated, will help make sure that your email looks the same to more of your recipients.
Tip 2 – Use CSS wisely
In your email layout, CSS can, and should, be used to define the styles in your template—just make sure to use them inline, not in a separate style sheet.