Before You Hit Send: Why and How to Do Email Client Testing

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Even after carefully formatting your emails to avoid tricky HTML coding issues, layouts that look perfect on your screen may not render properly, depending on what email client your recipients use to view the message. That’s why it is important to build time for email client testing into your campaign plan.

MMS analyzed what email clients were used by recipients to open emails sent from the NOWW Platform during a recent 16-month period. The results revealed that while Apple® iPhone® was the most popular way to read emails, there was also a wide variety of clients in use.

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MMS Research: Email clients used to open messages sent from the NOWW Platform, Nov. 2019-Mar. 2021

It’s important to test how your emails appear in every email client to assure that images aren’t blocked, alt text is available and fonts render properly.

The NOWW Platform has built-in testing capabilities that enable you to catch errors before you hit Send. Here are some of the common errors made using HTML coding, plus insight on how to identify and correct issues.

1. Images, links and graphics

Error: Image is not rendering.

Fixes:

  • Check that the tag for the image is spelled correctly.

  • Verify that the path to the image is coded correctly in HTML.

  • Check that the image is stored in an image folder that is accessible from a public server or the NOWW Platform. Images stored locally on a server or network drive are not available to your recipients and will appear as broken links.

Example:

Incorrect: Coded locally - <img scr=”myfiles/images/images01.png”>

Correct: Coded on a public server - <img scr=”http://www.(your website).com/images/image 01.png”>

Error: Image takes too long to load.

Fix: The size of an image affects how quickly it will load. Optimize or adjust the image, so it will render correctly and quickly. A general rule of thumb is to keep images to 480-600 pixels and less than 1MB.

Error: Missing “src” on <img> tag. An image cannot render without a src attribute that specifies the location of the image.

Fix: Verify that there is a src attribute for all images.

Example:

Incorrect: <img width=”600”>

Correct: <img src=”http://www./email/images/childrens.jpg” width=“600”>

Error: Missing “href” on hyperlink tag. The “href” attribute specifies the URL of the linked page. If the href attribute is not present, the tag will not be a hyperlink.

Fix: Verify that there is valid information in href attributes. Do not leave empty links.

Example:

Incorrect: <a href=““ target=”_blank”>

Correct: <a href=“http://www.(yoursite.com)”>

Error: “href” on <a> tag contains too many characters.

Fix: The maximum number of characters in a hyperlink is 1,000. Shorten the hyperlink to less than 1,000 characters.

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2. Code and software

Error: Creative not rendering correctly in the editor.

Fixes:

  • Check that the <body> and <head> coding tags are opened and closed correctly. Each HTML element should have an opening (<body>) and closing (</body>) tag. If your HTML element contains head tags, there should be an opening <head> and closing </head> tag.

  • If text lines and/or images appear too large or small, check that the height and width coding is correct for those elements. They need to be adjusted to correct sizes. Use height coding only when necessary.

  • When you save a Microsoft® Word document as a webpage, certain types of formatting and other items that are not supported by HTML may not display correctly. Using Word or Publisher to generate HTML content can result in extra code added to your email, which can break your design, add invalid characters or result in your email getting filtered as spam. We recommend using a basic HTML editor or NOWW Platform template to create your email to avoid these issues.

Error: HTML cannot contain <script> tags.

Fix: Your coding contains JavaScript which most email applications block as a security measure. If you copied HTML from an existing webpage, clean the code of all JavaScript and test your campaign thoroughly to ensure it displays correctly.

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3. High spam score or no spam score

Error: Compliance issues. Messages that have a spam score higher than 2 cannot be tested or deployed and need to be revised.

Fixes:

  • Check if your email contains an unsubscribe link. The U.S. CAN-SPAM Act requires all marketing emails to contain an unsubscribe link. All marketing emails sent from the NOWW Platform contain the MMS opt-out link which is automatically included at the bottom on each email. There is no exception to this rule.

  • Verify your email contains a postal address. The U.S. CAN-SPAM Act also requires that all marketing emails include a valid postal mailing address.

  • Review your email for spammy content. Subject lines that tend to be in all caps, letters highlighted in bright colors, exclamation points or emojis used in excess and phrases like “hottest,” “best” or “click now!” can produce a high spam score. Keep your subject lines and content relevant, and try not to use gimmicky catch phrases or spammy words.

  • See if your email code was copied from another email service platform or other source. Check for coding that is specific only to that platform and remove it.

  • Check if your HTML code contains CData code: /*<![CDATA[*/ /*]]>*/. If yes, it needs to be removed.

 
 

MMS simplifies the testing process

Simplify the process of testing your emails with the built-in tools in the NOWW Platform from MMS. You’ll be able to easily assess how your email renders in different email clients and respond to error messages to navigate quick fixes.

Are you interested in learning more about the NOWW Platform packages to decide which one works best for your team? Contact us today to set up a demo, or visit mmslists.com/noww-platform-matrix for more information.

 
Mason Elliott