Different email clients, such as Outlook, Gmail, Hotmail, Apple Mail and Mobile Devices can display differently. Testing across all browsers, operating systems and mobile devices is impractical and just testing a few can be very time consuming.More than likely this is not a problem with your HTML email or a problem with your email marketing software.The problem lies with how different email clients handle HTML coding. Some email clients have problems handling and displaying CSS, others may strip out your background images, some do not show link colors and some may not support HTML at all. All email clients tend to have their own rendering parameters and rules. So while your email may look good on Outlook, it might not look the same on Gmail. The reason for this is that HTML was developed as a standard for Web pages and emails are not web pages.
Please be aware that regardless of whether you design your newsletter, write your own HTML or you use FireDrum Templates and Campaign Wizard to create your email the rendering ultimately is dependent on the email client.
Tips For Success
Use FireDrum’s Inbox Preview assistant.
Don’t have the time to test your message to 54 different clients? Use FireDrum’s Inbox Preview Assistant and we’ll do the testing for you! With each report you’ll get to see how your message renders email clients including the most popular mobile devices. Learn more.
Do Not use Microsoft Word to edit your emails.
While it may look great on your computer, it will look very different, even in Outlook across all email clients.
Use Basic HTML and Inline Styles.
Using basic HTML will still render the look you want with less of the problems of making having it look the same across different email clients.
Use ALT text for images.
Many of the email clients turn off the images from being displayed. Using ALT text and specifying the width and height of the images used will help ensure that your email will still make sense and is being displayed correctly even when the images
are off.
The rendering issues don’t stop at HTML with CSS being a big factor too. You may be shocked at how some of the most popular email clients stack up when it comes to CSS compatibility.
According to The Email Standard Project these are the email clients that have the best compatibility:
We have partnered with Email On Acid to provide you with the ability to preview your email in 54 combinations of the most popular email clients and mobile devices including smart phone and tablets. Save time while being confident your email looks correct and consistent.
You are able to view 27 web based email previews, 17 desktop email application previews and 10 mobile email previews.
Unlike web browsers, email clients are far more strict when it comes to HTML and CSS standards. Just because your email renders properly in a web browser does not mean it will render correctly in every inbox. By utilizing the power of the Inbox Preview Assistant within your account, you can now preview your email in 8 operating systems, 6 web browsers, and 32 email clients – all within one click. Ready to start using the Inbox Preview Assistant? Find it below your message in step 2 of the Easy Step Publishing Wizard!
Example of Web Based Previews:
Example of Desktop Client Previews:
Example of Mobile Email Previews:
Don’t forget to check out our other new features! To learn more about our updated Interactive Reports, go here.
Version 3.3 is finally here and FireDrum is happy to introduce the new Interactive Reports! You will notice we have redesigned your Members and Reports dashboard with clickable graphs to instantly provide the information that’s most important with the ability to interact and find all your data with ease.
Members Dashboard
The updated Members by Status section provides you with an overview on your members based on status and is depicted as a pie chart. Slices represent figures ranging from the type of member enrollment to the way members are deactivated by your list. This is perfect to use as a birds-eye view of member subscription health. By hovering over each slice, you are prompted with a pop up to click on the chart and drill down to view the members that make up the slice. From this module, you can also print or download the chart as an image (PNG, JPG, PDF, SVG).
The second update on the Members dashboard is the Member Trends module. This chart provides you with information on member trends. You can toggle the visibility of each data group by clicking within the legend. The line chart for your active members displays the growth of your contacts. The bars represent the total for each data group during the specified time period. You can use the date picker to select the date range for the displayed member trends. The zoom feature allows you to choose to view the chart in increments from 1 week to the lifetime of your account.
Reports Dashboard
The reports dashboard has been completely revamped and is now easier to view a quick snapshot of how well your campaign has been performing. The updated Last Campaign Sent module highlights the number of recipients sent, the number of people who opened your message, the number of clicks and the number of bounced emails. By expanding the report, you get a more detailed view of the last campaign sent as well as an interactive chart that displays the unique opens, clicks, bounces and complaints. By clicking on each legend item, you can toggle the data group on or off similar to the Member Trends report found on the Members dashboard. You also have the ability to select the date range and the zoom feature.
In addition to adding Interactive Reports we have also added other new features including the Inbox Preview Assistant! To learn more, click here.
FireDrum Internet Marketing is pleased to announce a program to provide more than $36,000 in email marketing services to randomly chosen non-profit organizations in 2013.
The FireDrum team urges supporters of non-profit organizations to nominate one or more to receive the following free of charge:
One full year of DIY email marketing services
One custom-designed template
List importing assistance
A featured spot in FireDrum’s FireLine e-newsletter.
One non-profit will be selected each month throughout 2013, and those nominated are eligible to receive a 30% discount off of FireDrum’s regular email marketing services.
With the beginning of the year, comes the end to football season, it’s common to want to use the championship game within your marketing; however, it’s important to be careful with your use of words because even the most innocent usage of the NFL’s most prized trademark can land you in hot water.
The NFL is notorious for guarding its intellectual property rights to the full extent of the law and with the Super Bowl approaching, it’s important to know what terms should be avoided, as well as some terms that are acceptable.
Unless you have clear permission of the NFL, you may not use the following terms or images within your marketing messages:
• “Super Bowl”
• “Super Sunday”
• The Super Bowl logo
• “NFL,” “AFC” or “NFC”
• “The National Football League”
• “American Football Conference”
• “National Football Conference”
• Any team name or nickname
Now, you’re probably thinking ‘what’s left for me to use?’ The following have been deemed acceptable and won’t get you sacked:
• “The Big Game”
• “The Professional Football Championship Game”
• The date of the game
• The names of the two competing cities, as long as the team names are not mentioned
If you are a restaurant, you must be extra careful with the way you promote watching the game at your establishment. Unless you have paid a licensing fee, you cannot state that your bar is “your Super Bowl headquarters.” If you are a retail location, be careful about your “Super Bowl Sunday” sale. Instead, link your sale to “the Big Game Promotion.”
Do you have a Big Game message that you want to send out? FireDrum has new free templates that are perfect for the occasion. Don’t have an account yet? No worries. Sign up for free today.
Just as quickly as summer comes to an end for our school-age children, fall reminds us that a new year is just around the corner. For many businesses and entrepreneurs, this means setting out to prepare budgets and projections for the coming fiscal year.
Even if you don’t create expansive 5-year forecasts for your business, you should at the very least create a road map of where you’d like to be by year’s end and consider strategies for getting there. The planning process can do wonders to improve motivation, increase communication and create a general sense of togetherness amongst your team.
To read more on our favorite email marketing strategies and tactics, please
Already using FireDrum’s Email Marketing services? Upgrade today and receive a $50 credit. After you upgrade, call us at 480-699-1524 and claim your credit!
Offer expires 10/31/12
Tips for creating emails that work
Newsletters are more complicated to create than a single-message email. Does your business do both, or neither? Send a newsletter once-a-month but add a single message email with a promotional offer to your marketing calendar in the opposite part of the month.
• Personalize your emails wherever possible. Address people by name. Be sure your clients and prospects are properly categorized so you don’t inadvertently send a new-client promotion to a client you’ve been serving for 5 years.
• Design emails that work well across all viewing platforms. You don’t want to lose a potential lead because your message didn’t display properly. Use imagery. Remember that people barely read anymore; engage with illustration.
• Make your emails shareable across social networks. Allowing your recipients to share your message or promotion with other prospects only improves your chances of success.
• Be consistent. Create a schedule for delivering your messages and stick to it. You want to build a relationship with your recipient and what better way to start building their trust than by being timely.
As with any facet of your business, developing a marketing strategy and budget requires multiple outlooks: a glimpse into your company’s past, understanding of its present position and vision of the future. FireDrum would like to help you jumpstart your 2013 marketing plan with a complimentary one-hour strategy session. During this no-obligation consultation, we’ll review your 2012 email marketing campaigns and discuss strategies to improve your results in 2013.
If you’re interested in working one-on-one with our email marketing specialists, please call 877.347.3376 or email us at info@Firedrum.com. You’ve made the right decision by engaging your clients in email marketing; why not take advantage of this complimentary consultation? It’s no risk with a great upside for reward!
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