The Lunch Pail

Imagine if you will, an art exhibit where everyone is handed glasses with different types of kaleidoscopic lenses. With the right paintings, it could make for an impactful exhibit; highlighting the subjectivity of the art itself. And perhaps that would be part of what the artist would want to convey… or perhaps not.

There are a myriad of potentially different experiences out there when one considers the combinations of devices (desktops, laptops, smart phones, tablets), Operating Systems (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android) and mail clients or readers (IE, Firefox, Outlook, Thunderbird, Lotus Notes, Gmail, various ISP webmail programs, etc.). Each offers a different “lens” for viewing.

So how do you even begin to tackle all the rendering possibilities and produce an effective, attractive email? Here are three tips:

Have the right tools

This one’s obvious. A carpenter’s only as good as his tools, right? Start with some HTML email best practices. Once you have that nailed down you need to test.

One could setup a lab with all the devices/OS/reader combinations above and then send test emails, but you don’t have to. At Knotice, we’ve partnered with the right folks to be able to offer email rendering from about 50 of these combinations right on our platform .

Make sure automated campaign rendering is in your toolbox –and emulators don’t count. Make sure you’re getting real screen grabs of test emails sent to the various devices/OS/reader combinations.

Look at how they layout. Did anything break? Is something important cutoff when seen in the content of the Yahoo! Webmail advertising? You’ll start to see some patterns to watch for.

Take notes

“Takes notes” sounds like another no-brainer, but the point here is to make sure that you use your rendering tests to inform your own HTML best practices. You may develop your own brand- or campaign-specific best practices based on what you see displayed in the rendering tests. Find ways to make sure you’re learning from every test to inform the next email, as well as fixing the current one.

Make smart compromises

When it’s all said and done, the reality is that you may have to make some compromises. Some of these may seem very tough to make, but in the end, you don’t have to make tough decisions in a vacuum. All of the rendering compromises that you have to make should be informed by the email metrics you have. This can be determined with the appropriate device data and the breakouts of your list by domain/ISP. I don’t mean to imply it’s a democracy, but it is a business, so if your compromise is between Lotus Notes at 0.045% of your opens and Gmail at 24%, the choice should be clear and easy.

Finally, assume that some things will break and know what you can compromise on and what you can’t. A logo cutoff may not be acceptable at any level. What about a link color defaulting to blue on some limited devices/OS/reader combinations? A great designer will make sure a design will degrade gracefully.

Rendering in this multiple devices/OS/reader world is as much science as it is art. Mix in a little business logic for good measure (and the best ROI on your program) and you should be able to see straight through to the right solutions for your program.