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When I started coding I skipped over tables and went directly to CSS/div based layouts, it had just started and I didn't see the need to learn something (ie tables layout) that was on it's way out. I do use tables for tabular data, so I understand the way tables work.

My current company sends an amazing amount of HTML emails that I have to design, build and send through Emma, or several other similar companies. This is my first regular experience with HTML emails, though I have built websites full time for several years.

My questions are: Is there a good reference for designing & building HTML rules? I do know the general basics (learned through research, trial and error over the last few months). Or are the rules simple enough to list here? Are there accessibility standards for email like for the web? Are they the same?

As a side question, does anyone think that HTML emails are more of a headache than they are worth?

Ammi J Embry
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    Why yes, I do think HTML email is a mistake. The only worse email format mistake is RTF. – Mark Sep 23 '10 at 16:46
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    Here is a [big list of resources](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2229822/best-practices-considerations-when-writing-html-emails/21437734#21437734) for anyone starting in html email. – John Mar 21 '14 at 17:38

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Campaign Monitor and Mail Chimp have a spectacular amount of resources on these topics. You should check out the "Why Email?" guide to answer any question on if email's a good idea. Also have look over the titles of mailchimp guides, some of them relate to sending out emails (not just help with their system).

If you're chucking out loads of image based images and you don't want to keep chopping them up you should check out Mailrox (https://www.mailrox.com/). It lets you chop-up images in the browser and does all the stuff for you.

Q: As a side question, does anyone think that HTML emails are more of a headache than they are worth?

Quick Answer: No, I've found sending out good emails to people who want them really helps conversion / sales, but they have to be right.

CafeHey
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Not sure what your story regarding tables has to do with sending HTML emails since you're not confined to using tables in HTML emails, but anyways. I'm not saying that these are official guidelines, but off the top of my head, I personally always consider them:

  • Keep it simple - When you're sending more style than actual content, you're doing it wrong.
  • Try not to use images - Stick to basic in-line styling like borders, background color, text color and such. The objective is to make the email look good, not to create a stand-alone website.
  • Always provide a plain text alternative for the email clients that don't support HTML emails.

As for the side question, I don't really see anything bad in using HTML to make your emails prettier and it shouldn't cause any headaches when done right (i.e. see the first two points on my list).

Hope these help.

Valentin Flachsel
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  • pictures - lots of pictures - are required with as much design as possible. I work with non-tech people who want all the bells and whistles. – Ammi J Embry Sep 23 '10 at 17:58
  • If they can't be convinced that this is bad practice, not sure if any guidelines could help you as they would either ignore them or won't understand them to begin with. Perhaps it would help to explain how such an email would get a high spam score by various filters. Paying for emails that end up in spam folders and thus being rendered useless is wasting money. And that's something even non-tech people could understand. – Valentin Flachsel Sep 23 '10 at 18:56
  • They claim they see other emails designed this way or that (they haven't shown me any examples I could actually look at though), so they don't understand why I say it's a bad idea. I think I might need to add stubborn to their non-tech description. – Ammi J Embry Sep 24 '10 at 14:45
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    I suppose you could try doing it the way they want it and then work on that. Try runing it through a spam score software like the free [MailingCheck](http://www.mailingcheck.com/). Although I personally never used it before, it does seem to pack quite a lot of features, including cleaning suggestions in order to lower the spam rating score, and if nothing else, it should at least give you some hard facts that you can present to your employers in order to help them understand why there are certain limitations and what they are. – Valentin Flachsel Sep 26 '10 at 08:40
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Email on Acid's blog has some really good tips/tricks for designing HTML emails. Designing HTML emails is one of the most tedious and frustrating things I have to do at my job. Email on Acid helps limit the frustration level. Hope this helps.

thiesdiggity
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