ND1
Email Software Recommendations for Responsive Design
My company sends out emails through our own server. (We don't hire an email service provider.) I've written (in most cases, copied and pasted) some industry standard coding for responsive emails and then tested them through our software, Sendblaster. However, the responsive columns do not work.
In between campaigns (which is never), I've tried to squeeze in some testing with other email sending software programs. I found one that works, GroupMail, but I'm not sure how much I like the interface and tracking options, pricing, etc.
Can anybody recommend email software programs that have been proven to work with responsive columns?
I'd say the most likely source of changes will be the way that the ESP / editor is in-lining any CSS styles. There are several approaches to this, and if they're in-lining their "computed styles" (rather than just any explicit css declarations from your style block or linked css files) it will likely result in some differences.
In my experience responsive columns tend to be pretty stable across email clients; the biggest issue is the additional 1px border in Outlook. One thing you could try though is setting your tables to display fixed-width so that any internal stuffing from the ESP won't make them stretch horizontally - otherwise you may find the right-hand table dropping below the left (if you're using the multi-table approach).
I'd be happy to take a look at your HTML & CSS, and offer more detailed suggestions :)
I did the first part of that months ago.
I'm not sure how to use the code analysis in order to isolate the difference between the two.
+1 for QuickDiff
We use Marketo and I notice alot of paragraph tag injection.
I will try very soon, and share the results. Thanks all.
Say I do notice changes that are made. What do I do next? (I guess it depends.)
If you notice that the editor in SendBlaster is making some changes, I'd recommend checking your settings in their platform and disabling things like CSS inlining, any sort of validation tools they have, or link/image rehosting. I'd also try reaching out to their support team to see if they can give you any insight on why their editor is making those changes to your email's HTML/CSS.
you'd think, with the somewhat fragile nature of email code, that sending platforms would know better than to add their own code. We often see it in platforms that provide a visual editor, which tends to be third party and bad at this sort of thing. Try asking support if they can turn that off and let you edit the straight html.
So, I made this request last week. They responded by asking for my HTML code for the responsive email I was trying to send. I decided just to send the template code from Jason Rodriquez's book.
How they responded:
"Hello Nic, if your template doesn't show properly on sendBlaster, it will not show properly on other email clients using the same engine (IE). You may want to have a look at our responsive templates, which are included with SendBlaster Pro 3."
Any suggestions?
Hey Nic,
Give ContactMonkey a try. They have a drag-and-drop email template builder that gives you a lot of flexibility with responsive columns: https://www.contactmonkey.com/features/email-template-builder
There's a few other options you can consider such as Email on Acid, SendWithUs, and Chamaileon. Here's a breakdown of their features: https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/responsive-email-template-builder
Just to get a little more perspective, why the decision to go with software running on your own server instead of an ESP?
ESPs, while they can get expensive, typically alleviate a lot of headaches associated with sending yourself - deliverability, keeping IP addresses warmed up, tracking and managing permissions, unsubs, bounces, and correctly handling both the HTML and text versions of your email. Plus, most ESPs have generally great tracking tools built in (although you can always use Email Analytics for more in-depth reporting).
These are the facts:
-I inherited the system
-While we have an ever-growing subscribe list (we may or may not get lists in other ways--not MY choice), and I've gathered that ESPs typically won't send to these OTHER lists. (I believe they at least require a name along with the email addresses.)
-I do use the Litmus analytics tool and love it; it just doesn't track clicks.
-I've recently considered using an ESP for our true subscribe list and our own server for other endeavors. (But it would get a little time-consuming to have a great responsive email to send through an ESP, then use a different coding for the other emails.)
I will welcome any sort of advice here.
Is sendblaster injecting any HTML to your email emails before it goes out?
When I was testing this, that was my guess, but I couldn't find any proof. Is there an easy way to compare code (in order to identify any differences between the before and after)?
How are you testing your email?
I would send the email via SendBlaster to Litmus and then try testing with just copying and pasting the code in Litmus.
You can use the Code Analysis to compare both HTML documents.
Hey Nic,
I'd do exactly what Ish suggests below (send in one test to Litmus through email send from SendBlaster, and a second email test with just the original HTML uploaded to Litmus) and you can see the source HTMLs in the Download area at the top of each test on Litmus. I usually pop those in to http://www.quickdiff.com/ and paste the HTML of test 1 and test 2 in and it will help to highlight any alterations that may have been made.
We find that Email Service Providers often alter emails by way of HTML/CSS validation they use in their editors, CSS inlining, or link/image rehosting which can differ a bit from the original HTML file, which may be going on in this case. Hope this helps!