Exploring some fancy-shmancy options for a project newsletter. That ^ would be the header.
Started looking at what it takes to make an HTML design work for email purpose - f#cking hell - that's not even HTML anymore. Of very little CSS supported all of it needs to be inline (i.e. <tag style="color:red">), no background-image, no CSS positioning, tables for the layout, nested tables at that, no way to reliably embed attached images and externally linked images are nearly always blocked by default. Absolutely positively no way to use @font-face. Circus.
Emailing a link to an update starts looking like a viable option... or perhaps just sticking to a plain text email.
@Nik - Yeah, thanks, I've been there already. What a sad state of affairs. I think I'm actually going to A/B test plain text emails vs HTML ones vs one-liners with the link. See which one works best.
And then if they use Outlook or Gmail you're royally screwed :/ I am one person that actually appreciates a simple text email, and am more likely to read on with nice heading and just text as opposed to one with a million images. I almost never click show images, so, maybe look at working with something really basic.
So here's (a crop of) the first ever newsletter for a backup product that doesn't look like donkey's butt. Still need to tweak few things, but hopefully will push it out of the door by the end of tomorrow.
14 Responses
Pro
Alex Pankratov
Exploring some fancy-shmancy options for a project newsletter. That ^ would be the header.
Started looking at what it takes to make an HTML design work for email purpose - f#cking hell - that's not even HTML anymore. Of very little CSS supported all of it needs to be inline (i.e. <tag style="color:red">), no background-image, no CSS positioning, tables for the layout, nested tables at that, no way to reliably embed attached images and externally linked images are nearly always blocked by default. Absolutely positively no way to use @font-face. Circus.
Emailing a link to an update starts looking like a viable option... or perhaps just sticking to a plain text email.
about 1 year ago
Haha, yeah man it's missions. Take a look here http://www.campaignmonitor.com/css/ for css support... Looking good btw :P
about 1 year ago
Pro
Alex Pankratov
@Nik - Yeah, thanks, I've been there already. What a sad state of affairs. I think I'm actually going to A/B test plain text emails vs HTML ones vs one-liners with the link. See which one works best.
about 1 year ago
Looks great! I'm curious which one will win: text VS html vs one-liners. Keep us tuned!
about 1 year ago
Pro
Aaron Moody
Erm, I want that logo please..
about 1 year ago
nice..
about 1 year ago
And then if they use Outlook or Gmail you're royally screwed :/ I am one person that actually appreciates a simple text email, and am more likely to read on with nice heading and just text as opposed to one with a million images. I almost never click show images, so, maybe look at working with something really basic.
about 1 year ago
Pro
Shaun Moynihan
Nice work man....really liking this!
about 1 year ago
Pro
Alex Pankratov
@Jarne, @Aaron, @Igor, @Shaun - thank you, gentlemen.
@Flavius - I agree, I too never "download images" in the emails that's why I am trying to understand if it's possible to rely on attached images only.
about 1 year ago
perfect
about 1 year ago
I worked on email templates for my current employer just a few months ago. Litmus was very helpful for testing, but I feel your pain.
about 1 year ago
Rebound
Newsletter as an excuse
by Alex Pankratov
.. to design something.
So here's (a crop of) the first ever newsletter for a backup product that doesn't look like donkey's butt. Still need to tweak few things, but hopefully will push it out of the door by the end of tomorrow.
about 1 year ago
Pro
Alex Pankratov
@Hamish - Yes, Litmus indeed. For one-time testing this seems to be more affordable.
about 1 year ago
tight
12 months ago