When’s the final time you took a have a look at your electronic mail templates?
Should you’re like most electronic mail entrepreneurs, it’s possibly been some time. It may be so tempting to “set and neglect” one thing like your electronic mail templates. In any case, the entire level of making them is to make the e-mail sending course of extra streamlined. However in case you don’t often audit and check your templates, you might be sending emails with errors…and you’d by no means know.
Why templates can’t be “set and neglect it”
That’s as a result of inbox suppliers continuously change their software program, so code that labored in the future might not work the subsequent time you ship. Simply final month I used to be testing certainly one of our welcome templates and saved seeing this bizarre bug pop up in Outlook 365 that I might have sworn wasn’t there the day earlier than.
One other time, a brief previous bug broke every thing in Yahoo! for a couple of days. It was a straightforward sufficient repair to deploy, however as soon as the Yahoo! staff rolled again that change, it was my repair that began to interrupt every thing.
Wouldn’t or not it’s good if electronic mail shoppers would let you know forward of any main releases? Sigh. Possibly sometime.
Within the meantime, it’s good to set up a set routine for auditing and testing your electronic mail templates. That’s why it’s so essential to return to your tried-and-true templates and retest them, particularly as you’re making new electronic mail campaigns, since you simply don’t know when one thing like that’s going to occur.
7 issues to search for when testing templates
At E mail on Acid, we check each single time we ship an electronic mail, in order that covers our publication and one-off marketing campaign templates. Nevertheless it’s essential to set a reminder in your calendar as soon as a month — or at a minimal, as soon as 1 / 4 — to rapidly run your templates via one other check. Right here’s what to look out for:
1. Outdated code
First, have a look via the code of the emails. Does it match the way you’re at present coding new ones? Are you using hacky workarounds that you just don’t want to make use of anymore? Have a look and clear up any code in case you can — it’s going to solely make your job simpler later.
With outdated code, you wish to take into consideration the minor parts that get handed down yr to yr. Firstly of each calendar yr, test the copyright date and your footers. Some ESPs like MailChimp do have shortcodes that robotically replace, however you’ll in all probability have to do that manually every January.
Be sure you test and check any personalised tokens that seem in your electronic mail. You by no means know when a change in information construction inadvertently reveals FIRST_NAME as a substitute of … the consumer’s first title!
2. Damaged hyperlinks
The worst factor in an electronic mail is a damaged hyperlink. Not solely does it present a irritating expertise on your subscriber, it typically defeats your entire objective of the e-mail.
As you construct new net pages, replace previous weblog posts, or transfer from one CMS to a different, it’s a good time to double test these templates. You by no means know when a redirect doesn’t work proper or breaks.
One other factor to look out for? Double-checking your hyperlink monitoring in your templates will get switched out as wanted (and ensuring they’re there within the first place!) If you wish to understand how properly you’re performing, it does no good to have six totally different emails with the identical UTM since you forgot to vary out the monitoring final time you copied the template.
3. Lacking photos
Lacking photos will be attributable to adjustments in electronic mail consumer help, nevertheless it will also be from extra mundane points like a picture file degrading or being by accident deleted inside your ESP or content material supply community (CDN). Double-check that sizes nonetheless work, that photos nonetheless load on all shoppers, and that your GIFs stay optimized.
4. Darkish mode help
One surefire technique to know if you final examined your templates is that if they’re coded for darkish mode help. Launched for each Android and iPhone in 2019, it’s nonetheless a comparatively new component of electronic mail help — nevertheless it’s turn out to be so well-liked that it’s value confirming that electronic mail shoppers aren’t inverting colours, eliminating distinction, or typically wanting bizarre. We put collectively a full darkish mode guidelines right here.
A 2021 survey from Ascend2 and Pathwire discovered 59% of entrepreneurs are testing emails in darkish mode. One other 20% deliberate to begin darkish mode electronic mail testing within the close to future. Should you’re unsure whether or not or not your templates work in darkish mode, now is a superb time to test.
5. Accessibility adjustments
It’s at all times value double-checking your templates for accessibility. That is about greater than complying with guidelines and laws (which can themselves have modified) however about ensuring everybody in your viewers can learn and act in your emails with the absolute best subscriber expertise.
Meaning serious about these and different points of electronic mail accessibility:
- Colour distinction for hyperlinks and branding
- Alt tags on photos
- Font sizes
- Video captions
- Normal readability
- White area and general padding
6. Outdated branding
What you’re most definitely to seek out, although, with templates, is solely a operate of time: Outdated messaging and branding. Even in case you haven’t not too long ago rebranded your colours, fonts, or different kinds, the appear and feel of your emails evolves over time.
You wish to be sure you’re staying constant all through your whole electronic mail templates for:
- Emblem utilization
- Fonts
- Branding colours
- Taglines
- Model, product, and have names
- Fashion conventions, like capitalized headers
Past commonplace model parts, it’s essential to ensure that the outcomes of your A/B exams filter down into your templates. If a design component constantly wins out — say, a particular CTA button shade or publication structure — then it’s essential to verify your templates replicate that change. Equally, in case you discover that you just now not use a sure shade (keep in mind when everybody had orange CTA buttons?) it’s time to make these adjustments.
7. Adjustments in consumer help
It generally seems like electronic mail consumer help adjustments with the whims of the wind.
However in case you’re seeing one thing break in your common electronic mail campaigns for a particular consumer, then it’s undoubtedly time to have a look via your templates. With E mail on Acid, you may see a whole lot of previews of your emails in the entire most-popular mailbox suppliers and gadgets, so that you’ll know in seconds if one thing isn’t working.
Should you establish any points…
Okay, so that you’ve recognized a problem along with your templates. Now what?
If it’s one thing actually wonky, it’s at all times a good suggestion to test in with the e-mail improvement group and see if Outlook is wreaking havoc once more (let’s be actual, it’s nearly at all times Outlook) or if it’s a missed curly-brace bracket or one thing easy in your finish.
Should you discover damaged hyperlinks or outdated branding, ensure to loop in your electronic mail designers and every other stakeholders within the advertising and marketing staff — they could wish to take the chance to fully revisit the template, or no less than have a look at the information and see if one thing is value A/B testing.
That’s additionally why it’s so essential to have an electronic mail type information or design system in place, so you already know precisely what conventions you need to be working with. Embrace every thing from button sizes to padding to title case so you’ve gotten a guidelines. E mail advertising and marketing is difficult sufficient with out having to recollect these tiny particulars!
Discover out extra about how electronic mail builders and designers can work collectively.
Take a look at your templates with E mail on Acid
Whether or not you select to check your templates each month or each quarter, E mail on Acid makes it straightforward so that you can test for damaged hyperlinks, lacking photos, consumer help adjustments, and extra.
Our automated electronic mail pre-send guidelines walks you thru every space and offers dependable electronic mail previews with options for suggestions and collaboration. Plus, our customers take pleasure in limitless electronic mail testing. So, check as a lot as it’s good to. You’ll by no means hit a restrict.
Writer: Megan Boshuyzen
Megan is a graphic designer turned electronic mail developer who’s labored on all points of electronic mail advertising and marketing. She believes good emails for good causes make a optimistic distinction on the planet. Megan is at present working as an electronic mail developer for Sinch E mail. Go to her web site and study extra at megbosh.com.
Writer: Megan Boshuyzen
Megan is a graphic designer turned electronic mail developer who’s labored on all points of electronic mail advertising and marketing. She believes good emails for good causes make a optimistic distinction on the planet. Megan is at present working as an electronic mail developer for Sinch E mail. Go to her web site and study extra at megbosh.com.
