troubleshooting email like a pro
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Troubleshooting EmailLike a Pro
#LitmusLive
Get the Resources
You can find the slides, examples, and more at:
litmus.com/lp/troubleshooting-boston
#LitmusLive
Wifi: LitmusLive Password: weloveemail
Jaina Mistry
Email Marketing Specialist, Litmus
@jainamistry
Jason Rodriguez
Product Manager, Litmus
@rodriguezcommaj
Here's the Plan
Agenda
• 8:15 - Background Info
• 8:45 - Troubleshooting Workflows
• 9:10 - Common Bugs & Fixes
• 10:00 - BREAK
• 10:20 - Quick Review
• 10:30 - Exercise Time
• 11:00 - Email Optimization
• 11:30 - Q&A Session
• 12:00 - LUNCH
Why Problems Happenor The Crazy State of Email Rendering
— Me, now
“Email is unique.”
✔ Iterative
✔ Testable
✔ Personal
✔ Forgettable
The problem with email client icons background
IMAP & POP
WebDav
Exchange
Domino
Preprocessor
Trident (IE)
WebKit
Gecko
MS Word
Inbox
Server Sanitization Rendering Inbox View
The Rendering Pipeline
THERE ARE
NO STANDARDS
WEB ≠ EMAIL
EMAIL DESIGN WEB DESIGN
<table> <div>
<td> <h1>
<td> <p>
px em
style=“” <style>
bgcolor background-color
padding margin
EMAIL DESIGN WEB DESIGN
#ffffff #fff rgba hsa
individual properties shorthand
width=“100” width: 100px;
align=“left” text-align: left;
style=“” <style>
HTML & CSS Refresher
All emails consist of:
HTML and CSS
Tags <a> <h1> <table>
Attributes width="" cellpadding=""
HTML = Structure and content
Rules padding color font-family
Values 100px #333333 sans-serif
CSS = Style and Manipulation
Most of your problems will come from issues with your code.
At least the ones you can fix.
A Guide to Troubleshooting
Determining What's Going On
Email Troubleshooting 101
1. Test your email
2. Check your images
3. Check your HTML
4. Ask for help
Test Your Email
Step 1
During Development (in browser, in Builder, do
test sends (PutsMail))
During Development (in browser, in Builder, do
test sends (PutsMail))
Step 2
Check Your Images
Images in Email Require:
1. Absolute paths
2. Publicly accessible servers
Relative Path <img src="/img/img.jpg">
Absolute Path <img src="http://example.com/img/img.jpg">
Check the File Name
Check the File Type
JPG PNG GIF SVG TIFF
Image not displayed.
Check Your HTML
Step 3
Isolate the Problem
Highlight Tables
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="1"> <tr> <td></td>
</tr> </table>
Remove Other Sections
HEADER
HERO SECTION
CTA BLOCK
FOOTER
Reintroduce Components
HEADER
HERO SECTION
CTA BLOCK
FOOTER
Modularity FTW
HEADER
HERO SECTION
CTA BLOCK
FOOTER
+++
Check Syntax Issues
Common Syntax Issues:
1. Missing tags
2. Incorrect tags & values
3. Lack of HTML/CSS support
Check Default Behavior
Override Client Defaults
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"> <tr> <td></td>
</tr> </table>
Override Client Defaults
<body style="margin: 0; padding: 0;">
Check the Math
+ =
Outlook Math
See What Clients are Doing to Your HTML
Ask for Help
Step 4
Helpful Hashtags:
#emaildesign #emailmarketing #emailgeeks #litmuscommunity #litmuslive
Common Bugsand How to Fix Them
Issues with Images
Missing ImagesImage not displayed.
Blocked Images
Prevent Collapsing
<img src="" width="600" height="200">
Alternative Text
<img src="" width="600" height="200" alt="20% off coupon">
ALT Text Guidelines:
1. Include on most images
2. Keep empty for non-essential images
3. Keep it short
4. Can be styled using inline CSS
Cached Images table flip, what can you
do?
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
Removing Download Button
<a href="https://litmus.com"> <img src="" width="600" height="200" alt="20% off coupon">
</a>
Removing Borders
<a href="litmus.com"> <img src="" width="600" height="200" alt="20% off coupon" border="0">
</a>
Gaps around Images
Removing Gaps
<a href="litmus.com"> <img src="" width="600" height="200" alt="20% off coupon" border="0" style="display: block;">
</a>
Where is my background
image?
Where is my background
image?
Background Images
1. Not supported everywhere (Outlooks, Gmail IMAP)
2. Can use VML for Outlooks
3. Always use fallback colors
Animated GIF Isn’t Animating
Issues with Text and Links
Text Not Aligning Properly
Ensure Alignment
<td align="left"></td> <td align="center"></td> <td align="right"></td>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Tempora harum maiores totam possimus vero. Quaerat nemo maxime fugit quas aliquam earum amet sequi omnis nihil, quos ipsam quasi, reiciendis repudiandae?
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Tempora harum maiores totam possimus vero. Quaerat nemo maxime fugit quas aliquam earum amet sequi omnis nihil, quos ipsam quasi, reiciendis repudiandae?
Use MSO Conditional CSS
<!--[if mso]> <style type="text/css"> body, table, td {font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif !important;}
</style> <![endif]-->
Blank Media Query FTW
@media screen { @font-face { /* FONT DECLARATIONS */
} }
Wrap Suspect Text
.nolink { text-color: #c0c0c0; text-decoration: none;
}
<span class=“nolink”>866-787-7030</span>
Use a CSS Reset
<style> a[x-apple-data-detectors] {
color: inherit !important; text-decoration: none !important; font-size: inherit !important; font-family: inherit !important; font-weight: inherit !important; line-height: inherit !important;
} </style>
Special Symbols £$€&© etc.
HTML Lists Don’t Look Right
This is a list of information:
Item One
Item Two
Item Three
Item Four
This is a list of information:
• Item One
• Item Two
• Item Three
• Item Four
More Random Stuff
Full Email Not Shown in Gmail
Full Email Not Shown in Gmail102kb
Clipping in Gmail
What if tables look bigger than expected?
Check Default Behavior
Override Client Defaults
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"> <tr> <td></td>
</tr> </table>
Override Client Defaults
<body style="margin: 0; padding: 0;">
BreakAnyone else thirsty?
Quick RefreshWhat have we learned so far?
These guys cause a lot of problems…
IMAP & POP
WebDav
Exchange
Domino
Preprocessor
Trident (IE)
WebKit
Gecko
MS Word
Inbox
Server Sanitization Rendering Inbox View
The Rendering Pipeline
THERE ARE
NO STANDARDS
Understanding what's supported where
is your first line of defense.
Email Troubleshooting 101
1. Test your email
2. Check your images
3. Check your HTML
4. Ask for help
ExercisesLet's look at some code…
The Plan:
1. Quick assignment
2. A few clues
3. 3 minutes of troubleshooting
4. Review
Exercise #1 Fix the Missing Images
Hints:
https://img.litmuscdn.com/images/next/illustrations
File Formats
Exercise #4 Fix the Responsive Layout 1
Hints:
See if something's missing…
Exercise #5 Fix the Responsive Layout 2
Hints:
See if something's wrong…
Your Own EmailsWho's brave?
Q&A TimeAnything we missed?
Lunch TimeLet's eat!
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