What does the way forward for e-mail have in retailer for senders, subscribers, and e-mail geeks such as you? It’s a query we appear to ponder on a perennial foundation. However this yr at E-mail Camp, we heard from some of the revered thought leaders within the business on the subject of the place e-mail is heading subsequent.
To be extra particular, Mark Robbins from Parcel joined us to offer some ideas on what a brighter future for e-mail may appear like.
We kicked off Day 2 of E-mail Camp: Mission Management with the always-insightful e-mail developer/software program engineer. Mark Robbins’ keynote presentation took us on an e-mail odyssey throughout e-mail improvement’s current and future…or you might say, to infinity and past.
Take a look at an on-demand presentation under and preserve studying for extra insights on the way forward for e-mail.
The way forward for e-mail accessibility
For the second yr, Mark and the crew on the E-mail Markup Consortium examined over 300,000 emails throughout a number of languages, industries, and geographic places by means of Parcel’s Accessibility Checker.
And for the second yr… 99.9% of the emails failed. We are able to do higher.
In reality, solely 5 manufacturers handed each one of many 56 checks within the take a look at. Because of the laborious work and dedication of the dynamic duo of Megan Boshuyzen and Julia Ritter, we’re proud to say that Sinch Mailjet and Sinch E-mail on Acid have been amongst these manufacturers
The commonest coding failures the E-mail Markup Consortium discovered:
- Lacking lang attribute, which permits worldwide campaigns to be learn and rendered by display screen readers within the appropriate language for the subscriber
- Lacking dir attribute, which determines the course of language, in order that right-to-left languages like Arabic or Hebrew could be learn and rendered appropriately by display screen readers for worldwide audiences
- Lacking alt attribute, which describes the photographs in an e-mail for display screen readers to learn aloud
“These are easy, fast issues so as to add. It’s a really small quantity of code that makes no distinction in rendering. We at all times wish to blame e-mail shoppers and expertise, however more often than not, it’s our perspective that’s the issue.”
Mark Robbins, Software program Engineer and E-mail Developer
The way forward for e-mail accessibility doesn’t must be time-consuming, or add plenty of code to your emails. It begins with pondering extra deeply about accessibility—even when you’re utilizing a drag-and-drop e-mail editor—and coding in a means that works for everybody.
“We have to take it again to fundamentals. One thing I feel we’re going to see loads of sooner or later is healthier accessibility instruments, and I’m seeing an increasing number of folks shifting into semantic-first e-mail coding, which is well-supported and absolutely accessible.”
Mark Robbins, Software program Engineer and E-mail Developer
You’ll be able to learn the complete EMC accessibility report to study extra concerning the 2023 findings.
The way forward for Outlook e-mail improvement
One factor that’s always on the minds of e-mail builders is coding for Outlook. Mark Robbins thinks it’s time to rethink our priorities. And that’s an enormous mindset shift for a lot of e-mail geeks, nevertheless it makes plenty of sense. Right here’s how he defined it by way of accessible e-mail code.
“Cease placing Outlook first. After I first began constructing e-mail, I used to be at all times excited about Outlook and including all of those workarounds to make it work. When you flip that on its head and begin prioritizing semantic code, you possibly can add fallbacks for Outlook later, which finally ends up with a lot much less code, far more dependable code, and far more future-proof code that simply works.”
Mark Robbins, Software program Engineer and E-mail Developer
There are some good causes to be Outlook obsessed, particularly for B2B e-mail entrepreneurs with a big share of Outlook customers. But when 10% of your e-mail opens occur on Outlook, you shouldn’t compromise the opposite 90% of your customers.
There’s excellent news about the way forward for Outlook e-mail improvement. As you would possibly know, the desktop model of Outlook use Microsoft Phrase as a rendering engine. This is the reason coding for Outlook is such a headache – and why we’ve been shaking our fists to the sky asking “Whyyyyyy???” for years. Lastly, 2021 is the final yr for Outlook to make use of this wack-a-doodle rendering engine, and assist will likely be dropped October 2026.
However don’t assume you possibly can cease previewing emails in Outlook and adjusting your code simply but. Mark reminds us that it takes time for previous expertise to journey off into the sundown.
“Realistically, we’re in all probability not going to see it drop off out of the blue, however I’m optimistic that by 2030, we will begin reducing off assist, and we’ll begin to see a downturn in Outlook shopper utilization from earlier variations.”
Mark Robbins, Software program Engineer and E-mail Developer
The way forward for e-mail and AI
After all, we will’t speak about the way forward for e-mail improvement with out mentioning that sci-fi elephant within the room: Synthetic intelligence (AI).
“We’ve got to speak about it. Is it good? Is it unhealthy? I’m nonetheless break up on this. You’ll be able to ask AI something and it’ll confidently provide you with a solution that may very well be fully made up, which is an enormous danger. I feel one of many issues with the expansion of AI is that we must also see the expansion of QA, as a result of AI makes errors that individuals don’t make.”
Mark Robbins, Software program Engineer and E-mail Developer
Ask any generative AI about e-mail code and the solutions are fairly laughable. Whereas AI is an thrilling improvement for thus many components of our jobs proper now, coding isn’t considered one of them. However the greatest difficulty Mark takes with AI is that it’s studying from the loudest, greatest voices on the web, not essentially the very best ones. And since we already know that 99.9% of emails fail a primary accessibility take a look at, utilizing AI to code e-mail is probably going going to result in damaged code that gained’t be making your emails higher.
That’s to not say AI for e-mail builders is totally ineffective. To this point, Mark has used AI to assist him brainstorm marketing campaign concepts, discover easy errors in code like a lacking bracket or comma, and scale back repetition. It helps to make use of a developer-focused AI program like GitHub’s Copilot to do that, because it learns from the code you’ve already written as a substitute of all the general public code accessible.
“I feel AI is right here to help us, not substitute us. There’s quite a bit that you are able to do with it to hurry up our processes and get impressed with new concepts. The extra environment friendly we could be, then the extra we will spend time doing cool stuff proper? As builders, we wish to construct cool stuff, not the boring stuff. It’s evolving so quick, the whole lot I stated right here immediately would possibly already be outdated a couple of weeks later.”
Mark Robbins, Software program Engineer and E-mail Developer
Along with e-mail coding, synthetic intelligence also can make life simpler for e-mail entrepreneurs. For one nice instance, try the brand new AI Copy Generator from Sinch Mailjet.
Future-proof your emails with testing
E-mail continues to evolve. One of the best ways to keep away from the pitfalls of inconsistent e-mail rendering? Future-proof your templates and campaigns with common e-mail testing. Mark Robbins recommends a mixture of automated and handbook e-mail testing, particularly in relation to accessibility. That’s what helps you come as shut as doable to understanding how your subscribers expertise what you’re sending them.
“I feel folks have this coding mindset that you must code prefer it’s 1999. And to be truthful, this was true for a very long time, however we’ve moved previous it now. We must be coding prefer it’s 2024.”
Mark Robbins, Software program Engineer and E-mail Developer
Whether or not you’re experimenting with semantic-first e-mail coding, nonetheless combating workarounds for Outlook, or need to strive enjoyable interactive options in your e-mail campaigns like interactive e-mail or countdown timers, you’ll want a testing platform that may do all of it.
With Sinch E-mail on Acid, e-mail entrepreneurs get limitless testing and accessibility checks, plus previews in over 100 completely different e-mail shoppers and stay gadgets, from Outlook 2016 to the new iPhone 15. (That features darkish mode e-mail previews, too!).
Be a part of us at E-mail Camp in 2024
We’re already psyched to begin planning subsequent yr’s E-mail Camp. Communicate whenever you signal as much as obtain updates and notifications about our 2024 stay occasion.
Missed this yr’s out-of-this world e-mail advertising and marketing and coding displays? No worries. Head over to YouTube to view all E-mail Camp 2023 periods on-demand. Hear from audio system like Anne Tomlin, Emily Benoit, Greg Zakowicz, and lots of different e-mail geeks.
Writer: The E-mail on Acid Group
The E-mail on Acid content material crew is made up of digital entrepreneurs, content material creators, and straight-up e-mail geeks.
Join with us on LinkedIn, observe us on Fb, and tweet at @EmailonAcid on Twitter for extra candy stuff and nice convos on e-mail advertising and marketing.
Writer: The E-mail on Acid Group
The E-mail on Acid content material crew is made up of digital entrepreneurs, content material creators, and straight-up e-mail geeks.
Join with us on LinkedIn, observe us on Fb, and tweet at @EmailonAcid on Twitter for extra candy stuff and nice convos on e-mail advertising and marketing.
