When’s the final time you took a have a look at your electronic mail templates?
For those who’re like most electronic mail entrepreneurs, it’s possibly been some time. It may be so tempting to “set and overlook” one thing like your electronic mail templates. In spite of everything, the entire level of making them is to make the e-mail sending course of extra streamlined. However in the event you don’t repeatedly audit and take a look at your templates, you might be sending emails with errors…and you’d by no means know.
Why templates can’t be “set and overlook it”
That’s as a result of inbox suppliers continually change their software program, so code that labored someday could not work the following time you ship. Simply final month I used to be testing one in every of our welcome templates and saved seeing this bizarre bug pop up in Outlook 365 that I may have sworn wasn’t there the day earlier than.
One other time, a short lived outdated bug broke all the things in Yahoo! for just a few days. It was a simple sufficient repair to deploy, however as soon as the Yahoo! staff rolled again that change, it was my repair that began to interrupt all the things.
Wouldn’t or not it’s good if electronic mail shoppers would let you know forward of any main releases? Sigh. Perhaps sometime.
Within the meantime, you could set up a set routine for auditing and testing your electronic mail templates. That’s why it’s so necessary 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 Electronic mail on Acid, we take a look at each single time we ship an electronic mail, in order that covers our e-newsletter and one-off marketing campaign templates. However it’s necessary 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 take a look at. 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 Outdated code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 presently coding new ones? Are you using hacky workarounds that you simply don’t want to make use of anymore? Have a look and clear up any code in the event you can — it is going to solely make your job simpler later.
With outdated code, you wish to take into consideration the minor components that get handed down 12 months to 12 months. At the start of each calendar 12 months, examine the copyright date and your footers. Some ESPs like MailChimp do have shortcodes that routinely replace, however you’ll most likely have to do that manually every January.
Be sure to examine and take a look at 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 an alternative 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 usually defeats your complete goal of the e-mail.
As you construct new net pages, replace outdated weblog posts, or transfer from one CMS to a different, it’s a good time to double examine 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 know the way nicely you’re performing, it does no good to have six totally different emails with the identical UTM since you forgot to alter out the monitoring final time you copied the template.
3. Lacking photos
Lacking photos could be attributable to adjustments in electronic mail shopper assist, but it surely can be from extra mundane points like a picture file degrading or being unintentionally 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 assist
One surefire option to know whenever you final examined your templates is that if they’re coded for darkish mode assist. Launched for each Android and iPhone in 2019, it’s nonetheless a comparatively new aspect of electronic mail assist — but it surely’s grow to be so common that it’s price confirming that electronic mail shoppers aren’t inverting colours, eliminating distinction, or usually trying 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. For those who’re undecided whether or not or not your templates work in darkish mode, now is a good time to examine.
5. Accessibility adjustments
It’s at all times price 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 very best subscriber expertise.
Meaning fascinated by these and different facets of electronic mail accessibility:
- Colour distinction for hyperlinks and branding
- Alt tags on photos
- Font sizes
- Video captions
- Common readability
- White house and general padding
6. Outdated branding
What you’re most certainly to search out, although, with templates, is solely a operate of time: Outdated messaging and branding. Even in the event you haven’t lately rebranded your colours, fonts, or different kinds, the feel and appear of your emails evolves over time.
You wish to be sure you’re staying constant all through your entire electronic mail templates for:
- Emblem utilization
- Fonts
- Branding colours
- Taglines
- Model, product, and have names
- Fashion conventions, like capitalized headers
Past normal model components, it’s necessary to make it possible for the outcomes of your A/B exams filter down into your templates. If a design aspect constantly wins out — say, a selected CTA button coloration or e-newsletter format — then it’s necessary to ensure your templates mirror that change. Equally, in the event you discover that you simply now not use a sure coloration (bear in mind when everybody had orange CTA buttons?) it’s time to make these adjustments.
7. Adjustments in shopper assist
It typically appears like electronic mail shopper assist adjustments with the whims of the wind.
However in the event you’re seeing one thing break in your common electronic mail campaigns for a selected shopper, then it’s positively time to have a look via your templates. With Electronic mail on Acid, you may see lots of of previews of your emails in all the most-popular mailbox suppliers and units, so that you’ll know in seconds if one thing isn’t working.
For those who determine any points…
Okay, so that you’ve recognized a problem together with your templates. Now what?
If it’s one thing actually wonky, it’s at all times a good suggestion to examine in with the e-mail improvement group and see if Outlook is wreaking havoc once more (let’s be actual, it’s virtually at all times Outlook) or if it’s a missed curly-brace bracket or one thing easy in your finish.
For those who discover damaged hyperlinks or outdated branding, be sure that 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 at the very least have a look at the information and see if one thing is price A/B testing.
That’s additionally why it’s so necessary to have an electronic mail type information or design system in place, so you recognize precisely what conventions try to be working with. Embrace all the things from button sizes to padding to title case so you could have a guidelines. Electronic 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 Electronic mail on Acid
Whether or not you select to check your templates each month or each quarter, Electronic mail on Acid makes it simple so that you can examine for damaged hyperlinks, lacking photos, shopper assist adjustments, and extra.
Our automated electronic mail pre-send guidelines walks you thru every space and supplies dependable electronic mail previews with options for suggestions and collaboration. Plus, our customers get pleasure from limitless electronic mail testing. So, take a look at as a lot as you could. You’ll by no means hit a restrict.
Creator: Megan Boshuyzen
Megan is a graphic designer turned electronic mail developer who’s labored on all facets of electronic mail advertising and marketing. She believes good emails for good causes make a optimistic distinction on the planet. Megan is presently working as an electronic mail developer for Sinch Electronic mail. Go to her web site and be taught extra at megbosh.com.
Creator: Megan Boshuyzen
Megan is a graphic designer turned electronic mail developer who’s labored on all facets of electronic mail advertising and marketing. She believes good emails for good causes make a optimistic distinction on the planet. Megan is presently working as an electronic mail developer for Sinch Electronic mail. Go to her web site and be taught extra at megbosh.com.
