When’s the final time you took a have a look at your e-mail templates?
For those who’re like most e-mail entrepreneurs, it’s perhaps been some time. It may be so tempting to “set and neglect” one thing like your e-mail templates. In spite of everything, the entire level of making them is to make the e-mail sending course of extra streamlined. However when you don’t usually audit and check your templates, you possibly can 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 consistently change their software program, so code that labored at some point could not work the subsequent time you ship. Simply final month I used to be testing considered one 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One other time, a brief outdated bug broke all the things in Yahoo!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 all the things.
Wouldn’t or not it’s good if e-mail purchasers would let you know forward of any main releases? Sigh. Possibly sometime.
Within the meantime, you’ll want to set up a set routine for auditing and testing your e-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 e-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 e-mail, in order that covers our publication and one-off marketing campaign templates. However 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 by means of one other check. Right here’s what to look out for:
1. Outdated code
First, have a look by means of 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 when you can — it would solely make your job simpler later.
With outdated code, you wish to take into consideration the minor parts that get handed down 12 months to 12 months. Originally of each calendar 12 months, test the copyright date and your footers. Some ESPs like MailChimp do have shortcodes that routinely replace, however you’ll in all probability have to do that manually every January.
Be sure you test and check any customized tokens that seem in your e-mail. You by no means know when a change in information construction inadvertently exhibits FIRST_NAME as a substitute of … the consumer’s first identify!
2. Damaged hyperlinks
The worst factor in an e-mail is a damaged hyperlink. Not solely does it present a irritating expertise in your subscriber, it usually defeats your entire 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 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 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 pictures
Lacking pictures might be attributable to modifications in e-mail consumer help, nevertheless it will also 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 pictures nonetheless load on all purchasers, and that your GIFs stay optimized.
4. Darkish mode help
One surefire option to know once 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 factor of e-mail help — nevertheless it’s develop into so fashionable that it’s value confirming that e-mail purchasers aren’t inverting colours, eliminating distinction, or usually 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 e-mail testing within the close to future. For those who’re unsure whether or not or not your templates work in darkish mode, now is a superb time to test.
5. Accessibility modifications
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 enthusiastic about these and different points of e-mail accessibility:
- Coloration distinction for hyperlinks and branding
- Alt tags on pictures
- Font sizes
- Video captions
- Common readability
- White house and total padding
6. Outdated branding
What you’re probably to seek out, although, with templates, is solely a perform of time: Outdated messaging and branding. Even when you haven’t not too long ago rebranded your colours, fonts, or different kinds, the feel and appear of your emails evolves over time.
You wish to be sure to’re staying constant all through your entire e-mail templates for:
- Brand utilization
- Fonts
- Branding colours
- Taglines
- Model, product, and have names
- Fashion conventions, like capitalized headers
Past commonplace model parts, it’s essential to be sure that the outcomes of your A/B exams filter down into your templates. If a design factor persistently wins out — say, a particular CTA button shade or publication structure — then it’s essential to verify your templates replicate that change. Equally, when you discover that you simply now not use a sure shade (keep in mind when everybody had orange CTA buttons?) it’s time to make these modifications.
7. Adjustments in consumer help
It generally seems like e-mail consumer help modifications with the whims of the wind.
However when you’re seeing one thing break in your common e-mail campaigns for a particular consumer, then it’s positively time to have a look by means of your templates. With E-mail on Acid, you possibly can 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.
For those who establish any points…
Okay, so that you’ve recognized a difficulty together 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 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 certain to loop in your e-mail designers and every other stakeholders within the advertising and marketing staff — they could wish to take the chance to utterly revisit the template, or at the least have a look at the info and see if one thing is value A/B testing.
That’s additionally why it’s so essential to have an e-mail type information or design system in place, so you understand precisely what conventions you ought to be working with. Embrace all the things from button sizes to padding to title case so you’ve a guidelines. E-mail advertising and marketing is difficult sufficient with out having to recollect these tiny particulars!
Discover out extra about how e-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 pictures, consumer help modifications, and extra.
Our automated e-mail pre-send guidelines walks you thru every space and supplies dependable e-mail previews with options for suggestions and collaboration. Plus, our customers get pleasure from limitless e-mail testing. So, check as a lot as you’ll want to. You’ll by no means hit a restrict.
Writer: Megan Boshuyzen
Megan is a graphic designer turned e-mail developer who’s labored on all points of e-mail advertising and marketing. She believes good emails for good causes make a optimistic distinction on the planet. Megan is presently working as an e-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 e-mail developer who’s labored on all points of e-mail advertising and marketing. She believes good emails for good causes make a optimistic distinction on the planet. Megan is presently working as an e-mail developer for Sinch E-mail. Go to her web site and study extra at megbosh.com.
