What Is Rendered in Email?

Even if you create your emails in-house or with a drag-and-drop editor, there is code in every email campaign that is designed. Email services like Outlook, Gmail, and Apple Mail have a variety of support for HTML and CSS, plus specific file formats and media. When email rendering happens, the message containing HTML and CSS reaches its destination. But prior to an HTML email being opened and displayed, a rendering engine will process it. Rendering engines are software that can draw graphics and text on the screen and can add style and structure based on the code. Think of email code as the instructions on how a campaign should function and look. Since every email service uses different rendering engines, you end up getting inconsistent results. But have no fear, there are ways to deal with email rendering that we’ll discuss in our do’s and don’ts of rendered emails.

Why Is Email Rendering So Complex?

Answering this question is like weaving your way into a labyrinth. Email rendering is so complex due to its multiple layers of testing. Here are five major layers to email rendering:

Why Do Emails Render Differently in Outlook?

Unless you live and breathe email design, it can be frustrating when your email shows up broken on Outlook. Since the wonderful world of Outlook had endless quirks, it can be challenging to wrap your head around its loopholes as an email marketer. Here are some reasons why your emails render differently on good old Outlook:

Email Campaign Render Testing

What is Email Render Testing?

There are many variables involved whenever you send an email. Some subscribers will view your message on large devices and some on tiny little screens. Telecommunications are constantly advancing, and many of your customers will update their devices once or twice a year. Today’s aesthetic may be impressive, but tomorrow your layout may be out of fashion. Good render testing and inbox performance tracking ensure that everything goes according to plan when a recipient gets your emails. It smoothes out all the bumps on the road.

By applying this to Final Straw’s email marketing program, we helped the brand achieve 1310% ROI in just three months. Click here to read the full case study.

Put Yourself at Ease

The customer journey is somewhat of an obsession for us and getting you a good return on investment for your email marketing campaign is what we’re most passionate about.

Curious about our methods?
It’s as simple as this:

01. Text Tactics

Some devices won’t display the images embedded in your email. This could be by design, or it may be due to unforeseen circumstances like network issues or data-saving settings. In this case, it’s best to ensure your text-to-image ratio is strong. Perhaps you had an important set of words within an image, and now some subscribers won’t see it. Adding some relevant alt text could guarantee that the message is preserved, and leveraging email code best practices can only make it all the better for your contacts.

We’ll arrange your text so that it’s easy to refer to the information expressed in your campaigns. We’ll also build your emails with calls to action that actually spur people into action, and we’ll lace your messages with as much HTML text as possible. We're talking about ultimate accessibility through optimizing the most basic element of the email: text. It may be simple, but it takes some finesse to make an email render without stress.
02. Visual Solutions

Accommodating all screen sizes as best as you can is ideal. Your email needs to look good on a laptop, tablet, and anything in between. We’re going to size your emails so they not only look good but also so they can be processed faster and sent efficiently. We’ll help you back up your visual elements to withstand any alteration. Our fallback fonts will adapt to any email service provider, and we’ll have a fallback background color placed behind an image as well if it fails to render.
03. Full Functionality

Certain ISPs will disable specific features that you might’ve included in your campaign. When trying to share a link, the button image could get blocked. We’ll get you a bulletproof button so your links get delivered the way you want them to. We’ll make your email as universally friendly as possible so that they can fulfill their purpose.

Why is Email Rendering Testing Essential?

Importance of
Email Rendering

An email might look good and function properly on your personal phone model, but a rendering will give you an idea of how your audience will receive it, regardless of what inbox provider or device they use. Your brand identity depends on the audience’s seamless interaction with your content. Avoiding and repairing issues before they can turn into mistakes will work towards building customer loyalty and bring more value to your email marketing campaigns.

Impact on
Customer Experience

What’s more, the value of your brand is built up by how people perceive it, and it’s often the simple things that cause the most damage. The wrong design, content issues, and imagery hiccups can all create a bad perception. Email render testing is one of a handful of simple yet effective ways to keep your email program firing on all cylinders and very importantly, it helps you maintain a consistent image. Click-through rates, order rates, and other key KPIs are dependent on how well your emails render.

How are you keeping up with the numerous new devices launched each year?

Best Practices for Email Rendering

Let’s pause for a moment and have a quick look at what you should and shouldn’t be doing…

Do’s of Email Rendering

Use HTML Tables for Layout
Ensure Proper Coding Practices
Use Absolute Image Paths

Don’ts of Email Rendering

Avoid Javascript in Emails
Don’t Use Incorrect Image Formats
Don’t compose your emails from one big image or a series of images.

If any of this seems like scribbles on a Mesopotamian clay tablet to you, don’t fret - our expert coders eat algorithms for breakfast and will explain each one to you in detail.

What It Takes

01.

A Step-by-Step
Approach

Your email is going to be monitored at every step. From the get-go, the email rendering will be tested thoroughly to make sure that we’re on the right track when it comes to achieving the objectives of your campaign.

We’ll look out for broken or untracked links, correct design formatting, and deal with spelling or grammatical errors. We’ll also take into account inconsistencies in font, color, or design in general - all common pitfalls that can be resolved by implementing top-notch email design.
02.

Look Before
you Launch

So maybe our email rendering test leads to a template refresh, image rehosting, or value changes in the coding process. Just because an effort was made to change things around doesn’t always mean that those changes have reached the desired effect. Render testing prompts us to make the necessary tweaks that’ll make your content even more inviting and functional.
03.

Staying
Audience-Conscious

As much as we hate to admit it, there will always be a tiny percentage of subscribers that will not engage at all with your material, but that doesn’t mean they don’t matter. If your results aren’t as satisfying as you’d like them to be, it’s probably because your subscriber list includes silent spectators. That’s why we always factor in these people when looking at how effective your campaign is.

However, new subscribers are always going to be our favorite test subjects. They represent a fresh opportunity to test emails without past interactions interfering with their decision-making process. We’ll expect these people to interact with you more, and that should give us more insight into how to move forward with the campaign.

FAQs on Email Rendering Testing

What is Rendered in an Email?

To ensure an email looks and performs the same across a wide range of devices, email rendering testing looks at text, images, and functionality.
Why Do Emails Render Differently in Outlook?

It’s not just Outlook - most email providers, including Gmail and Apple Mail, interpret the HTML formatting of your email according to their own specifications. This includes text size, fonts, line spacing, etc.
How Often Should You Test Emails?

Each time a software update is available for a device, there’s a chance that it might affect your email rendering. The best thing to do is make rendering testing an automated part of your workflow, to ensure that you’re always on-step with the latest tech updates.
What Tools Can Help with Email Rendering?

Most ESPs (Email Service Providers) like MailChimp and Hubspot will have an email rendering function, but there are dedicated programs like Email Checker, Mailtrap, and SendForensics.

Integrating Email Rendering Tests into Your Workflow

Setting Up Automated Tests

In order to learn from an experiment, it's important to keep it going for enough time to collect sufficient data, allowing you to make an informed decision. As a campaign is running, we keep track of progress, take note of any shortcomings, and translate the data into a realistic action plan. The adjustments are left to gradually sink in so the audience can take in the changes bit by bit. The goal is to reduce the chances of all the bad things we mentioned actually happening, and that takes time.

Continuous Monitoring and Improvement

As each of your subscribers respond to the changes, we learn more about them and this does a world of good for your email marketing strategy as a whole. Reducing unwanted potential surprises along the way helps increase reach and improve your chances of getting more leads and securing more revenue.

Email Rendering Testing:
Something Worth Remembering

Table of Contents:

What is Email Render Testing?

The customer journey is somewhat of an obsession for us and getting you a good return on investment for your email marketing campaign is what we’re most passionate about.

Curious about our methods?
It’s as simple as this:

01. Text Tactics

02. Visual Solutions

03. Full Functionality