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Why does email development have to suck? – Explaining all the 's and 's

dodov.dev

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Re: Why does email development have to suck? – Explaining all the <tr>'s and <td>'s

#12

I don't understand the insistence on building "beautiful" emails. I'm not the kind of person to insist on text-only e-mail, but I do think it's ridiculous to spend lots of time and money making e-mails that look like fully-fledged Web documents. Either your message does have some useful information for the reader, in which case say that and then get out of my way, or it doesn't , in which case you're a spammer. There…

Some of us like beautiful things.

Re: Why does email development have to suck? – Explaining all the <tr>'s and <td>'s

#13
post #3

> An email is essentially just an HTML document, like a web page, except it's visualized in an email client, rather than a web browser. However, both are capable of rendering, which is the process of turning HTML code into text, rectangles, and images, i.e. the visualization of the content. No, it is not. An email is a text document. That document might be HTML, but it doesn't have to be. And if such email is sent to…

I agree with the OP - it's not misleading to say an email is "essentially" HTML, regardless of whether the client supports parsing out the markup. Browsers too will happily render an HTML file consisting only of the string "hello world", and yet it's still a web page.

Re: Why does email development have to suck? – Explaining all the <tr>'s and <td>'s

#15
post #2

When I first got introduced to email development, I remember I wanted to throw myself off a cliff. I couldn't believe how nonsensical everything was. I kept track of everything in a little text document, which I've now turned into a post. If you happen to be starting out with emails, I hope this can get you up to speed with exactly how everything is fucked. And if you're an Outlook survivor, I hope you'll find someth…

For the most part you can kind of have header and a footer which you reuse across all email and then just more or less text in the middle. Maybe an image every once in a while. If you can get business partners to agree to that I've found that to be an ideal middle ground.

Re: Why does email development have to suck? – Explaining all the <tr>'s and <td>'s

#16

Text. Just use damn text. Nobody wants to look at your logo. Why biz people have to ruin everything.

I'm pleasantly surprised that amazon actually sends plain text emails. Pretty much every other corporation insists on HTML mails.

Re: Why does email development have to suck? – Explaining all the <tr>'s and <td>'s

#17

While we are at it, what is the most surefire way to include images into email? How do I make sure that simple images, like logos, are shown in most common email clients?

base64 encoded ">...

It's the only way to ensure you're logo is forwarded to every single CC and BCC.

edit I take it all back, gmail strips them. I guess as an attachement and then referenced like ">

Re: Why does email development have to suck? – Explaining all the <tr>'s and <td>'s

#19
post #12

I don't understand the insistence on building "beautiful" emails. I'm not the kind of person to insist on text-only e-mail, but I do think it's ridiculous to spend lots of time and money making e-mails that look like fully-fledged Web documents. Either your message does have some useful information for the reader, in which case say that and then get out of my way, or it doesn't , in which case you're a spammer. There…

Some of us like beautiful things.

Fair enough. I fully support hobbyists making email clients do fun tricks.

Re: Why does email development have to suck? – Explaining all the <tr>'s and <td>'s

#20
post #10

I don't understand the insistence on building "beautiful" emails. I'm not the kind of person to insist on text-only e-mail, but I do think it's ridiculous to spend lots of time and money making e-mails that look like fully-fledged Web documents. Either your message does have some useful information for the reader, in which case say that and then get out of my way, or it doesn't , in which case you're a spammer. There…

Perhaps that is your response, but it’s not true of everybody. I’ve done a lot of experiments with different types of email, and beautiful emails always get significantly better response rates.

Ah. I think the difference is that when I send emails, I do so to communicate information, rather than to elicit people to buy a product.
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