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You're Gonna Love HTML Emails
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Dan Denney
April 29, 2016
Design
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You're Gonna Love HTML Emails
Presentation for Squares Conf 2016, attempting to make people love this dark art.
Dan Denney
April 29, 2016
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Transcript
You’re Gonna Love HTML Emails Dan Denney, Squares Conf ‘16
that one dude from Code School
KOALAFI CATIONS 3 years, 3-5 promos monthly, ~40 recurring, ~7M
total http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5005afd7e4b0a6953320bf3f/t/528cfce6e4b0c1452601a558/1384971527352/4651364311_f505cc3cc3_o.jpg
THE GOOD THE BAD THE GREAT http://images.agoramedia.com/ugcphotoservice/100/2015/4/13/61491466/79790b56-81a7-46a2-be04-81e62a06f9c3.jpg
THE GOOD - Low-tech - Testable (The A/B kind) -
Tied to revenue - Personal
I AM NOT A MARKETER - Best ROI - Outperforms
social media - Compliments social media
PERSONAL
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people
will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. “ ” - Maya Angelou http://www.mayaangelou.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/mayaremembered-slider.jpg
We Miss You Life can get busy, we understand. If
you're ready to continue learning, check out our new content, or even some courses you missed the first time around.
None
- Abraham Lincoln http://a1.files.biography.com/image/upload/c_fit,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,h_1200,q_80,w_1200/MTIwNjA4NjMzODE4MjIwMDQ0.jpg Send emails that you want to
receive. “ ”
THE BAD - Low-tech - Minimal standards
Tables are a Lie! Well, kinda
(screen of email) collectUI.com
kyle loaney https://dribbble.com/KLoaney
None
None
None
None
Modern Workflow - Write for a preprocessor - Build -
Deploy
Email Workflow - Write for a preprocessor - Build -
Deploy
Email’s “Gotcha” 1. Preprocess 2. Build 3. Deploy 4. Client
Web 1. Preprocess 2. Build 3. Deploy 4. Preprocess 5. Client Email
Email Client Preprocessors - Sneaky disguised horse feathers - People
talking on their cellphone in the bathroom evil - Evil worse than a dragon - Not cute - Not funny - Not clever
Disclaimer I make bad decisions.
Webmail Decisions Do not support linked CSS. - CSS has
to be in a <style> tag in the doc
Gmail’s Decision Do not support CSS in a <style> tag.
- CSS has to be inline - No hover events - No media queries - And more! (of less)
(female dev) https://emailclientmarketshare.com 23000 .15 x 3450 90000 .15 x
$13,500 Our Gmail Persona
None
Obligatory MS Joke Microsoft
Outlook’s Decision Render HTML and CSS using Microsoft Word -
No box model - Support for word processor styles only
Tables aren’t a Lie! For reals this time
(female dev) https://emailclientmarketshare.com 23000 .07 x 1610 90000 .07 x
$6,300 Our Outlook Persona
None
BEATING THE BAD - Use tables for markup - Apply
basic layout CSS to <table> - Apply text/spacing styles to <td> - Apply critical CSS inline - Apply enhancement CSS to <style> - Use padding, not margin
THE GREAT - The Community - Shared Code - Tools
COMMUNITY
email-toolbox.com
litmus.com/community/snippets
litmus.com/community
THE GOOD - Low-tech - Testable (The A/B kind) -
Tied to revenue - Personal THE BAD - Low-tech - Minimal standards THE GREAT - The Community - Shared Code - Tools HTML Emails
https://litmus.com/builder/5e7f81f Webkit https://litmus.com/builder/1e31db9 Gmail https://litmus.com/builder/c969340 Outlook Examples There are still
bugs!
Questions? Now or later, with beer