HTML E-mail Newsletters

joilet

joilet

joilet

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Joined
25 Dec 2002
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South GLOUCESTER
Hey guys

I'm creating/upgrading the newsletter generator on my website which is dynamically generated in vbscript by gathering the news articles and such. I offer a free newsletter and a full newsletter which contains various extras. However lately i have noticed my newsletter gets classed as spam, i have reviewed it and found a few of the causes. Whilst actually looking at the code, i realised how bad it was.

The newsletter is mainly written in HTML 4.0 sloppy code with very small embedded CSS. It was tested years ago and at the time it worked on all e-mail platforms. Times have changed and i've decided to do some research on this subject and i was suprised to find very little has changed over the years. I've read many articles on how to form the best html e-mails for maximum viewing. It's all very intresting.

I'm having a dilema about which html standard to stick to. Idealy i would like to move to xHTML 1.0, however i have the feeling this is a bad idea if i want to get the maximum compatibility. I've decided to stick with HTML 4.0 (good idea?). Should i go with strict or transitional? Normally i go for transitional, but i'm thinking 50/50 on it. I know with strict i will have problems with target links, example leading web mail users to new browser window. Also lack of common atributes.

Fortunately my newsletters are very basic and i'm going to stick to the design as that's whats made it so successful. Also it keeps a minimum on use of resources! Whilst doing my research i have learned many things i previously didn't realise before.

I have been giving this a read: http://www.sitepoint.com/article/code-html-email-newsletters

It doesn't go into massive detail, but it is useful and as such i have been refered to other articles with more in depth.

What's everyone elses experiances with html e-mails? What standards do you stick to, if any at all. It's amazing how many people ignore, or not assume the limitations of html in e-mails.

I think i will go with transitional 4.0 html, embedded in css in the tags (no style elements). It might not look pretty, but atleast it will validate and i'll be getting good coverage. I shall be using faithful tables too :P - long live table design techniques!

What's your comments everybody?
 
All good ideas go out the window when it comes to compatible e-mail newsletters. :)

Feel free to use dodgy tables, but ensure that you use Inline Styles on each element, or some e-mail programs will strip the styles off.
 
Thanks for the replies. I'm glad others share the same thoughts.

Do you think it would be best trying to stick with strict html 4.0, or should i just let it be transitional? I would have greater flexibility.

No point using xHTML, i'm sure everyone agrees?

Good tip about the inline css, for years my newsletters have had their styles in the head. Seem's to only affect some webmail users, but i'm willing to bet a good majority of my subscribers are webmail users.
 
I doubt very much that your e-mail are being classes as spam because the HTML standard being used!

Spam classifications are a nightmare and it could be simply down to the fact that your e-mail contain too many spam words such a having "Free" in the subject line. You can get content checking services that will rate your e-mail for most ISP's.

Another problem could be blacklisting. If your bulk e-mail an IPS they could simply mark all your e-mail as spam (or just reject it completely) because your don't have a whitelisting agreement.

Also check your DNS....reverse lookups? New standards for validating senders by domain. Can't give more information than that cos I could lose my job :eek:
 
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