Partial/No Support (High Priority):

• Background-image
• Background-position
• Color/background-color
• Descendant-selectors
• Float/clear
• Margin
• Padding
• Varying link-colors
• Width/height

Partial/No Support (Cosmetic):

• Background-position a:hover
• Border
• Font family/size/weight/style
• Font-family names with quotes
• Font inheritance
• Line-height
• List-style-image

We advise our clients to use images to supplement their copy, as opposed to replace the copy entirely. Many e-mail clients will block images by default, requiring the recipient to take action to see the images. If your creative is almost entirely image-based, the recipient is going to be presented with nothing but a header and/or footer and some alt tags. It is generally more effective & successful to have more text copy in your HTML, and use your alt tags to explain what is not being seen when the images are turned off. This will give the recipient more incentive to take action and view your full e-mail.

Our experience has also shown that many email filters will measure the image-to-text ratio of your e-mail, and are more likely to classify it as junk email if judged to be too image dependent. Many malicious senders attempt to use images to mask certain keywords that would otherwise raise red flags with these filters, and this ratio test helps to safeguard against this.

If a recipient has already opened your message, based on a compelling subject line or recognition of the branding in your sender name, it would be unfortunate to lose their interest because of some initially disabled images leaving them with nothing to be enticed by. With some careful managing of your image to text ratios, you can make the most out of your image content without relying too heavily on it.

For more information on Applied Info Group’s database and email marketing service capabilities, please contact Mitch Rubin, President of Applied Info Group at (908) 241-7007. Visit www.appliedinfogroup.com to learn more.

Microsoft’s® latest version of Outlook utilizes Microsoft® Word to render HTML emails. Unfortunately, Word offers limited support of HTML and CSS, due to the potential security flaws that could occur by rendering HTML emails in Internet Explorer 7.

Fortunately, there are formatting tweaks you can employ to address this. The upside is that making your HTML email Outlook 2007 compatible can decrease the chances that it will end up in a recipient’s junk folder. The downside is that you may have to change the way in which you approach formatting parts of your emails, thereby impacting the look and feel of your creatives. Below is a list of key items to look out for, and possible alternatives that are Outlook 2007 compatible.

- Background images – Background images will not display in Outlook 2007. This can leave a big, unintended void in your email. You should avoid using background images altogether. Whenever possible, you should use inline image tags instead. If you feel you must use a background image, set an appropriate background color to fill in for the potentially missing image. If you have text overlaying a background image, you can edit the image to include the text and use an image map for any links.
- Division tags – “Div” tags are not fully supported in Outlook 2007. Some of the more commonly used attributes that have been omitted are: float, clear, position, and padding. Without these attributes, positioning with div tags is virtually impossible. Instead, you should control the positioning of your email with a standard table.
- Forms – Forms are not supported in Outlook 2007. Outlook 2007 recipients will not be able to submit any forms embedded in an email. If you wish to give recipients the option to fill out a form, place a link to an online version of it within the email.
- Flash & JavaScript – It is recommended that you do not attempt to utilize Flash or Javascript on your HTML emails, due to their lack of support in email browsers (including Outlook 2007) and the fact that some filters will tag emails that contain Flash or JavaScript code. Also, most email readers will automatically disable this content as a security measure.
- Bulleted list with images – While both ordered and unordered lists are fully supported, lists that use images as bullets instead of standard bullets are not. If you need to use an image for your bullet points, one possible solution is to put your list into a two column table, using the left-hand column to place your bullets.
- Animated GIFs – Animated GIFs will not animate in Outlook 2007. The image will appear, but only the first frame of the animation will be displayed.
- Alt tags - Alt tags are also not supported. This is the text that is shown when an image does not load upon opening an email. However, most email readers do support alt tags, and there is no adverse effect to having them in your Outlook 2007 compatible email (other than the fact that they will not display,) so you can continue to include these in your emails if you wish.
- Table definitions - As we detailed above, Outlook 2007 renders HTML emails in Microsoft® Word, which is very sensitive to extra <tr> or <td> tags and does not adjust well to poorly sized tables. Previous Outlook versions would open emails in Internet Explorer, which is very forgiving of poor table definitions. You should ensure that your table definitions are correct and that the data you are placing inside the table fits properly within the defined table width.

In addition to the tips above, Microsoft® has also provided an HTML and CSS Validator that can be used in:

Microsoft® Office SharePoint Designer 2007
Microsoft® Expression Web
Microsoft® Visual Studio 2005
Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004
Macromedia Dreamweaver 8

This tool can assist you in identifying portions of your HTML source code that may not adhere to Outlook 2007′s standards. You can download the appropriate version here.

By following the above tips, you will be able to address most of the known compatibility issues posed by Outlook 2007. To view a full listing of HTML and CSS rendering capabilities in Outlook 2007, you can go to Microsoft’s® webpage for more information.

For more information on Applied Info Group’s database and email marketing service capabilities, please contact Mitch Rubin, President of Applied Info Group at (908) 241-7007. Visit www.appliedinfogroup.com to learn more.

The minimum frequency of Move Update processing also changes from 185 days to 95 days prior to mailing.

To meet the new requirements, mailers must use addresses that were updated within the previous 95 days. Mailings entered on November 23rd, for example, must have addresses updated no earlier than August 20. If an address used on a mail piece in a mailing at one class of mail is updated, the same address may be used during the following 95 days in another mailing, even if it is another class of mail. To achieve this, each mailer will need to process their records through either the NCOA or Fast-Forward service. If we are not processing those records, then you will need to provide certification that the processing was completed.

For more information, you can visit ribbs.usps.gov & click on “Move Update.”

For more information on Applied Info Group’s database and email marketing service capabilities, please contact Mitch Rubin, President of Applied Info Group at (908) 241-7007. Visit www.appliedinfogroup.com to learn more.

However, this does not mean you cannot take advantage of this online video explosion. E-mail can be an excellent tool to encourage people to visit your website and view your video. Our recommendation would be to take a screenshot from your video and turn it into a thumbnail image, which you would then place in your e-mail and link to your video page. This is a very compelling method to generate hits to your website and, more specifically, your video.

If you’d like to test this approach, simply use the thumbnail method described above, and include a few text links to your video as well. In most cases, the reporting for the campaign will show that recipients were much more likely to click on the thumbnail image as opposed to the text links. Not only does this work significantly better than trying to directly embed the videos, but you will also increase traffic to your website, with the hopes that they will stay and navigate through your entire site after viewing the video.

For more information on Applied Info Group’s database and email marketing service capabilities, please contact Mitch Rubin, President of Applied Info Group at (908) 241-7007. Visit www.appliedinfogroup.com to learn more.

It is advisable to make sure your HTML is free of errors before sending. Clean HTML code will follow the W3C HTML guidelines — you can use The W3C Validation Service to see if your code is compliant. You should also refrain from using scripting, such as JavaScript or VBScript, in your code. Most email readers strip these out of messages due to the possible security risks caused by script inclusion, and some may block your message completely if scripting is detected. If there are scripting components that you feel are vital to your marketing campaign, use your email message to drive recipients to your web site, where dynamic scripting components are easy to implement.

For more information on Applied Info Group’s database and email marketing service capabilities, please contact Mitch Rubin, President of Applied Info Group at 908-241-7007. Visit www.appliedinfogroup.com to learn more.

Here are whitelisting instructions for some of the major email service providers. The minimum we suggest they do is to add the ‘from’ email address (username@domain) into their email system’s address book.  

Please insert the From address you are whitelisting for username@domain.com using the instructions below:

AOL

Add the “From address” you want to receive mailings from to your AOL address book:

1. Click the “Mail Options” menu and select “Address Book”.
2. Inside the “Address Book” window, click the “Add” button.
3. Inside the “Address Card for New Contact” window cut and paste username@domain.com into the “Other E-Mail” field.
4. Make our From address the “Primary E-Mail” address by checking the associated check box to the right of it.
5. Click the “Save” button.

If the mailing is in your SPAM Folder, you can open the email and click the “This Is Not Spam” button.

Gmail

Add the From address you want to receive mailings from to your Gmail Contacts List:

1. Click “Contacts” along the left side of any Gmail page.
2. Click “Create Contact”.
3. Copy and paste username@domain.com into the primary email address dialog box.
4. Click “Save”.

If the mailing is in your SPAM folder, check the box next to the mailing and click the “Not Spam” button along the top.

Hotmail

Add the From address you want to receive mailings from to your Hotmail Safe List:

1. Open your mailbox and click “Options” (upper right hand corner).
2. Click the “Junk E-Mail Protection” link.
3. Select the “Safe List” link.
4. Copy and paste username@domain.com into the dialog box titled “Type an address or domain”.
5. Click the “Add” button next to the dialog box.

If the mailing is in your “Junk E-Mail Folder”, open the email and click the “Not Junk” button. 

You should also check that the mailing’s email address is not in your Blocked Senders list.  You can find your Blocked Senders list by following the directions above and going to “Blocked Senders List” instead of “Safe List”.  If you see the mailing’s from address on this list, select it and click the Remove button. 

Mozilla Thunderbird

Add the From address you want to receive mailings from to your Thunderbird Address Book and configure your Junk Mail Controls to white list your address book.

Add an address into your Personal Address Book:

1. Click the “Address Book” button.
2. Make sure the Personal Address Book is highlighted.
3. Click the “New Card” button.
4. Under the “Contact” tab, copy and paste username@domain.com into the Email dialog box.
5. Click “OK”.

White list your Personal Address Book:

1. From the main drop down menu, select “Tools -< Junk Mail Controls…”
2. This will launch the Junk Mail Controls window that has two tabs: Settings and Adaptive Filter
3. Under the Settings tab, update the “White Lists” module by selecting Personal Address Book from the pull down menu and then check mark the box next to “Do not mark messages as junk mail”.
4. Click “OK”.

If the mailing is in your junk folder, right-click the mailing and choose “Mark -< As Not Junk”.

Netscape Mail

Set up a filter to redirect the mailing you want to receive into your inbox:

1. From the Edit drop down menu, select “Message Filters”.
2. Click “New”, and give the new filter a name (e.g. “Whitelist”).
3. Change the drop down on the left to “sender” and the one in the middle to “is”.
4. Copy and paste username@domain.com into the box on the right.
5. Make the bottom two drop downs “Move to folder” and “Inbox”.
6. Click “OK”.
7. Make sure that your new filter is located at the top of the Message Filter list so it is run before any spam filter.

Outlook 2003

Add the address you want to receive mailings from to your Safe Senders list:

1. On the Tools menu, click “Options”.
2. On the Preferences tab, click “Junk E-mail”.
3. On the Safe Senders tab, click “Add”.
4. In the Add address box, copy and paste in username@domain.com and click OK.

If you are using a different version of Outlook you can add the mailers From address to your Address Book. This can be done by opening the email, right clicking the From address, and selecting “Add To Contacts”. You can also access your Address Book via the tools drop down menu.

Yahoo

Set up a filter to redirect the mailing you want to receive in your inbox:

1. Open your mailbox and click on “Mail Options” (upper right hand corner).
2. Select “Filters” under the Management column.
3. Click the “Add” button on the Filters page.
4. In the “From header:” row, make the drop down “contains” and put the mailer’s from address username@domain.com   in the box.
5. At the bottom of the page Click the “Choose Folder” pull down menu and select “Inbox”.
6. Click the “Add Filter” button.

If the mailing is in your Yahoo Bulk Folder open the email and click the “Not Spam” button. You should also check that the mailing’s email address is not in your “Blocked Addresses” list.  You can find your “Blocked Addresses” list by clicking “Mail Options” and then clicking the “Blocked Addresses” link under the Spam column.  If you see the mailing’s from address on this list, select it and click the “Remove Block” button. 

Others

The most common way to whitelist an address is to add it to your address book, white list, or safe list.  There is no universal way to whitelist an address, so if this is not an option, you will have to consult the help section associated with your email application.  They should have instructions on how to whitelist an address there.

For more information on Applied Info Group’s database and email marketing service capabilities, please contact Mitch Rubin, President of Applied Info Group at 908-241-7007. Visit www.appliedinfogroup.com to learn more.

Many email clients, including free providers such as Yahoo, Hotmail, and Gmail, will not render style sheets correctly, or will just strip them out completely. This is especially true for linked style sheets, where the creative attempts to load the style definitions from a hosted style sheet on your server. Embedded style sheets are almost just as troublesome, although some users have reported having better luck defining their style sheets between the body tags, as opposed to the common practice of defining them between the head tags, since many email clients will truncate or strip out the header.

We strongly recommend that you avoid using style sheets wherever possible for email campaigns. If you for some reason must use defined styles, try utilizing inline styles. This means that, instead of defining the style once in a stylesheet and referencing it as needed, you would need to define the style to every instance you want it to apply to.

Example

Using Style Sheets:

<p class=”Header”>Header Text</a>

Using Inline Styles:

<p style=”font-size:14px; color: #ff9900″>

While this is obviously a less powerful solution in the standard web design environment, this more explicit per-instance definition can work across more email platforms than a standard style sheet and make it more likely that the target audience of your email campaign is seeing your creative in the style that you intended.

For more information on Applied Info Group’s database and email marketing service capabilities, please contact Mitch Rubin, President of Applied Info Group at 908-241-7007. Visit www.appliedinfogroup.com to learn more.

For more information on Applied Info Group’s database and email marketing service capabilities, please contact Mitch Rubin, President of Applied Info Group at 908-241-7007. Visit www.appliedinfogroup.com to learn more.