The Rendering Run-Around
By Len Shnyder, Director of Partner Relations and Industry Communications, Pivotal Veracity, www.pivotalveracity.com
We’ve all been reading a great deal about email rendering these days and the direct impact this issue has on a mailer’s brand, delivery, reputation, and performance. Press can be great because it raises awareness and educates folks on how to identify and solve problems they may not have even realized were there. However, as so often happens with the issue “du-jour”, good information is often paired with bad as everyone jumps on the band wagon to capitalize on the latest hot topic. Below is a list, in no particular order, of some of the questions we’ve recently received from confused mailers on the topic du-jour. We’ve done our best to create a no-spin-zone with our answers and hope these help clarify this important issue.
1. I already get a test message from my [designer/agency/esp/design-software] and review it before I mail. I don’t understand what all the hoopla is about - isn’t what I see what my customers will see?
Probably not - unless you are actually viewing and approving of what that email looks like in all the different email readers that your customers use (“email readers” or “email clients” are what your customers use to actually read their emails such as Outlook (2000,2003, 2007), Lotus Notes, AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.). Different email readers can and do render the exact same email differently. This means WYSI-*not*-WYG; it’s one of the main problems being highlighted in the many articles and it’s a legitimate one. The only way to have a true perspective on what your customers actually see is to literally view your email using the same software or web-based email readers that your customers use. This means if you just view the email in Outlook XP on your desktop, all you know is what the email looks like in Outlook XP – you don’t have any idea whether its actually rendering properly in any other version of Outlook or anywhere else for that matter.
See an example of how one email may be rendered differently from one reader to another.
2. Doesn’t my [Agency, Designer, ESP] already QA my email in the various email readers for me?
Probably not but its worth asking. Automated solutions that allow you to view a message across the most important email readers are fairly new to the market and adoption, while growing, is still low. It would be a timely process and potentially operationally prohibitive for most companies to do this manually (although we do explain how in #6 below). The proof, however, is in the pudding … next time your [agency,designer,esp], etc. says they are done QA’ing your email, simply ask them for screenshots of your email in Express*, Outlook XP, Outlook 2003*, Lotus Notes, AOL 9*, AOL.com, Hotmail*, Yahoo, and any other email readers relevant to your customer base. For those with an asterick, remember to ask for a screenshot with both images on and OFF because the default is images-off and its important to see your email both ways.
Note, even though its unlikely this is part of your standard service, many leading ESPs and Agencies will provide access to leading rendering solutions offered by DSPs for an additional subscription fee. To see a list of agencies and ESPs that have integrated and/or offer you access to the leading rendering solutions, see the Email Experience Council’s (eec) comparison of DSP offerings.
3. Are images “off” by default in every email reader/client?
No. In fact, in terms of pure numbers, images are “on” by default in most email readers. What we mean by this is that in most email readers when your message appears it appears with images displaying by default. Unfortunately, while a larger quantity of email readers have images “on” by default, some of the most widely used email readers have them “off” by default. This means when your message arrives, your images do not display by default and, depending on the email reader, are replaced with white space, grey boxes, or something more onerous like a security warning. Below we’ve provided examples of some of the more popular email readers and whether images are on or off by default:
- Images are “ON” by default in: AIM.com, AOL.com, Cox, Comcast, Earthlink, Outlook 2002, Roadrunner, Lotus Notes, Yahoo’s inbox folder.
- Images are “OFF” by default in: AOL 9, Gmail, Hotmail, Mozilla Thunderbird, Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007, Outlook Express 6, Windows Live Mail
4. I was told using Goodmail turns my images on everywhere, is this true?
No. First, Goodmail is currently only deployed by AOL and Yahoo (transactional emails only) and so it currently has no impact whatsoever on image rendering, delivery, or labeling in any other email reader or at any other ISP or desktop email reader. Second, as noted above, in AOL.com images are already “on” by default so it would be a tad misleading to say Goodmail turns them on when they are already on although it will suppress the initial ‘do you know this mailer’ page that may display prior to displaying the email. In Yahoo, classic images are also already “on” if your email is placed in the inbox; so, like AOL, it would be a bit misleading to say Goodmail turns them on when they are already on if your mail is being placed in the inbox. There is a new Yahoo BETA interface but since this is still in BETA it is unclear how images will be handled at this point.
Currently, Goodmail does turn images back “on” in AOL 9. Since images are off by default in this reader, it is accurate to say that Goodmail can make a difference in AOL 9. If, however, the only reason you are exploring the Goodmail program is the image-on benefit, you may first want to explore whether you are on the AOL Enhanced Whitelist (a free service for qualified mailers – see the answer to #5 below) as well as encourage your customers to add you to their Address Book as both of these will also turn images-on in AOL 9.
5. Some 3rd party companies offer you the ability to get "white listed" and thus say the images render. Is this true?
No. There are many ISPs that allow mailers to apply for their whitelist. However, there is currently only 1 major ISP where being on the ISP’s whitelist will turn images “on” but no 3rd party can “get you on” this whitelist. The only ISP where whitelisting turns images back on is AOL. The benefit is only pertinent to AOL 9 and not AOL.com – since images are already on in AOL.com. The benefit of images turn back on is only applied if you are on AOL’s Enhanced Whitelist and does not apply to AOL’s Standard Whitelist. And, finally, no 3rd party can “get you on” the AOL Enhanced Whitelist no matter how much you pay them. This is because you can not apply for the Enhanced Whitelist. You can register for the AOL Standard Whitelist which is free of charge. AOL shifts standard whitelisted mailers on and off the Enhanced Whitelist based on a 30 day rolling window that measures performance through complaint rates (staying below .1%), spam trap hits and unknown user rates. Thus AOL’s Enhanced Whitelist is a benefit awarded to mailers who maintain their measurable reputations and is not for sale.
6. Do I have to pay somebody in order to view what my email looks like in the various email readers?
Not necessarily. You could do it manually yourself. You’ll want to take into consideration that in order to do it yourself you’ll have to devote not only a good measure of time (ongoing in performing QA on your messages), but also in the setup. Let’s assume you have a standard B2C list where the top 30-50% of that list’s distribution is comprised of AOL, Hotmail and Yahoo. You can easily obtain free email accounts at each of these so you can send a copy of your email to each account and review it for rendering integrity. In addition to these free accounts, you might want to POP emails from the major cable providers into Outlook Express, Outlook 2000/XP, and Outlook 2003 as research has shown that a good many cable broadband users are POPing their mail into desktop readers rather than using the webmail client provided by their ISP. Now all you need is a really big monitor so you can open a bunch of browser windows, log into each of the email readers, open each of the emails, turn images on and off, and examine what the differences and nuances are between all the web-based and desktop readers.
A number of Deliverability Service Providers (DSP) have developed solutions that automate this process and allow you to easily submit an email and then review screenshots of what your email looks like in the preview pane and full message view both with and without images. Additionally, many top-tier ESPs have interated DSP solutions into their application and, upon request, can also provide these solutions to you.
Read the Email Experience Council’s (eec) comparison of the available solutions.
7. If images are off, doesn’t the text version of my email show?
The on or off state of images doesn’t default the email to a text-only display. The majority of email readers are HTML based. Which means, although you may be sending a text portion with your HTML emails, the default of the reader is to read the HTML version only. When images are “off”, the HTML email is still displayed; it's simply displayed with images suppressed which is what creates gaps and other presentation problems.
8. If images are off, do ALT-TAGs always show?
ALT-TAGs are a good idea but they’re far from a panacea to the problem of image rendering as not all email readers will display them when images are off. In fact, when images are off, how the email is displayed varies pretty dramatically.
Below we’ve shared what some of the most popular email readers show when they suppress the images (which is the default setting in each of these email readers) along with an example of what the same Bose email looks like in the email reader with images on and with images off.
View an example of a Bose email with images on and with images off in a variety of email readers.
- Outlook Express, GMAIL, MAC.com: Images are replaced with white boxes with a black border; alt-tags show.
- AOL 9: empty white space with no alt-tags. Images are replaced with white space; alt-tags do not show.
- AT&T, Hotmail and Windows Live Mail: Images are replaced with solid grey boxes; alt-tags show.
- Mozilla Thunderbird: Images are removed (alongwith the structure they provided in your email); alt-tags show.
- Outlook 2003: Images are replaced with a security warning; alt-tags do not show.
9. Our email design software already has a built-in HTML Validator, isn’t this good enough?
Maybe. Is your HTML Validator using the latest coding standards from the W3C and/or the WDG? If not, then it’s not really doing its job. ISPs like Hotmail and MSN utilize and apply the latest W3C specifications and guidelines for the rendering and display of HTML. Understanding what exactly your HTML Validator is “validating” (its own standards or the official standards of the W3C or WDG) is the key to ensuring that your email has the best chance at rendering as you intended.
10. Why all the hoopla about the preview pane - is it important?
Absolutely. A growing number of email readers are providing their users the opportunity to “preview’ the message in a preview pane before or without actually opening the message. Recent research shows that more than 9 of 10 email users have access to a preview pane, and 7 of 10 say they frequently or always use it. Not only will this behavior wreak havoc with your open metrics (that’s a topic for another article), but this creates unique problems with rendering as the viewable size of the email within the preview pane is reduced. With the reduction of useable real-estate comes a shift in the virtual fold line: it’s dramatically shifted “up” within a preview pane making it more important than ever to present the brand “top-down” as clearly as possible within the first few lines of the email with or without images. Oh and don’t forget that if images are off by default, they are also off by default in the preview pane.
Here is a Sam Adams email in the Outlook Express Preview Pane – the way a marketer would hope the recipient would see it (with images on) and the way the recipient would actually see it in the default view (with images off).
11. Does my design effect my delivery, reputation and/or ROI?
Everything is connected! The elements of “good email” don’t exist in a vacuum. The design of your email can and does impact delivery with most spam filtering programs incorporating design-based rules as well as various forms of HTML validation. The design of your email and whether your message integrity are retained with images on and off, can and does impact whether customers can identify your brand or whether they click on the “report as spam” because they have no idea who you are. The design of your email always has and will continue to impact whether your customer feels compelled to act.
Variable rendering, images off, W3C compliance and preview panes are either problems – or - opportunities to differentiate your emails from others. Ignoring them simply means you are potentially hurting your reputation and are likely failing to optimize your ROI.
Check out the eec's 2007 Rendering Report.
Media Request Form
Advertisements
