Read this very interesting article for all those folk who code HTML emails.

Love it or hate it, there’s no denying the popularity of HTML emails. And, like the web before it, the inbox has officially gone mobile—with over 50 percent of email opens occurring on mobile devices.

Still, email design is an outrageously outdated practice. Remember coding before web standards became… standards? Welcome to the living hell of email design.

But coding an email doesn’t need to be a lesson in frustration. While email designers still have to build layouts using tables and style them with HTML attributes and—gasp!—inline styles, a number of intrepid designers are taking modern techniques pioneered for the web and applying them to the archaic practice of email design.

Building on the principles of responsive web design first codified by Ethan Marcotte, a revolution in email design is giving birth to an experience fast approaching that of the modern web. Subscribers need no longer be subjected to terrible reading experiences, frustrating touch targets, and tiny text.

The value of HTML email:

Whether or not you like HTML email, it is a vital tool for nearly every business. When it comes to marketing, email consistently outperforms other channels like Facebook and Twitter. More importantly, email allows you to interact with a potentially massive audience in an increasingly personal way.

You may not actively engage in email marketing, but chances are that, as a web designer or developer, you use email to communicate with users on a regular basis. It could be sending a receipt, updating users on a new product feature, or letting them know about your latest blog post. Whatever the reason, email is an important and often overlooked medium.

Read full article here

Brendan Proctor

22 Years of experience in UI web design & front end development. Designing, developing & promoting websites for all kinds of businesses in the United Kingdom, Ireland, United States, Germany, Switzerland and South Africa. Spends his week days buried in responsive web site design & front end development making the most of CSS & Javascript.

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