Email Design

Hi guys,

been a while since I last posted - just wondering about email design.....

as like most of you I probably receive a good 5-10 emails from companies I take an interest in. Some of these emails are made up of purely images and just a text footer and the others are built in HTML tables.

What are the advantages of both? I always thought email clients are more than likely to direct an email into your spam folder if it is made up of mainly images. These emails always look nicer as you are not constrained however I'm sure there are disadvantages too.

This is one I received this morning - looks great and came through fine into my inbox?

Code:
 <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="780"><tr><td width="90" valign="top"><p><img id="_x0000_i1025" src="[URL]http://i1.cmail2.com/ei/y/B6/2B5/7EA/105739/images/fill_left.jpg[/URL]" border="0"></p></td><td width="600" valign="top"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="600"><tr><td><p><a href="[URL]http://callofduty.cmail2.com/t/y/l/aduktk/pjtkyklut/r"><img[/URL] border="0" id="_x0000_i1026" src="[URL]http://i2.cmail2.com/ei/y/B6/2B5/7EA/105739/images/fill_top.jpg"></a></p></td[/URL]></tr><tr><td><p><a href="[URL]http://callofduty.cmail2.com/t/y/l/aduktk/pjtkyklut/y"><img[/URL] border="0" id="_x0000_i1027" src="[URL]http://i3.cmail2.com/ei/y/B6/2B5/7EA/105739/images/main01.jpg[/URL]" alt="View Trailer"></a></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><a href="[URL]http://callofduty.cmail2.com/t/y/l/aduktk/pjtkyklut/j"><img[/URL] border="0" id="_x0000_i1028" src="[URL]http://i4.cmail2.com/ei/y/B6/2B5/7EA/105739/images/main02.jpg[/URL]" alt="Watch Now"></a></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><img border="0" id="_x0000_i1029" src="[URL]http://i5.cmail2.com/ei/y/B6/2B5/7EA/105739/images/fill_main.jpg"></p></td[/URL]></tr><tr><td><p><a href="[URL]http://callofduty.cmail2.com/t/y/l/aduktk/pjtkyklut/t"><img[/URL] border="0" id="_x0000_i1030" src="[URL]http://i6.cmail2.com/ei/y/B6/2B5/7EA/105739/images/screens.jpg"></a></p></td[/URL]></tr><tr><td><p><img border="0" id="_x0000_i1031" src="[URL]http://i9.cmail2.com/ei/y/B6/2B5/7EA/105739/images/fill_main2.jpg"></p></td[/URL]></tr><tr><td><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="600"><tr><td><p><a href="[URL]http://callofduty.cmail2.com/t/y/l/aduktk/pjtkyklut/i"><img[/URL] border="0" id="_x0000_i1032" src="[URL]http://i7.cmail2.com/ei/y/B6/2B5/7EA/105739/images/btn_buy.jpg[/URL]" alt="Buy Now"></a></p></td><td><p><a href="[URL]http://callofduty.cmail2.com/t/y/l/aduktk/pjtkyklut/d"><img[/URL] border="0" id="_x0000_i1033" src="[URL]http://i8.cmail2.com/ei/y/B6/2B5/7EA/105739/images/btn_signup.jpg[/URL]" alt="Sign-Up for the Community"></a></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><a href="[URL]http://callofduty.cmail2.com/t/y/l/aduktk/pjtkyklut/h"><img[/URL] border="0" id="_x0000_i1034" src="[URL]http://i1.cmail2.com/ei/y/B6/2B5/7EA/105739/images/btn_twitter.jpg[/URL]" alt="Follow us on Twitter"></a></p></td><td><p><a href="[URL]http://callofduty.cmail2.com/t/y/l/aduktk/pjtkyklut/k"><img[/URL] border="0" id="_x0000_i1035" src="[URL]http://i3.cmail2.com/ei/y/B6/2B5/7EA/105739/images/btn_facebook.jpg[/URL]" alt="Follow us on Facebook"></a></p></td></tr></table></td></tr><tr><td><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="600"><tr><td><p><a href="[URL]http://callofduty.cmail2.com/t/y/l/aduktk/pjtkyklut/u"><img[/URL] border="0" id="_x0000_i1036" src="[URL]http://i5.cmail2.com/ei/y/B6/2B5/7EA/105739/images/logos_esrb.jpg[/URL]" alt="ESRB"></a></p></td><td><p><a href="[URL]http://callofduty.cmail2.com/t/y/l/aduktk/pjtkyklut/o"><img[/URL] border="0" id="_x0000_i1037" src="[URL]http://i6.cmail2.com/ei/y/B6/2B5/7EA/105739/images/logos_treyarch.jpg[/URL]" alt="Treyarch"></a></p></td><td><p><a href="[URL]http://callofduty.cmail2.com/t/y/l/aduktk/pjtkyklut/b"><img[/URL] border="0" id="_x0000_i1038" src="[URL]http://i7.cmail2.com/ei/y/B6/2B5/7EA/105739/images/logos_activision.jpg[/URL]" alt="Activision"></a></p></td></tr></table></td></tr><tr><td><p><img border="0" id="_x0000_i1039" src="[URL]http://i8.cmail2.com/ei/y/B6/2B5/7EA/105739/images/fill_logos.jpg"></p></td[/URL]></tr><tr><td><p><img border="0" id="_x0000_i1040" src="[URL]http://i10.cmail2.com/ei/y/B6/2B5/7EA/105739/images/fill_bottom.jpg"></p></td[/URL]></tr></table></td><td width="90" valign="top"><p><img border="0" id="_x0000_i1041" src="[URL]http://i1.cmail2.com/ei/y/B6/2B5/7EA/105739/images/fill_right.jpg"></p></td[/URL]></tr><tr><td width="90"><p> </p></td><td width="600"><div align="center"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%"><tr><td width="183" valign="top"><p align="right"><a href="[URL]http://callofduty.cmail2.com/t/y/l/aduktk/pjtkyklut/n"><img[/URL] border="0" id="_x0000_i1042" src="[URL]http://i4.cmail2.com/ei/y/B6/2B5/7EA/105739/images/rating_m.gif[/URL]" alt="Rated M"></a></p></td><td width="20" valign="top"><p> </p></td><td valign="top"><p><a href="[URL]http://callofduty.cmail2.com/t/y/l/aduktk/pjtkyklut/p">Legal</a[/URL]> | <a href="[URL]http://callofduty.cmail2.com/t/y/l/aduktk/pjtkyklut/x">Privacy[/URL] Policy</a> | <a href="[URL]http://callofduty.cmail2.com/t/y/l/aduktk/pjtkyklut/m">Terms[/URL] of Use</a> <br><br>© 2011 Activision Publishing, Inc. 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Any opinions on this?

thanks
Steve
 
One point to always bear in mind is email clients such as Hotmail often have images switched off by default, so if your email is mostly images the recipient will only get the message you are sending if they click a button to turn on images. They're unlikely to do this if it's an email from someone they don't recognise and therefore your email get's trashed. I would always say to code as much of your email in html/tables as possible, there's plenty of other benefits also, as well as making it accessible to people with visual impairments who use screen readers, etc.
 
Hey Steve,

The majority of ESP (Email Service Providers) allow your email to be sent in two parts, text based and html based, to get around this problem of some email clients not displaying images, obviously if you main communication is in the image this needs to be replicated in plain text for best results.

Additionally to this, using ESP will get you around 90% of spam email filters, as the ESP companies have agreements with the likes of The Spamhaus Project in order to send vast amounts of email, ESP place the responsibility of spam email squarely on the shoulders of users using the ESP service.

try checking out Email Marketing and Email List Manager | MailChimp and or Email marketing software for web designers - Campaign Monitor I have used both extensively and they are spot on.
 
I remember reading loads about emails, its a freaking nightmare!

The guy who taught me the most about it offered this wisdom,

"The technical aspect of email hasn't changed in 20 years, so neither can your coding!"

Tables, conceal img tags inside font or p tags, for some reason that means it gets past spam filters. It's maddening trying to get it to work effectively!
 
thanks guys - some really useful advice there :) - I feel a lot wiser already!

Geoff - thanks for the links, a bit of bedtime reading tonight I think!

Cheers
 
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