As we mentioned in our previous articles in this series, we are preparing the launch of a new high-flying email builder, ready to take you, marketer, into a new experience of creating and sending emails in your marketing automation tool. Without us even realizing it, the key element of success is responsiveness.
Responsive email in 2020
What about email clients in 2020?
Gmail, Outlook, Hotmail,… The possibilities are numerous, especially in Europe! And when you combine the email client, the browser, and the device (for example, Outlook 2010 web, on Chrome on Windows), that creates a large number of possible combinations with just as many visual interpretations of your email content.
However, there are trends, leaders that hold a large share of the market, and they vary depending on the target audience (B2B, B2C,…).
Is it possible to have a “pixel-perfect” email on all email clients?
An email that displays perfectly, regardless of the browser, device, or email client, is that possible? In reality, it depends on your expectations. If you want a complex email, with numerous background images and other advanced features, the display will always be slightly different. For simpler emails, the rendering will be almost identical.
As you have noticed, we use a lot of conditional phrasing because there is no standard for the rendering of HTML/CSS in an email client as there is with the W3C and web browsers for websites.
Relying on a reliable, future-proof technology: MJML
That is our choice: we have developed a very attractive interface that enables the implementation of numerous features. However, as we explained, creating a beautiful email on every email client is very complex, even impossible. But “impossible” is not the Webmecanik way!
Thanks to the wonderful world of open source (to which Webmecanik is already very committed: Automation is based on Mautic, of which we are the main contributor), there is a technology building block available to everyone for responsive email: MJML.
MJML is therefore a project, maintained by more than 90 contributors (just imagine having a team of dozens of engineers dedicated to responsive email…) that makes it possible to code email easily while ensuring the best possible rendering on all email clients. By choosing MJML, we ensure for ourselves and for all our users that we have a framework that evolves as quickly as the email clients on the market!
Further improving understanding of multi-client preview
Looking to the future, now that we have a robust technical foundation to prepare for upcoming changes, we are envisioning several other advantages to help anticipate how your emails will appear in different email clients.
Indeed, because responsiveness is more than complicated, web applications such as EmailOnAcid or Litmus have been created to allow you to preview your email on all web, desktop, and mobile clients. So, to avoid unpleasant surprises, we want to add integration with these preview tools to our builder.
But shhh, for that you will have to wait a little longer.
Next episode
In the coming days, discover the next chapter of our saga preparing you for the release of our new email builder with episode 5: UX, the heart of the new editor.
Also read: Discover the new features of Brick, your new email builder
Also read: Behind the scenes of the email builder!
Also read: Looking back at the Ask Me Anything: New email builder
Also read: A new era for our email builder
