Recently, I talked about the pros and cons of sending HTML vs Text emails to your clients in this article "Filling your inboxes with visual appealing HTML emails" (opens new window). Since HTML Emails are becoming increasingly more popular to send here at Wayne State, we are trying to come up with a system that makes this painstakingly clumsy process as streamlined as possible.

Third party testing

If you have one main template and don't have to create new ones often, a pay email testing service might be for you. For a small fee you can use one of these services to send your HTML code to and then it will produce screenshots of how the email looks in the most popular email clients. In addition, some of these services will also test how your email will react with spam filters.

Pay for testing resources

• Mailchimp - Inbox Inspector (opens new window)
• Campaign Monitor Testing Service (opens new window)
• Litmus - The advanced testing tool for web professionals (opens new window)

Testing in house

If you don't have the resources or funding to go with one of the automated services, you can go the "old fashioned way" and set up a series of test email accounts on all the popular email clients. To begin with, set up accounts on Hotmail, Yahoo, Google, AOL and of course, Outlook 2000, 2003, 2007 and Outlook Express. Don't forget to test Apple Mail 2 and 3 and to test on the iPhone as well. This will get you tested in over 80% of all the popular email clients, according to Campaign Monitor as of June 2009, in their article Email client popularity (opens new window).

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Don't forget to test email in popular mobile environments as well, iPhone for example is now more popular than gmail in viewing email. Once you establish some main HTML email templates the testing will get easier. When designing email templates, keep it simple. Trying too much, is one of the biggest mistakes designers do when creating HTML emails.

Here are some more good resources for getting a professional and cross-platform HTML email below. Remember to test, test, test!

Free HTML testing resources

• 2007 Office System Tool: Outlook HTML and CSS Validator (opens new window)
• Premailer: preflight for HTML e-mail
• Contactology - Check Your Email's Spam Score & Deliverability (opens new window)

Other resources and HTML email information

• Stupid HTML Email Design Mistakes (opens new window)
• How to test HTML emails (opens new window)
• HTML Emails – Taming the Beast (opens new window)
• Email Standards Project (opens new window)