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Your emails won’t achieve their goals if they don't function properly across different devices and email platforms. Email functionality refers to how well your emails load, display, and interact on a wide variety of platforms, including desktop, mobile, and various email clients like Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail.
For estate agents, where every email could mean a potential instruction or sale, ensuring that emails are fully functional and accessible is critical.
In this part of the series, we’ll cover the essential do’s and don’ts of email functionality, helping you create emails that not only look great but also perform smoothly for every recipient, no matter where or how they view them.
Do: Optimise For Mobile Devices
Over 50% of emails are opened on mobile devices, which means it’s crucial that your email looks good and functions properly on smartphones and tablets. Mobile optimisation ensures that your text, images, and CTAs are easy to read, click, and engage with on smaller screens.
Tip: Use a responsive design for all of your emails. Responsive designs automatically adjust the layout based on the device’s screen size. You’ll also want to ensure that buttons and CTAs are large enough to tap easily with a finger, and that any text is easily readable without zooming.
Don’t: Ignore Testing Across Platforms
Not all email clients render emails the same way. An email that looks perfect in Gmail may break in Outlook, and a design that works on Apple Mail may display differently on Yahoo. Failing to test your emails across platforms could result in broken layouts, misaligned images, or even missing content.
Tip: Before sending your campaign, use email testing tools to check how your email looks in different email clients (such as Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and Apple Mail) and across devices (mobile, tablet, and desktop). Spectre’s email preview tool allows you to see how your email will render on various platforms, so you can catch and fix any potential issues before hitting send.
Do: Use Alt Text For Images
We’ve already explored that many email clients—especially Outlook—block images by default, meaning recipients may not see your carefully selected property photos unless they actively choose to display them. Including alt text for each image ensures that even if your images don’t load, the recipient still gets the main message of your email.
Tip: Write descriptive alt text for every image in your email. Instead of saying "image," provide a useful description, like “4-bedroom family home with a garden and modern kitchen.” This way, even if the images don’t load, your recipient knows what’s being showcased.
Don’t: Overload Emails With Heavy Elements
Including too many large images, videos, or heavy design elements can dramatically slow down the load time of your email, especially on mobile devices with slower connections. If your email takes too long to load, your recipients may abandon it before even seeing your message.
Tip: Compress images to reduce their file size, and avoid embedding large videos directly into the email. Instead, include a thumbnail image or link to a hosted video on your website or YouTube. This keeps your email lightweight and ensures it loads quickly.
Do: Ensure Fast Load Times
Load time is critical in email functionality. Studies show that emails that take more than a few seconds to load have higher abandonment rates, meaning your recipients may delete the email before even seeing your message. Fast load times ensure that recipients engage with your content as soon as they open your email.
Tip: Compress all images and use lightweight design elements. Avoid using complex CSS or JavaScript in your emails, as they can slow things down. Keep the email code clean and simple to ensure fast delivery and loading.
Don’t: Forget To Include Clear, Actionable Links
Your email’s functionality isn’t just about how it looks or loads— it’s also about how easy it is for recipients to engage with. Make sure all your links and CTAs are working, and that they are clear, actionable, and easy to click. A broken or hidden link could mean losing out on a potential vendor or buyer.
Tip: Always double-check your links before sending. Use descriptive, clear link text like “Schedule a Viewing” or “Get a Free Valuation” instead of generic phrases like “Click Here.” Make sure buttons are large enough to tap on mobile and stand out visually.
Do: Keep Email Code Simple and Clean
Email design often requires a simplified coding approach compared to web design. Many email clients don’t support complex HTML and CSS, meaning your beautiful designs could break if they rely on features that aren’t supported. Simple, clean code ensures your email renders correctly on all platforms.
Tip: Stick to using inline CSS and avoid advanced HTML features like JavaScript or background images. Most email clients can handle simple layouts and styles, but too much complexity increases the risk of display issues. If you’re using a tool like Spectre Email, it already optimises your email code to ensure compatibility across platforms using its easy to use email builder.
Don’t: Neglect Text-Only Versions
While most of your recipients will receive the HTML version of your email, some email clients only support plain text versions. Additionally, some users may opt to receive text-only emails for a simpler, faster-loading experience. Neglecting to create a text-only version of your email could result in some recipients receiving a blank or broken email.
Tip: Always provide a plain-text version of your email alongside the HTML version. This ensures that recipients who prefer text-only emails, or whose email clients don’t support HTML, still receive your message. Spectre Email makes it easy to generate a text-only version as part of your campaign.
Do: Use Web-Safe Fonts
In part 3, we explored how fonts are another area where email clients vary in terms of support. While some email clients may render custom fonts, others will revert to default options, which can break the visual consistency of your design. Using web-safe fonts ensures that your text appears consistently across platforms.
Tip: Stick to web-safe fonts like Arial, Helvetica, Georgia, or Times New Roman, which are supported across all email clients. This helps maintain visual consistency and ensures readability, no matter what platform your recipients are using.
Don’t: Use Videos or GIFs Without Testing
Videos and GIFs can be great for engagement, but they don’t always work well in email clients. Some platforms, like Outlook, don’t support video or animated GIFs, and including them without testing can lead to broken content or a poor user experience.
Tip: If you want to include a video, consider embedding a static image or thumbnail that links to the video hosted on a website or YouTube. For GIFs, test them across multiple platforms before sending to ensure they display correctly. Always provide a fallback in case the GIF or video doesn’t load properly.
Email functionality is just as important as design. Ensuring your emails load quickly, display correctly across devices, and provide a seamless experience for your audience can make or break the success of your email marketing campaigns. By following these do’s and don’ts, you’ll avoid common pitfalls and ensure that your emails are engaging, accessible, and optimised for every recipient.
Stay tuned for the next and final blog in our series, where we’ll explore the Do’s and Don’ts of Content and Messaging in email creation. For now, take time to test and refine your email functionality to ensure every campaign performs at its best. Is your current tool not fit for purpose? Speak to one of our team about Spectre Email today!
