Email marketers spend plenty of time to craft an interactive email that not only delivers the message in a beautiful way, but also renders well across all devices. If you want to amp emails, adding interactive elements to the template is a great way of doing so. However, many a times their effort fails as they leave their subscribers disappointed. So, what is the best way to be assured that your interactive emails are doing wonders in the subscribers’ inboxes?
Be patient, before we move on to our main matter, it is crucial to first understand what interactivity is all about.
Understanding Interactivity in Emails
Email marketing has evolved manifolds, considering many email clients have started supporting the interactivity. Interactive animation makes emails look vibrant with ample effects like: flip & scratch effect, menus, GIF, accordions, etc. that helps boost CTRs. The advent of Interactive emails has actually given subscribers an opportunity to take action within the Inbox.
But for that it is vital to send interactive mail that glides well with the email client. We’re all aware of the feeling of receiving an email which appears to be broken. No wonder it is one of the most pertinent reasons why subscribers get pissed off and unsubscribe. For that, it is crucial to create an interactive email QA checklist that keeps your interactive emails on the track.
To check that all the best practices are in place, Email Uplers with their zeal have come up with an email QA checklist to make your interactive email templates and campaigns heavenly that will not only boost open rates, but also maximize lead generation.
Interaction Testing
- You will have to manually set up email clients to test the interactivity.
- See Apple Mail, Thunderbird, Outlook on Mac, iPhone, Android Native app and other devices that support interactivity to check the working of the animation you have provided.
- Prepare the list of email clients who are in your subscriber list and do not fall in the above list. Check for fallback on each of those email clients.
- Check for message to be displayed on supporting email clients, as well as for fallback message to be displayed on email clients that does not support interactivity.
Formatting
Please perform the below formatting test with interactivity and without interactivity (on fallback).
- Are colors and fonts displayed correctly? (Alignment, size)
- Are there any odd line breaks in content? Particularly Brand Name or Product Name Format testing via Litmus or Email on Acid and manual testing in Hotmail, Outlook.com, Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo, Apple email and Live.com
- Make sure there are no elements with default alignment.
- Ensure you have included width for each <td>.
Content
Please perform the below Content test with interactivity and without interactivity (on fallback).
- Is there contradictory content / content that don’t make sense?
- Are names, dates, places, numbers and addresses correct, if used any?
- Are the brand names and trademark signs correct?
- Is an unsubscribe link included?
- Is view email online link included?
- Is send to friend link included?
- Are any incorrect sequences of special characters present (such as & instead of &); if so are they replaced with codes?
- Spacing within words is consistent and natural across the email or not?
Images
Please perform the below images test with interactivity and without interactivity (on fallback).
- Are all pictures displayed correctly? (Alignment, size, none missing) The height and width should be in proportion.
- Is Alt Text given correctly for all images (including logo)? Alt text for interactive elements as well as for fallback elements.
- Ensure the border around images are NONE.
- Check if background images are used and visually consistent across all email clients (if not its recommended to have fallback color)
Links
Please perform the below link test with interactivity and without interactivity (on fallback).
- Do all links open in a new window and go to the right page (or depending upon client requirement) with interactive as well as fallback elements?
- Do all links have the correct color? (Ensure the color remain same after a click – except Gmail)
- When viewing in a browser, does the page appear correctly, including any personalization?
- Do links go to the correct landing page (if provided by client)?
- If no links information provided, make sure # tags are provided to all the places where links should be there
- All logo (header as well as footer) should have linked
Creating and following an interactive email checklist is a critical step that needs to be taken before sending out your email campaigns. Going with this email checklist will help you send blunder safe interactive emails that make subscribers happy 🙂