Email Appearance Discrepancies Amongst Email Clients (ie: Gmail, Outlook, etc.) | Community
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mollyhass
Level 2
March 4, 2020
Question

Email Appearance Discrepancies Amongst Email Clients (ie: Gmail, Outlook, etc.)

  • March 4, 2020
  • 4 replies
  • 3415 views

I tried search previous posts but nothing I could locate recently on this -  Has there been any resolution or anyone have a loophole on how to get emails to appear the same across difference email clients?   I'm creating emails and in the Preview of both Mobile/Desktop in Marketo they look great.  In gmail they look great, but through say the iPhone mobile view they have varying size fonts, spacing gap discrepancies, larger buttons, etc.   

 

Found this from prior post: 

"This is because html and css is interpreted differently across different email clients. And note that iPhone is not an email client, it's a device. An email rendered in the iPhone's Outlook vs Gmail vs native mail app may look different in all 3."

 

I totally get what is being said above; however, curious if any one has had luck in sending emails where they've been able to have the email look the same across the email clients? It's a hot-topic and would love to get some more info on this and if anything can in fact be done? 

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4 replies

SanfordWhiteman
SanfordWhiteman
Level 10
March 4, 2020

"The same", no. But "as consistent and attractive as possible" - that's a what an experienced email designer is for!

    Mark_Halliday1
    Mark_Halliday1
    Level 2
    March 4, 2020

    Depending on your timing, I can take a look at the source code and make it responsive, so the fonts display correctly for mobile, desktop, and tablet.

    Steven_Rugg1
    Steven_Rugg1
    Level 2
    March 4, 2020

    My team of designers use Litmus to get the emails to appear consistent as much as possible across all devices and Email Clients. I will say though we have been having issues here and there with Outlook's latest updates where Litmus isn't rendering the same in the platform as our test sends. I can tell you it will never be perfect but if you want to put your mind at ease I would run some reports in understanding what devices and email clients your audience is using and focus your attention on optimizing your emails to appease the greatest portion of your audience.

    Grace_Brebner3
    Grace_Brebner3
    Level 10
    March 5, 2020

    Yeah, exactly what @sanfordwhiteman says - you can't make them look the same, you can only make them look as good as they can in any given client given that client's specific... let's say environment rather than limitations 🙂

     

    You might find a post I wrote in the Champ blog helpful on this subject "5 Email Myths You Need to Dispel" or some of the videos we've posted on The Automation Geeks (particularly this presentation from the Auckland MUG last year) - both talk about a lot of these challenges. But in short, the best you can do is understand the environments, the available workarounds, and especially if you can understand how different clients are represented in your database... then work accordingly 🙂

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