Email development best practices

Consider the following suggestions when using HTML in your email:

• Code all structures using the table element. For more complicated layouts, you should nest tables to build complex structures.
• Use element attributes (such as cellpadding, valign, and width) to set table dimensions. This forces a box-model structure.
• Keep your CSS simple. Avoid the following coding styles:
  • Compound style declarations: font:#000 12px Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
  • Shorthand code: #000 instead of #000000
  • CSS layout properties: slot, position, clear, visibility, and so on
  • Complex selectors: descendant, child or sibling selectors, and pseudo-elements
• Inline all CSS before finalizing emails or email templates.
• Use only absolute links for images, and host these images on a reliable server.
• Do not code with JavaScript or Flash; most email clients do not support these technologies.
• Plan for mobile users, and make emails as responsive as possible:
  • Use media queries to increase text sizes on small screens
  • Provide thumb-sized hit areas for links, approximately 46 px by 46 px
• Test often. Create email accounts across various services, and send emails to yourself to see the appearance of emails on various clients.