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Anne Tomlin is the Founder of . She has a celebrated expertise in HTML email coding, and she’s a designer who’s been nominated as the best in the market. Staying abreast of all the latest trends, her testing techniques for email responsiveness are the most-spoken ones.Ìý
from ×îв©²ÊÍøÕ¾ Campaigns connects avid email marketers to the experts in this space, and help them learn some best practices and tips. Our aim is to connect email geeks and form a community that learns email marketing from one another. Check out our amazing line-up of Season 1.
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Audio Transcript:
Aishwarya: Gone are the days when emails were designed with just single width and plain layouts. Responsive emails shape today’s email marketing design, and help you get your brand’s message out there to your target audience. So, as marketers, it’s important to understand how to design these responsive emails that convert. Shall we get ready to hear some best practices?
Welcome to The ×îв©²ÊÍøÕ¾ Campaigns Expert Diaries. I’m Aishwarya, your host, and today we’ll be speaking to Anne Tomlin, the Founder of Emails Y’all. Anne has a celebrated expertise in HTML email coding, and she’s a designer who stays up-to-date with all the latest design trends.
Welcome to our show, Anne! It’s wonderful to have you here today.
Anne: Well, thank you for having me!
Aishwarya: So, why don’t we start with the basics?
Can you tell us about how you got into email coding and development?Ìý
Anne: Yeah, sure!ÌýI’m completely self-taught. I taughtÌýmyself HTML and CSS, and got a job in webÌýdevelopment. And, one day someoneÌýasked me to do an email, and I fell inÌýlove with it completely, like from veryÌýmoment.
Aishwarya:ÌýInteresting! I love the way youÌýsaid you’re self-taught because I thinkÌýthat’s the greatest driver for most ofÌýus. So I think that would have paved aÌývery good platform for you to learn aÌýlot of new things and then get on to aÌýtotally interesting field and grow inÌýlove with it.
Anne:ÌýYeah!
Aishwarya: So, you have experience in hand-coding PSDs and sketch files to responsive emails. That’s great to know!
What’s theÌýinteresting email campaign that you worked on recently, and who was it targeted at?
Anne:ÌýWell, currently, the mostÌýrecent thing I’ve been building has beenÌýfor Dolls Kill. They’re a fashionÌýbrand and their target market isÌýlike young women. And, I’m taking themÌýfrom baked-in text to live text which isÌýexciting.
Aishwarya:ÌýThat’s great! So live text as inÌýyou pull in the feeds fromÌýTwitter and Instagram and all of yourÌýsocial handles—something like that?
Anne: Oh, meaning that they used to have theÌýtextÌýbaked into the image which is notÌýpracticed, though. I’m taking them to text that can be loaded without loading the images.
Aishwarya: Oh, great!
WhatÌýare some trends that you find in theseÌýfashion brands because you say they’reÌýtargeted at young women, so is there a trend that you notice here?
Anne: Well, umm, IÌýdefinitely think that fashion brands are more image-centric, so even though they do have, you know,Ìýthere are certain circumstances in which one has to haveÌýbaked-in text, I think that the theÌýindustry is really movingÌýtowards live text. Because some emailÌýclients don’t load images on, byÌýdefault, so you still want to have yourÌýmessage out there—even though theÌýmain parts ofÌýyour emails are going to be imagesÌýbecause of the fashion market. Yeah, you can do a lot with liveÌýtext even if your main idea is images.
Aishwarya: Yeah, that sounds good, actually! And, canÌýyou elaborate a little bit on these—whatÌýyou call as live text—because IÌýthought maybe that would be interestingÌýfor the listeners to know; what are theÌýdifferent forms?
Actually, one of theÌýrecent formats that I encountered withÌýfor live text was how emailsÌýwere able to pull in live social feeds ofÌýbrands, and show the various offers andÌýpurchases that were there on the feed,Ìýand just stock them up in the email. So,Ìýare there some trends or are there someÌýformats of live text to be used in theÌýemails?
Anne: I have seen what you’re talkingÌýabout, with the live feed of theÌýInstagram and Twitter. I have done theÌýthe Instagram one on this, on Dolls Kill. But I think the one that I’mÌýmost impressed with is the Twitter feed—of the live Twitter feed on Litmus’ email from a couple of years ago.ÌýI’ve seen a lot sinceÌýthen; a lot of people do that.
Aishwarya:ÌýCertainly! Now that we’re talking aboutÌýthis,
What are some ways that you would suggest to emails more interactive?
Anne:ÌýThe easiest way to make you know email more interactive is to use hover states so they’re a simple you know little thing that you can do, sort of a progressive enhancement, that you know really brings a little bit of power to the email clients that that support it.
Aishwarya: Nice! That’s a good suggestion that mostÌýof the listeners today can pick up.ÌýSo, let’s talk about your love for emails and languages.
I recently read an article where you’d mentioned that languages involved you more in emails, so is there a connection between these two for you?
Anne:ÌýYeah, I definitely think so! My degree in classics like flattening proof. IÌýstudied Latin for 10 years, so I think itÌýmight be easier for me to pick upÌýprogramming languages because I knew a couple of their languages. Yes, itÌýmakes a you know me aware of the syntaxÌýof programming languages.
Aishwarya: Yeah, that’s aÌýnice tie there, to know the languagesÌýboth ways both classical and the theÌýactual programming language. That’s nice to know!
How do you ensure better inbox preview and responsiveness when designing multilingual emails, now that we’ve spoken about languages. And, are there any special aspects that email marketers need to keep in mind?
Anne: Yeah, umm,Ìýdefinitely multilingual emails canÌýbe a challenge. The main thing is there’s going beÌýdifference inÌýlike word length; and anÌýemail designed in English sometimesÌýdoesn’t allowÌýfor long compound wordsÌýlike in German or phrasesÌýis that take longer to say in Spanish orÌýFrench.
Aishwarya: True!
Anne: Yeah, it’s most efficient whenÌýI’m brought in to advise on the designÌýso I can look for things that mightÌýbecome issues in mobile and that sort ofÌýthing. If the design is already complete,ÌýI play with font size and weights, padding,Ìýmargins etc., and this gets even moreÌýcomplicated in modular systems. So inÌýthat case I have to code the structureÌýto work in all languages without anyÌýspecial changes for the differentÌýlanguages. I take allÌýthe languages and test them in theÌýstructure one by one, and then code forÌýthe longest language.
Aishwarya:ÌýWow, that’s an optimized way to know how do youÌýtest because, I totally agree withÌýthe point where you said when in EnglishÌýit’s like little words and when itÌýgets translated or seen in anotherÌýlanguages it’s too many wordsÌýbecause I’ve literally seen knowingÌýFrench the difference betweenÌýhow a text looks in English and how itÌýlooks in French.
Anne: I agree with you. I think one of the best things to do with languages is—test, test, test!
Aishwarya:Ìý(laughs) I know! It’s like the code that youÌýshould remember when you code multipleÌýlanguages.
So, you’ve helped perform testing on 46 email clients. Whoa! What are some challenges you’ve encountered along the way?
Anne:ÌýWell, I test in every single email. I testÌýwith the 46 most popular email clients.
And, I don’t skip; I do all 46 every single time. And, the biggest challenge I’d say is that email clients will make changes to the CSS they support and the code that they insert around my code without any prior notice at all. They just change things and don’t tell us. So yeah, our email developers are just left to scramble and come up with hacks to combat those changes, and there are so many hacks.
Aishwarya: That’s tricky and challenging at theÌýsame time for you, to identify theseÌýadditional elements, sortÌýof troubleshoot, and get the thing outÌýthere.
Anne: Totally!
Aishwarya: In fact, I read upÌýwhere you send all of these 46Ìýscreenshots to your clients—is that true? Do you actually test in each of theseÌýplatforms and actually send them a proof,Ìýor the screenshots for them to refer to?
Anne: Yeah, I personally use the LitmusÌýplatform and that has all theÌý46 renderings. And, yeah, everyÌýtime I’m finished with a project, I sendÌýa link to those Litmus results of allÌýthe email clients to my client,Ìýjust to make it and show them it’sÌýabsolutely sure that this looks great on every popular email client.
Aishwarya:ÌýWow, that’s transparency to the maximumÌýlevel, I should say!
Anne:Ìý(laughs)
Aishwarya:
You develop emails using Fluid/Hybrid method. We’d love to know more about this. Could you elaborate on what’s involved in this design technique?
Anne:ÌýYeah, sure! Yeah, that technique combines like theÌýrigid structures of fixed-widthÌýresponsive email with the flexibleÌýfluid emails ofÌýghost tables and divs. It was originallyÌýcreated to combat Gmail, way backÌýwhen it didn’t support mediaÌýqueries.
Aishwarya: Oh!
Anne: It’s, yeah, essentially a wayÌýto just stack you know columns withoutÌýhaving to use media queries. And, I stillÌýuse it for the few email clients thatÌýdon’tÌýsupport media queries becauseÌýI have control issues like thatÌý(laughs).ÌýYeah, having my email look the best againÌýand in every client isÌýreally important toÌýme, and it’s the most in my business.
Aishwarya: That’s a smart work there because nowÌýthat there are most of these clientsÌýthat support these media queries, youÌýcan go around doing the straight-wayÌýbackwards for them. And for these thatÌýdoesn’t support you can still go aheadÌýand do your hybrid or fluid method.
Anne: Yeah, IÌýthink so!
Aishwarya:Ìý
If you had to share with us the top three email marketing best practices, what would they be?
Anne:ÌýWell, I think the number one would be live text. And I know we’ve alreadyÌýcovered it, but just it’s reallyÌýimportant.
Aishwarya:ÌýYeah, we’ve more emphasis now.
Anne: Yeah, having theÌýtext as part of your images is going toÌýmake that text not visible when thoseÌýemail clients that hide images byÌýdefault.
So, theÌýalt text—you definitelyÌýshould use alt text and it works okay,Ìýbut really nothing replaces the impactÌýthat you know live text makes.
Aishwarya:ÌýThat’s a valuableÌýpoint that our listeners can pick it upÌýtoday because it’s on a trend andÌýit’s important to understand how to setÌýthis up in emails.
Anne:ÌýTotally! Let’s see…theÌýother one that I would say isÌýaccessibility. And that is a hot topicÌýright now and for good reason. So allÌýsorts of people are going to interactÌýwith your email and you need to make itÌýeasy for everyone to interact with it. And, that includes like high contrast, altÌýtext, you know role presentation on yourÌýtables, etc.
Aishwarya:Ìý
So, is there like a challenge orÌýor you know ratherÌýsomething very difficult for you toÌýaccess with emails, when you areÌýdesigning it for accessibility?
Anne: I think the ability to test is quite difficult at this point. There are so many screen-readers available that you know it’sÌýsort of like the email client situationÌýwhere there are tons.
But,Ìýalso, we have thingsÌýlike Litmus and Email on Acid to see howÌýthe email renders, but weÌýdon’t have the ability to testÌýor easily test how an email sounds.Ìý
Aishwarya: Mm-hmm. Yeah!
Anne:ÌýAnd, that’s super important, how an email sounds with accessibility.ÌýI think there are someÌýthings within Litmus or Email on Acid which allow testing in like highÌýcontrast, and people with maybeÌývisual difficulties—that’s super helpful; but the listening part is important as well,Ìýand I wish there was an easier way toÌýtest that.
Aishwarya: Very true, because now I see anÌýincreasingly-popular usage ofÌýconversational AI. So, it’s not just theÌýpeople with disabilities that use screen-readers, but more often than not,Ìýeven normal people do use conversationalÌýAI or the voice bots to read out theirÌýemails. I think there should be anÌýeffective method in the times to comeÌýto actually test how this listeningÌýexperience of emails is.Ìý
Anne:ÌýI completelyÌýagree, 100%. I wish that would be done.
Aishwarya: IÌýthink people would pick it up fromÌýour conversationÌýand start building on something likeÌýthat. So 2020 is the year to look out forÌýsomething that gives us enoughÌýoptimization methods for listeningÌýexperiences in emails.
Anne:ÌýYeah, that’d beÌýgreat!Ìý
Aishwarya:Ìý
You’ve been mentioned by Email on Acid as one of the developers making emails better. Congratulations, this is such a great news! How’s it to be recognized as a top email developer, and how do you plan to take your work forward?
Anne:ÌýWell, I definitelyÌýadmire all the other developers thatÌýwere on that list, so it’s superÌýflattering to include in. I really think theÌýdedication andÌýperseverance to making an email as pixel-perfect as they possibly can beÌýand in all the email clients is likeÌýthe reason why I was listed. I never takeÌýshortcuts, I always follow best practices;Ìýso you might take a little bitÌýlonger and it might be a little bitÌýharder to code live text like in a weirdÌýformat, but I honestly believe it’ll give my clients like theÌýbest ROI on their email.
Aishwarya:ÌýSpot on for suchÌýpositivity!
Anne:Ìý(laughs)
Aishwarya:ÌýSo, we’ve come to the end of this session, Anne! Let’s conclude this session byÌýlooking at the future of email marketing.
We already did discuss a little bitÌýabout that with our listening experience,Ìýbut do you have any predictions, thoughts,Ìýor trending phrases to describeÌýemails’ future?
Anne: I think, well, theÌýemail development is so volatile, thatÌýthe only prediction I can really make isÌýthat it will continue to be a minefield. Email clients are goingÌýto totally continueÌýto change things without warning, the bestÌýpractices are going to evolve, andÌýdevelopers are going to come up with like really awesome email that areÌýgoing to awe us all. I personally wouldÌýlike to see the global adoption ofÌýaccessibility like we talked aboutÌýyou know since it’s desperately needed. So I’m going to say I hope thatÌýaccessibility will continue to be as hotÌýof a topic as it is now.
Aishwarya:ÌýYes! Email geeks, please listen to ourÌýconversation today and please pick upÌýthat listening experience of emails asÌýthe next best trend of 2020.
Thank you very much, Anne! Your whole talk today gave the listeners some important points to remember when it comes to designing their email marketing campaigns. You’ve simplified the whole concept of email coding and development, and I’m sure the listeners today would takeaway relevant design tips, even if they’re not designers, as you’ve made it easy for all of us!
Today’s session highlighted key things one should remember while designing email campaigns for their brand. Subscribe to the ×îв©²ÊÍøÕ¾ Campaigns Expert Diaries on , , , and , to learn more about email marketing. See you all, until the next time we bring another interesting session!
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