HTML Email Do's and Don'ts

Don't use forms

Hotmail ignores forms in HTML email to ensure that messages do not contain malicious scripts. Other webmail services (Gmail and Yahoo) and email clients support the use of forms.

If you intend on sending HTML emails with a form and amongst your recipients are also people with a Hotmail email address, than I would recommend not using a form. Instead use a link to refer to a form on a HTML page.

Don't use javascript

JavaScript in HTML email is never a good idea because of all the dangerous scripting (for example XSS attacks) that can be executed. For this reason most webmail and email clients disable JavaScript by removing or ignoring it.

For example, this code:

<a href="javascript://" onclick="window.open('http://www.website.com/cd.html','','width=500,height=400')">View tracklisting</a>

would be rewritten to:

<a href="http://intranet.active8.com.sg/pages/createpage.action#">View tracklisting</a>

The solution is to refer to the tracklisting without JavaScript.

<a href="http://www.yourwebsite.com/discount/cd.html">

Don't use DHTML

Dynamic HTML uses a combination of Javascript, HTML and CSS. It is not recommended to use DHTML because JavaScript is disabled by most webmail clients and email clients.

Don't use Flash

When you try to use Flash in your HTML email the HTML code gets removed or ignored by webmail and email clients.

The best thing to do is to put your Flash movie online. Then in your HTML email create an attractive clickable image that refers to the Flash movie online. Also put above or under the clickable image a text link with text from the image. Because images are not displayed by default, the recipient will see the text first. Unless your address is in the address book of the recipient.

Do provide an unsubscribe link

At the bottom of every HTML email you should provide an unsubscribe link. After clicking on this link the recipient only has to press on the send button to remove their email address from a list. In BlinkCampaign, the unsubscribe link is automatically generated using this token:

Click <a href="http://intranet.active8.com.sg/pages/createpage.action##UnsubscribeLink##">here</a> to unsubscribe from this mailing list. 

You can also let people unsubscribe from your website. But doing so gives people the possibility to unsubscribe other people. If you only provide this functionality from your HTML email, then you have less chance that unsubscribing will be misused.

Do provide a link for an online version

Although you test your HTML email with different webmail and email clients, you never can be sure how it will display in your recipients email program. In case it doens't display correctly provide a link at the top of every HTML email to view your HTML email in the browser for an online version,. In BlinkCampaign, an online version is automatically generated by adding this token:

If this email doesn't display correctly, click <a href="http://intranet.active8.com.sg/pages/createpage.action##WebCopyLink##">here</a> to view it online.

Use the <TITLE> tag for your HTML. If you omit the tag, the online version in Internet Explorer will show the url as the title.

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