Email Template Testing: Steps to Nail Your Emails

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

What are Email Templates?

Email templates are pre-coded files that make the creation of an email message easy, quick, and more efficient because the layout, format, and structure are already included. Thus, an email template can be used repeatedly and serve as a model for different email campaigns. 

You can create a new campaign without having to start from scratch every time by using an email template. Just alter the links, replace the graphics, or update the content to match a particular campaign – and voilà!

Templates increase productivity and help preserve brand consistency. Additionally, they make it easy for marketers and designers who might not know how to code to send polished emails.

However, email is a complicated ecosystem. With many factors involved in how the emails are rendered and where they are delivered, it’s important to make sure everything functions as planned even if you have the greatest template.

Testing Email Templates: 7 Key Elements to Check

To ensure you get the most out of your email campaigns, here are seven key things to look at when testing email templates:

1. Pre-filled Content.

When you download a new email template, as a rule it contains a lot of default elements such as photos, graphics, links, and text to visually demonstrate where your own content should go. It’s really easy to overlook these placeholders during editing because they are already there. 

When you create a new message using a template tailored for your brand, you’ll want to make sure nothing is sent with an outdated call-to-action, text or graphic by testing your templates frequently.

Spend some time carefully going over your revisions before altering any content. Verify that the updated text fits the design as planned, reads fluently, and displays as intended. Additionally, make the last check for typos or any remaining placeholder items.

Additionally, remember to verify and adjust the plain text part of the HTML template to make it aligned with the HTML part. This allows your recipients reading emails in plain text to access your content.

2. Footer.

Your company name, physical address, and an unsubscribe link must be included in the footer of your email templates in order to comply with anti-spam legislation.

However, you may consider the footer as the opportunity to build relationships with your subscribers. Use the space to remind subscribers of the purpose of the email or what they joined up for, rather than just saying “unsubscribe here” and add the link to the preference center, if applicable, where they can change their contact email address and update their preferences. Additionally, you may include links to your company social profiles to enhance your audience in social networks.

A frequent revision of the email template’ footer is needed to ensure your company’s information is up-to-date and all links are still functioning.

3. Images.

Are your pictures showing up properly? Are they the correct ones?

Maintaining your content relevant and fresh for your subscribers is crucial, even if you’re utilizing a template. Empty image placeholders can affect user experience and conversion rates. On the other hand, reusing photos from previous campaigns can confuse your subscribers or make your email seem repetitious. 

With that said, consider these recommendations when verifying the images in your template:

• remove empty image placeholders or insert relevant graphics there;
• replace out-of-date or irrelevant graphics with correct ones;
• comply with the 65:35 text-to-image ratio;
• make sure the links behind the images lead to relevant pages;
• add the ALT text to each graphic to provide context when the images are turned off;
• optimize content for image-off viewing.

In GlockApps, you can run an Inbox Insight test and receive the analysis of the images used in your email. The report will show the image preview, ALT text, status (if the image was loaded successfully or not), image path, size, and opening time. 

Looking at the data, you can find out whether or not you have any missing or excess images in the email content and ensure that all of the images intended to be in the email template work well.

4. Links.

It’s crucial to make sure your links function correctly and take subscribers to the correct location because broken or incorrectly directed links might ruin your entire campaign.

Consider these tips when verifying the links in your email template:

• ensure the links lead to the pages that open well in different browsers;
• use the relevant anchor text or text on a CTA button;
• do not overload content with too many links as this may be confusing for the recipients;
• ensure to include links as full paths in the plain text version of the email;  
• avoid using link shortener tools;
• include links on clean (not blacklisted) domains;
• use a custom domain for tracking links if applicable.

The GlockApps Inbox Insight test quickly shows you a detailed report about the links found in your email, both in the plain text and HTML parts. You get the anchor text, the server response informing you about the accessibility of the page, the number of redirects, the size, and the response time.

5. HTML Code.

Email clients frequently release updates for different features in order to optimize performance and improve user experience. Although not all updates have an impact on email rendering, it is safe to test your template’s HTML code for support by different devices. This guarantees that your email still appears and functions as intended and assists you in identifying any unforeseen problems.

In GlockApps, the analysis of the email’s HTML code is part of the email test report. The HTML checker returns detailed information about supported and unsupported elements helping you optimize your template for various email clients. 

6. Spam Score.

The Subject line, message text, number of links and images, domains used in links, and HTML code – these elements impact the email’s spam score. As spam filters are frequently updated, testing your template against spam filters helps make sure that all of your hard work in developing and perfecting your email is not crossed out by a filter.

GlockApps tests the email against Google Spam Filter, Barracuda, and SpamAssassin returning the spam score and detailed explanation of the elements that made the score.

7. Deliverability.

Even if your email template remains unchanged, other elements such as sender’s domain, IP address, and email authentication settings often determine where the email lands in the recipient’s mailbox. You may create a perfect template with a low spam score but if you fail to set up email authentication records or send it from a domain with a poor reputation, your beautiful message ends up in “Spam.”

Additionally, Inbox providers often update their filters and algorithms in order to protect their clients from unsolicited messages. Therefore, it’s important to test deliverability of your email template to ensure it lands in the Inbox before you send it out to your audience. 

You can run a deliverability test with GlockApps and receive an in-depth report about your template placement across various providers. The tool also checks the sending IP addresses and domains against blacklists, and the accuracy of the email authentication records. Based on this analysis, you receive actionable tips on how to optimize the template and fix configuration issues to achieve a higher Inbox rate.

It is recommended to set up automatic tests for email templates and receive instant notifications when the Inbox ratio drops.

Closing Thoughts

Email templates make the marketers’ life easier by allowing them to quickly create new messages based on the pre-defined layout. You change text, call-to-action, graphics and links – and a new promo or newsletter is ready to go out!

Before you hit “Send”, it is essential to check the email message created based on the template for accurate content, relevant footer, clean HTML, and correct links and images.

Additionally, it’s essential to test the template spam score and placement in the mailboxes of different providers because updates of spam filters algorithms, improvements and fixes in email clients related to how they render HTML, and changes in the sender’s infrastructure affect the way the same template performs.

A regular email template testing helps you ensure your messages land in the recipients’ inboxes and are rendered in the manner they should in order you can make the most out of your email campaigns.