In a nutshell, it means your HTML email marketing templates, taking advantage of practical layout and design elements that work nearly everywhere else will still not work in the next version of Outlook.

The reasoning, as explained from Microsoft, is basically that they are planning on keeping Outlook users happy by allowing them to format their emails using Word. That means Outlook users sending to Outlook users will be satisfied with a convenient solution, while everyone else suffers the consequences of having their email marketing templates torn the shreds.

You can get in on the fight by visiting fixoutlook.org and twittering about the site. Already there have been nearly 20,000 responses. Enough of these and maybe Microsoft will back down from their stance and catch up with the times!

In the mean time, I think this example brings up another interesting point that many of us forget with our campaigns. That is that nothing is ever guaranteed, and all of your list members likely will not see your templates in the carefully constructed format you chose.

The solution for now is to follow best practices, and to keep things simple. The one-size-fits-all email marketing template approach doesn’t work. Think about offering different email formats for different users- so mobile email browsers, Outlook users, no-image programs and the rest of us can all still receive and make sense out of your messages.

You can also check out this email marketing template acid test performed by the Email Standards Project, which will fill you in on the best practices and the nitty-gritty of CSS and HTML email marketing template design.

5 Ways to Differentiate Between Email Marketing Programs

1. Price: The price for different email service providers can be quite different. Many popular programs start plans for between $10 and $20. However, many other companies really target larger businesses and have services that start at $100 or more.

Additionally, your price may increase based on different factors. Some companies increase price based on total emails sent, while others increase price based on the size of the list you have, regardless of the number of emails you send.

2. Surveys: Many businesses today are turning to customer survey software to help them connect with their customers and clients and to further improve their own offerings. There are of course many separate providers that deal with surveys, however many email service providers also provide online survey solutions

The benefit to integrating the two services in one spot is that you can quickly send out a survey to your entire list or to particular segments of your list without having to export or recreate your list in a separate environment. Of course, housing both services under one roof can also lower costs and provide a level of convenience that two separate services couldn’t provide. If you’re also in the market for customer survey software, than you should seek out the email marketing programs that provide that as well.

3. Customer Support: When you encounter a problem or have a question, you need a company that is going to be responsive to your needs. With options such as forums and live chatting in addition to emails and phone calls, you should have plenty of ways to reach out to the staff of most email service providers. However, some take more pride than others in this area and you’ll quick see which businesses live up to your expectations.

4. Templates: You want to have a vast selection of templates to choose between. Only a handful, no matter how great they look, isn’t going to help you out very much. You need to stand out from your competition not blend in with them. Additionally, consider that email marketing programs often target different types of businesses and therefore will have more templates geared towards specific areas or styles than others.

5. List Management and Building: What are the options you have for building your list and managing it? You should be able to break down your list based on a wide range of variables. You should also have signup links and buttons for your websites as well as an autoresponder.

Finally, steer clear of any company that says they will provide your list for you and build your list instantly. Purchasing email lists is a great way to land yourself in legal trouble while you watch your campaigns flounder along without success.

As you can see, there are clearly plenty of ways to differentiate between different services and providers. These are just 5 ways that should help you spot which email marketing programs may be the best fit for your organization.

Top 7 reasons why you need email marketing companies

1. Deliverability: Reputable email marketing programs are going to have relationships with ISPs that ensure that the messages they send get delivered. Manually sending out emails leaves the door open to get unfairly blacklisted or blocked, or seeing long delays before your messages reach their intended audience.

2. Tracking: Email marketing companies provide detailed tracking services that allow you to follow the results of your campaigns. Without tracking the success of your emails, you’ll never know if what you’re doing is paying off and you’ll never understand how to improve.

3. Templates: An email marketing template will enable you to send out a professionally designed and visually appealing email. The best email services have hundreds of potential themes and options to choose between, in addition to allowing for customization of existing templates.

4. Autoresponders: Autoresponders allow you to signup new prospects and leads from your website. This lets you grow a permission based email marketing list of qualified prospects and interested parties.

5. List Management: Email marketing companies are going to handle all of the hard work of list management. This means allowing for and processing unsubscribe requests, segmenting your list into different groups based on a variety of factors and so on.

6. Bulk email service: Bulk email service is going to let you send out hundreds or even thousands of emails instantly. You can scale up your program to allow for a maximum quantity of emails. There is no limit to how many people you can have in your list or how many emails you can send to them.

7. Time saving: Some of the above services could not be accomplished without email marketing programs, while some could be accomplished on your own if you had hours upon hours to do nothing else except handle your email marketing campaign every week. Using a reputable service will save you loads of time and frustration.

Recommended Email Marketing Companies

There are lots of choices to think about when you’re looking at email marketing companies. Here are two of my favorites that I highly recommend for nearly any purpose. These email services are highly effective and flexible, and are extremely cheap to use and get started with.

iContact Try it FREE for 15 Days
– 15 day free trial, over 300 templates, detailed statistics and tracking, surveys, industry leading deliverability

Constant Contact Try it FREE for 60 Days
– 60 day free trial, over 300 templates, surveys, comprehensive customer support

The first thing you have to ask yourself is if you want to be using email marketing templates to begin with. The downside to a template is just that; it’s a template. That means that other people will have access to it and will be using it to promote their own messages and products.

Since the name of the game is standing out from your competition, a template can sometimes be dangerous ground. Choosing an email service provider that has a plentiful selection of templates or customizing the templates you work with are two good ideas to help circumvent this issue.

After you’ve made the decision that you do indeed want to use email marketing templates, you then have to consider how you want your template to be constructed. Ultimately, you have three main choices that you can choose between when you’re sending out your emails.

1. Layouts based on images – Some email layouts might be constructed and based around images. Including images certainly can enhance the style and attractiveness of your message. That is, of course, if the people you send it to have images turned on in their email. If they don’t, the people you are trying to impress and win over are going to see a slew of large Xs across and open chunks of space across their computer screen.

That’s not even mentioning the distorting effects that lots of images can have on mobile browsers. Therefore, all things considered, using a layout based largely off of images may do more harm than good.

2. Layouts based on HTML – HTML email marketing templates on the other hand don’t use an excessive amount of images. An image or two may be included as a logo, to personalize a story or to grab attention for a key part of your message. However, the template itself is going to be based off of clean HTML. This will provide a high level of customization as you can easily swap different colors or make small alterations to the layout itself. Not all people have HTML compatible emails, but a far greater amount of people accept HTML than open images.

3. Plain text emails – The third main choice for your emails is the plain text email. This is exactly as it sounds, a straight text message without any frills or additional programming. You won’t be winning any design awards but you won’t be frightening off people that can’t even see the message itself due to image or HTML problems.

So what should you do? The ideal option is to provide a dual choice for your email newsletter subscribers. You can offer a HTML formatted version for those who wish to receive it, and you’ll be able to dazzle them without getting all distorted from images. You can also offer a plain text email for those who prefer that option, including those who check their emails on portable devices. They’ll get the core message that you want to deliver without anything extra they don’t need.

One final note is that you should choose email marketing templates that reflect the personality and values of your organization. Other than that, be sure to consider your audience and their needs, and follow the advice above to avoid some common mistakes.