What is CSS in Email Marketing?
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is used to style and format the content of your emails. In
email marketing, CSS helps in making your emails more visually appealing and engaging, which can lead to higher open and click-through rates. However, due to varying support across different email clients, it's important to know which CSS properties are commonly supported.
Why is Inline CSS Important?
Many email clients strip out or ignore
external CSS or CSS embedded in the <head> section. Therefore, it's a best practice to use
inline CSS to ensure that styles are applied correctly. Inline CSS involves adding CSS properties directly to the HTML elements.
Basic CSS Properties for Emails
Here are some basic CSS properties that are commonly supported across most email clients: Font-family: This property is used to specify the font for your text. Use web-safe fonts like Arial, Helvetica, and Times New Roman.
Font-size: This property specifies the size of the text. It’s generally good to use sizes between 14px to 16px for readability.
Color: This property sets the color of the text. Use hex codes or color names to specify colors.
Background-color: This property sets the background color of an element. It’s useful for headers, footers, and call-to-action buttons.
Padding: This property adds space inside an element, between the content and the border. It helps in adding spacing around text and images.
Margin: This property adds space outside an element, creating a gap between it and other elements.
Text-align: This property helps in aligning text. Common values are left, right, center, and justify.
Border: This property is used for adding borders around elements. You can specify the width, style, and color of the border.
Width and Height: These properties set the dimensions of an element. They are particularly useful for images and buttons.
How to Test CSS in Emails?
Due to the inconsistent support for CSS across different email clients, it’s crucial to test your emails. You can use tools like
Litmus or
Email on Acid to preview how your emails will look in various email clients. Make sure to test on popular clients like Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail.
Best Practices for CSS in Emails
Here are some best practices to ensure your CSS works effectively in your email campaigns: Use
inline CSS for better compatibility.
Avoid using
JavaScript and
external CSS files, as they are often blocked by email clients.
Use tables for layout instead of
flexbox or
grid, as they have better support.
Keep your CSS simple and avoid complex properties like
animations and
transitions.
Always include a plain-text version of your email for better deliverability.