Outlook Change Affects Email Communications

If you're using email to keep in touch with customers and prospects via newsletters and other communications, you need to be aware of how changes in Outlook 2007 may affect the appearance of what your recipients are seeing.

Essentially, what's happening is that Outlook 2007 no longer uses Microsoft's Internet Explorer engine to render HTML. Previous Outlook versions used IE to read content in HTML messages and switched over to its sister Office program Word to compose messages. Outlook 2007 no longer uses IE.

Instead, it will use an updated version of Word to both render and compose. The issue is that designers are finding problems with the way Word handles, or more accurately doesn't handle, high-function design element such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), background images, and rich media.

Since it is estimated that up to 80% of business email users use Microsoft Outlook, your communications will be affected if you are using those types of design elements.

Here are the functions Outlook 2007 will no longer support:

• Alt Tags
• Forms
• Background images
• Animated GIFs
• Flash
• CSS Float or position commands

Unless you determined conclusively that your mailing success depends on either having a form embedded in each email message, or that an animated image really does drive response or conversions, you should consider lightening up your HTML use to accommodate Outlook 2007 users.

Doing this may give you an unexpected bonus as well: Your delivery, open and response rates may go up because you'll have fewer elements that will either break in an email client or trigger a spam filter.

How to Respond to Outlook 2007 Changes

If you have already had your HTML formatting audited or validated, or if you have streamlined the design in the last year, you might not have to worry. The Word rendering engine will likely read your message just fine or alter it so little as to have almost no impact.

And, if you have already reworked your templates to accommodate default image blocking and link disabling, as well as preview-pane use, you've done most of the work to manage any damage Outlook 2007 could inflict.

However, if you are sending email communications and you haven't updated your template recently or didn't even know that you had to pay attention to such things, contact Laura Bennett at 856-262-8502 or info@psebusiness.com and we'll help you find the necessary resources.

 

PSE Business Solutions Inc., PO Box 322, Williamstown, NJ 08094  Phone:856-262-8502 Fax:856-262-8597                

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