Has Word 2007 Mashed Up Your Email Marketing?
Have you noticed that your Email Marketing piece looks real funny in Outlook 2007? That’s probably because Outlook 2007 now uses Microsoft Word to digest a HTML email. Previous versions of Microsoft Outlook used Internet Explorer to display HTML emails.
For email marketers that means that a number of significant HTML features are gone.
In Outlook 2007 you may have noticed that you can’t use:
- Background images. Not in HTML or Style Sheets (CSS).
- Rowspans to format a table.
- Forms to capture users input.
As Office 2007 gradually gets rolled out, you are going to have to change the way your emails are built and perhaps designed.
It may be of little consolation, but Microsoft has released a tool that checks to see if your email will work in Outlook 2007. The tool is for users of Microsoft Expression Web, Microsoft Visual Studio or Macromedia Dreamweaver (MX 2004 and Version 8). You can download it here.
It would be a good idea to check your next email marketing piece before you click send!
From the author: If you use email marketing to reach your customers and prospects, then there are simple things that you can do ensure that your message gets through and is acted on. The key is in your email marketing conversion rates.
