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
Alan Ogilvie
at
604-552-4008
or
info@computerworks.bc.ca
and we'll help you find the necessary resources.
