Best Practices for Mailchimp Emails

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Before you design and send emails, learn the basics of email marketing and how to follow Mailchimp's Terms of Use.

In this article, you'll learn some best practices for building your Mailchimp emails.

Test email content

Before you send an email, test your content so you don't send emails with missing data or broken links. Mailchimp's preview and test tools help ensure your images load properly and that all hyperlinks and buttons in your email work.

We recommend that you send a few test emails to yourself to make sure everything works and looks the way you want. Try out Mailchimp's Inbox Preview to see what your email will look like with different email clients and devices.

Preview and Test Your Email Email Testing Tips Test with Inbox Preview

Authenticate your domain

Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook require custom authentication. They also require a published Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) record for those who send more than 5,000 emails to Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook addresses in a 24-hour period. To prevent email bounces, we recommend that you authenticate your email domain and configure DMARC and DKIM to be fully authenticated. We’ll ask you to authenticate your domain throughout the email verification workflow.

About Email Domain Authentication\ Set Up Email Domain Authentication

Manage open and click tracking

Open tracking and click tracking are enabled by default and can help you maximize the benefits of your email reports. You can, where permitted by law, leave this enabled to see how your subscribed contacts engage with your content.

Tracking gives you an idea of the kinds of content your subscribed contacts respond to, which can inform your marketing decisions. Be sure to manage these settings in the builder checklist when you create your email, because you won't be able to change the settings after you send it.

About Email Reports About Open and Click Rates

Avoid spammy content

As an email marketer, you want to send emails that entice subscribed contacts to engage with you. Keep your content relevant and consistent with your brand, and use your subject line and preview text to announce what's in your email.

Spam filters look for certain types of content, so avoid using all capital letters, too many exclamation points, and gimmicky words or phrases.

Best Practices for Email Subject Lines About Spam Filters Anti-Spam Requirements for Emails

Build a clean audience

If you've been collecting contacts for a while but haven't sent an email yet, it's best to send a quick reminder email to make sure they still want to receive emails from you. Even if you've collected addresses through an opt-in form on your website, we recommend that you confirm their interest before you send your first marketing email.

You must provide an unsubscribe link in every email. All of our templates include a customizable unsubscribe link. If you remove the unsubscribe link, we'll add it to the bottom of your email when you send. This helps you remain in compliance with the law.

Requirements and Best Practices for Audiences Reconfirm Contacts Why We Require an Unsubscribe Link Add an Unsubscribe Link

Avoid excess code

Email uses HTML for content structure, but it doesn't support JavaScript and CSS the way webpages do.

Most email applications will block JavaScript to prevent viruses. We recommend that you avoid JavaScript elements such as form submit buttons and pop-up windows in your emails. If you copy HTML from an existing web page, remember to remove all the JavaScript from the code.

Typically, CSS is placed in HTML <head> tags, but most email clients remove the <head> and <body> from your email's HTML. If you use CSS, be sure that it's inline with your HTML.

Your link URLs and image files are an exception to the excess code rule. When you code your own template, be sure to include the full URLs that link back to your server for image sources and click-through URLs.

About HTML Email CSS in HTML Email Use the CSS Inliner Common HTML Mistakes Limitations of HTML Email

Best Practices for Email Subject Lines

Learn tips for creating powerful subject lines. We'll show you how to customize and test them, and provide info on other factors that affect open rates.

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