Summary
Email clipping in iOS Outlook, similar to Gmail's, primarily affects user experience. While direct deliverability isn't immediately impacted if the email reaches the inbox, design flaws causing clipping can indirectly harm it. This is because clipped content can lead to reduced engagement (fewer opens and clicks), negatively affecting sender reputation over time. Several strategies mitigate this risk: optimizing HTML and CSS, reducing image sizes, using more text than images, and hosting images externally. Understanding email client-specific size limits and CSS support is also crucial, as is testing across various clients. Ensuring the email is delivered initially is key, but long-term deliverability hinges on user engagement, which is influenced by email design and avoiding clipping.
Key findings
- Indirect Deliverability Impact: Clipping itself doesn't directly block delivery, but lowers engagement.
- Reduced Engagement Harms Reputation: Lower open/click rates due to clipping can damage sender reputation.
- Email Size Matters: Outlook has message size limits; exceeding them leads to truncation or non-delivery.
- CSS Support Is Inconsistent: Email client CSS support varies greatly, necessitating thorough testing.
Key considerations
- Optimize Email Design: Minimize HTML, CSS, and image sizes to avoid clipping.
- Prioritize Important Content: Ensure key information and calls-to-action appear before clipping.
- Balance Text and Images: Use a greater proportion of text than images in your designs.
- Use External Image Hosting: Host images externally to reduce email size.
- Test Across Clients: Thoroughly test emails on different devices and email clients.
- Monitor Engagement Metrics: Track open rates, click-through rates, and other engagement metrics to identify clipping-related issues.
- Employ CSS Fallbacks: In order to have the best rendering for each email provider you will need to ensure there are CSS fallbacks in place.
What email marketers say
7 marketer opinions
Email clipping in iOS Outlook, similar to Gmail's clipping, primarily impacts user experience. While clipping itself may not directly harm deliverability, it can lead to reduced engagement (fewer opens and clicks) if important content or calls-to-action are hidden. This lower engagement can negatively affect sender reputation over time, indirectly impacting deliverability. Therefore, optimizing email design, code, and content to avoid clipping is recommended to maintain a positive user experience and protect sender reputation.
Key opinions
- Indirect Impact: Clipping doesn't directly affect deliverability, but reduced engagement can.
- User Experience: Clipping negatively affects user experience by hiding content.
- Sender Reputation: Reduced engagement due to clipping can harm sender reputation over time.
- Similar to Gmail: The 'Read More' in iOS Outlook is comparable to Gmail's email clipping.
Key considerations
- Optimize Code: Minimize HTML, CSS, and image sizes to reduce email size.
- Content Placement: Ensure important information and CTAs are visible before clipping occurs.
- Text vs. Images: Use more text than images in email design.
- External Hosting: Host images externally instead of embedding them directly in the email.
- Regular Testing: Check email rendering in different email clients to prevent unexpected results.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that the 'Read More' on iOS Outlook is similar to Gmail's clipping and is usually seen on lengthy newsletters, but not usually on shorter messages. He provides a link to a GitHub issue related to email bugs.
29 Oct 2023 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Email marketer from Litmus shares that email clipping can impact deliverability indirectly. While clipping itself does not directly affect deliverability, if important calls to action or information are clipped, it can reduce engagement, potentially affecting sender reputation over time.
17 Nov 2024 - Litmus
What the experts say
2 expert opinions
While initial delivery to the inbox and a user opening the email are positive signals, design choices leading to clipping can indirectly affect deliverability by decreasing engagement. Emails being displayed means they are delivered, minimizing immediate deliverability concerns unless users mark the email as spam. However, poor design choices resulting in 'Read More' clipping can lead to lower open and click rates, ultimately impacting sender reputation and future deliverability.
Key opinions
- Initial Delivery Positive: Email being displayed means it's delivered to the inbox and opened.
- Engagement Matters: Decreased engagement from clipping can negatively impact deliverability.
- Design's Indirect Impact: Design choices leading to clipping indirectly affect deliverability.
Key considerations
- Minimize Clipping: Optimize email design to reduce the likelihood of 'Read More' clipping.
- Monitor Engagement: Track open and click rates to assess the impact of design choices.
- Avoid Spam Triggers: Ensure emails don't trigger spam filters to maintain deliverability.
Expert view
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that design choices in emails, leading to things like email clipping or poor rendering, can indirectly affect deliverability if they lead to decreased engagement (fewer opens, clicks, etc.).
16 Feb 2022 - Word to the Wise
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks explains that if the mail is being displayed, it's been delivered to the inbox and the user has opened it. It's unlikely that anything other than “report as spam” will affect future delivery of similar emails.
21 Jun 2022 - Email Geeks
What the documentation says
4 technical articles
Email client support for CSS varies widely. Microsoft Outlook enforces message size limits, and exceeding them can result in truncated or undelivered messages. Campaign Monitor provides summaries of those file size limits. Optimizing email code, using CSS efficiently, and reducing image sizes can prevent email clipping in clients like Outlook and Gmail. Email clients support CSS differently, requiring thorough testing and fallbacks.
Key findings
- Message Size Limits: Outlook enforces message size limits that can lead to truncation.
- Optimization Prevents Clipping: Optimizing email code, CSS, and images helps avoid clipping.
- CSS Support Varies: Email client support for CSS differs greatly, requiring testing and fallbacks.
Key considerations
- Reduce Email Size: Minimize email size to stay within Outlook's limits.
- Optimize Code: Streamline HTML and CSS for efficient rendering.
- Test Across Clients: Thoroughly test emails in different clients to ensure consistent display.
- Implement Fallbacks: Implement appropriate CSS fallbacks in order to have the best rendering on each platform.
Technical article
Documentation from Stack Overflow provides various tips to prevent email clipping, such as optimizing code, using CSS efficiently, and reducing image sizes. Implementing these tips can help avoid clipping in email clients like Outlook and Gmail.
28 Aug 2024 - Stack Overflow
Technical article
Documentation from MDN Web Docs answers question by explaining that Email client support for CSS varies wildly. So you'll need to test on your target clients and provide appropriate fallbacks.
26 Jun 2024 - MDN Web Docs
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