How to Overcome the Most Common Email Marketing Challenges in Outlook

Despite being one of the oldest and most rudimentary forms of digital marketing, email remains among the most widely utilized mediums for businesses to engage with their customers.

In fact, by the end of 2027, email marketing is expected to generate $17.9 billion in annual revenue, according to Statista. This showcases just how critical email is for marketing purposes, and why companies need to make sure that their campaigns are as successful as possible.

However, as anyone who has ever attempted email marketing knows, it’s not always easy.As a matter of fact, there are several challenges that can crop up, especially when interacting with Microsoft Outlook (both as the sender, and recipient). Even though the veteran email client boasts nearly 365 million paid users, there are still some features, glitches, and general user errors that can make email marketing in Outlook rather difficult.

Why are there so many issues?

Well, for starters, Outlook uses the Microsoft Word rendering engine to display HTML emails, which can create various issues, like images not displaying correctly or text being misaligned. Of course, this will have a massive impact on email marketers since their carefully crafted email designs will not be displayed as intended.

In addition, there are also multiple versions of Outlook, from Outlook 2000 and Outlook2013 to Outlook.com and Outlook for Office 365, and each one uses a slightly different rendering engine, just to complicate matters further. This can make it difficult to ensure that your email looks the same across all platforms.

Fortunately, there are a few simple workarounds to these issues.

In this article, we’ll discuss the top five challenges with email marketing in Outlook, and how you can overcome them. So, if you’re ready to make sure your email campaigns are as successful as possible, read on:

Animated GIFs not working correctly

One of the most common issues that can occur when emailing in Outlook is animated GIF snot working correctly. In some cases, the GIF may not play at all, while in others, it may only play the first frame. There are a few potential reasons for this issue, but the most likely explanation is that the Microsoft Word rendering engine is not able to properly process theGIF file.

Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done to fix this issue on the sender’s end.Therefore, it’s important that your GIFs get their message across in the first frame, as there is no guarantee that the recipient will be able to see the rest of the animation. If you want to be safe, just stick with static images.

Custom fonts replaced

Another common issue that can occur when emailing in Outlook is that custom fonts are replaced with Times New Roman. This usually happens when the recipient doesn’t have the same font installed on their computer, which causes Outlook to replace it with a default system font.

There are a few ways to work around this issue. The first is to use web fonts instead of custom fonts, as they will be downloaded by the recipient’s email client and used to display the email correctly. Another solution is to use font stacks, which are a list of fonts that will be used if the first font is not available. This way, you can ensure that your email will be displayed correctly, even if the recipient doesn’t have the exact font you’re using.

Email signature displayed incorrectly

When figuring out how to add a signature in outlook 365, many people find themselves confronted with a host of different issues, but the most common one is that their signature ends up being displayed incorrectly. In some cases, the font may be changed, while in others, the format may be off, and in extreme cases, the signature may not appear at all.

Of course, this will have an adverse effect on the campaign, since the signature is one of the most important elements. Fortunately, there are a few simple workarounds that can help you overcome this issue.

The first is to use a signature generator, which will create a signature that is compatible with all email clients. Another solution is to use HTML and CSS to create a signature that will be displayed correctly across all platforms, however, that will require some technical knowledge.

Links changing color

Marketers use color to evoke emotion and to grab attention. It’s one of the most important aspects of email design, which is why it can be so frustrating when links change color or don’t work in Outlook.

This usually happens because Outlook uses a different color scheme than other email clients, who can cause links to appear differently.

To get around this, you need to enclose the link text with a style attribute and <span> tag and use the <font> tag. This will ensure that the link appears correctly, regardless of the email client.

Images incorrectly displayed

Unfortunately, many email clients, including Outlook, tend to display images incorrectly. In some cases, they may be stretched or skewed, while in others, they may not appear at all.

This can be a major issue, as images are often a vital part of email design. To get around it, you need to make sure that you’re using the correct image format and that your images are hosted on a reliable server. You should also consider using alt text to describe your images, just in case they don’t appear correctly.

Final word
By following the tips in this article, you can overcome some of the most common email marketing challenges in Outlook. Just remember to test your emails before you send them out, so you can be sure that

TP-Link Deco AXE5400 Tri-Band WiFi 6E Mesh System(Deco XE75) - Covers up to 5500 Sq.Ft, Replaces WiFi Router and Extender, AI-Driven Mesh, New 6GHz Band, 2-Pack