Testing. 1, 2, 3… Testing.

One of the things I do for both myself and my clients is test an email before sending it out.

Every once in a while, a typo may slip through, but not often. Especially if you have several people reviewing the email.

Evidently, though, not everyone practices this simple but valuable step before sending out their email.

Case in point: I’m on a local marketing agency (!!!) list and they have sent out their newsletter that features an image. For some reason, the image only partially shows up in my Windows Outlook email view pane.

Why?

Because it’s a flash animation header.

When I click the email’s “View In Browser,” I can then see the partial graphic is actually the first character of a word that shows each character slowly appearing on the screen.

It’s an animation graphic but not all email clients will show animation. My Windows Outlook will not but when I tested it in Gmail, the animation came across fine.

Personally, I’m not a fan of animation. I think it’s distracting and not worth the hassle. But some agencies think they’re snazzy and so they like to “make it pop” by including them.

But proceed with caution. Test your emails with various programs to ensure they are appearing the way you intend. Make it easy for your reader.