• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

OrganicWeb

Mailchimp Training & Consulting

  • Home
  • Services
    • Mailchimp Training – 1-on-1
    • Mailchimp Training – Group
    • Mailchimp Consulting
  • Free Tools
    • Mailchimp Tutorials on YouTube
    • Subject Line Generator
    • Marketing Ideas Generator
    • Map Maker for Email
    • WhatsApp Click to Chat Generator
    • Avoid Email Going to Spam
    • Email Link Generator
    • Is Mailchimp Down?
    • Marketing Facts and Stats
  • Content
    • Blog
    • Videos
  • Contact & About
    • Contact
    • About

Why you must use tables … for email newsletters

HTML 5Some clarity is needed. HTML Tables should only ever be used for tabular data and not for pure presentational purposes (that’s what CSS is for). Well, that’s according to HTML5 and best practice standards for website design. When creating an email marketing campaign however just forget about best practice as tables rule the world for email! Creating a newsletter to send via email means that tables must be used for presentation. In fact nested tables are the order of the day so just forget about modern web design in email.

If you look at the HTML code for an email, you will see that it is made up of nested tables. The email itself is a larger table, each block (the greeting, introduction, coupon, etc.) is a table, and each block contains tables. Constant Contact

The reason for this throwback to the 1990s (i.e. using tables for presentation) is because of the way that various email readers handle CSS and HTML. Some email readers are way ahead of others however some are just plain archaic. Below is an example of how the same email looks in two of the most popular email clients; Gmail and Outlook 2007. Notice how the same content and style sent to two of the biggest email readers just looks so different.

If you need help with your email newsletters then contact us. We’re Mailchimp experts.

Found this useful? Please share:

Related

  • Add a navigation menu to Mailchimp campaigns
  • Accessibility in Email Marketing
  • A responsive countdown timer for Mailchimp

Filed Under: Marketing

Watch Gary in action

Gary frequently adds Mailchimp instructional videos to his YouTube channel. Subscribe to keep updated.

→  Subscribe   ←

How to add an editable attachment to a Mailchimp campaign.

How to add, and send, coupon codes in Mailchimp.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. MD Satu says

    October 20, 2017 at 2:41 am

    Hello Gary,
    It’s a valuable information. Thanks for sharing this. I like a list of best Mailchimp template.

    Reply
  2. Roger Audet says

    October 2, 2018 at 12:24 am

    When I export a mailchimp campain to a html file, there does not seem to be a table enclosing the whole email and Outlook express has a tendency to split the different tables forming the email apart all over the place. How to insure that and exported html file will be enclosed by a table from Mailchimp?

    Reply
  3. oyole says

    December 18, 2020 at 1:05 am

    Is someone able to draw and fill a table in Mailchimp? If so, how?

    Reply
    • Gary says

      December 18, 2020 at 8:40 am

      Hi Oyole, you could create your table in Excel and paste into Mailchimp.

      Reply
  4. oyole says

    December 19, 2020 at 5:56 pm

    Thanks Gary, I will try that and let you know how it goes.

    Much appreciated.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You are here: Home / Marketing / Why you must use tables … for email newsletters

Primary Sidebar

Mailchimp write about my work

Read on Mailchimp.com

Learn from a Mailchimp Pro Partner

Signup to receive info about Gary's Mailchimp beginner and advanced classes.

Sign up

Gary on Australian National Radio

Changes are coming to the Australian Spam Act

Read Gary's article in SmartCompany

Meet Gary, Mailchimp Expert

Gary is a Mailchimp Expert and Partner. He delivers Mailchimp training and consulting services in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Gary presents at Mailchimp events and hosts the first, and only, Australian Mailchimp sponsored event. He is M.B.A. qualified from Henley Business School, U.K.

Contact Gary for your Mailchimp needs

Footer

Customer Rating

Mailchimp Pro Partners

Contact

Contact Gary for all your Mailchimp training, consulting and integration needs.

Contact Gary.

Copyright © 2022 · Sitemap · ABN: 40800872179 · Privacy Policy · Terms of Service