Why are email signatures so hard to code?

Some of you may be wondering why there is a need for software like Email Signature Rescue. Shouldn't creating an email signature just be easy?

We explain why email signatures are a pain and what Email Signature Rescue does differently to overcome the issues.

By now, we all know that when it comes to sending HTML emails, there are many, many (many) different quirks involved in different email programs that we have to account for (Outlook, ehem). This is why software companies like Campaign Monitor and MailChimp exist.

The number one goal of these companies, is to overcome the HTML quirks in each email program and render perfectly presented HTML emails that look good, no matter which email program you are viewing it on.

This is where Email Signature Rescue comes in handy. Email signatures are very similar to HTML emails. We also help overcome all the painful problems that each major email software program has, but we have to go about it a little differently.

Our users don't use Campaign Monitor or MailChimp software to send their HTML email signature, they use their own programs like Outlook, Gmail, Apple Mail and more.

We have to use what is provided by the email software, and make the best code possible, to render the best email signature possible, across all major email programs.

HTML Emails VS HTML Email Signatures

To understand the differences between HTML emails and HTML email signatures, let's talk about Campaign Monitor and MailChimp. Campaign Monitor and MailChimp are two software programs that allow you to create (awesome) HTML emails and then send those emails out to subscriber lists.

The templates are designed to be sent using Campaign Monitor's or MailChimps's software. But guess what? If you tried sending the same template from your Outlook 2007 email program, you might run into some issues.

Why? Because Outlook 2007 uses the Word rendering engine to render the HTML before it is sent.

So effectively, that beautiful HTML email template that worked when testing in your browser, which you just inserted into Outlook 2007, will now look terrible, because the Word rendering engine got hold of it and messed it all up (which by the way, Outlook 2007/2010/2013 and Office 365 all use).

The Word rendering engine is just one example of email software producing inconsistent, cross-email program incompatible HTML.

So what does this have to do with email signatures?

Coding for email signatures uses the same basic principles that apply to coding for HTML emails. Only we can't workaround the issues that each email program presents by using software like Campaign Monitor and MailChimp to send our email, because we want to send the email signature from our own email program (saying this, Campaign Monitor and MailChimp still have a lot of issues to deal with!).

We want to include our HTML code in the email signature settings in our programs like Outlook, Gmail or Apple Mail, or even from our iPhones and iPads. This presents a whole new set of problems, making HTML sent from one email program, be compatible with all the others.

We have tested and fixed many problems users had when sending their email signature from one email program to another. Our code provides consistently better email signatures from many of the major email programs like Outlook, Gmail, Apple Mail and many more.

In short, by using Email Signature Rescue, your email signature won't go from looking awesome when you send it, to looking terrible when the receiver receives it, because we fix all the little annoying problems.

Fellow Web Developers & Designers - This one's for you

We've had a ton of web designers, developers and marketing agencies contact us, wanting to use our code for their own clients. We've listened and now we're busy working on our Reseller features.

If you need to create consistently compatible email signatures for your own clients, we're here to help. Soon we will be releasing V2.0 for Resellers with some awesome features for our web designer friends, like the ability to re-sell our email signature templates to your own clients.

Sign up now to be the first to hear when we launch V2.0 (due for release around November 2015).

So next time you think creating and coding a HTML email signature that shows consistently on all major email programs is easy, think again. And then contact us.

Author: Amy Jarrett, Co-Founder, Email Signature Rescue
Questions or Comments:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.