Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps
When it comes to email marketing, there are few things sadder than working hard on an email and sending it out, only to see Gmail truncate your content with the dreaded “”.[Message clipped]”Text.
Gmail is the second most popular email clientand we know that it's important to eliminate unnecessary user experience friction to increase engagement with your content.
Luckily, with a little effort and attention to detail, you won't have to worry about Gmail cutting off your email at the knee.
What is Gmail clipping?
In case you don't know, Gmail truncates any message with a file size over 102 kilobytes (KB). Once the email reaches this limit, the rest of the content will be hidden, with “[Message clipped]The “View Entire Message” text and the “View Entire Message” link lead to a web view version of your email.
What's particularly unfortunate is that truncation occurs wherever the 102KB limit is reached, which can result in code structures such as tables or divs not closing properly, potentially resulting in broken layouts.
It's also worth noting that the 102KB limit does this not Include images, only the data size of the code itself. Although it is important to consider image size for email rendering speed, you don't need to worry about it in this context.
Do you need to shorten your content?
An understandable conclusion to jump to when thinking about how to stay under this Gmail clipping limit is to assume that you need to severely trim your content. Fortunately, that's not necessarily true.
However, we recommend keeping your content concise and to the point as we know that readers spend money on average just 8.97 seconds with an email and life is full of distractions – you don't have to grab a machete to edit your paragraphs and calls to action, at least before you think carefully about your code.
5 steps to minimize your email code
The size of your HTML and CSS code often plays a much larger role in the file size of your message. Therefore, you should focus your efforts on reducing the data weight of your email. Here are five steps to minimize this markup:
Step 1: Remove unnecessary HTML comments.
Whether they are teaching commentaries free email templatesExplanatory self-reminders or developer inside jokes, HTML comment tags and text are always worth examining to determine whether they are contextually necessary or can be safely removed.
Step 2: Remove outdated code fixes.
Similarly, as email clients continue to evolve, many specific code hacks are no longer necessary and can be eliminated. Here's a handy list of some deprecated code fixes for email clients.
Step 3: Check your HTML table structures.
It can be easy to nest more HTML tables than necessary when trying to align your content structure seamlessly. Methodically work your way through your containing tables, try to take them out, and Inbox render test to see if they are actually needed.
Step 4: Check if your ESP adds additional markup.
Some Email Service Providers (ESPs) can add additional markup when sending, so it's always a good idea to do this Check your rendered email code to account for this additional data weight.
Step 5: Minify your HTML and CSS.
You can also use a Code minifier like HTML Crush to remove gaps, line breaks and HTML or CSS comments en masse because every little bit counts.
Keep your emails lean and clean to avoid duplication
Overall, the idea is that you want to have exactly as much markup as you need and no more, to avoid having your message truncated in Gmail. Regularly auditing your email code following the steps outlined above can help keep your code lean and clean, and as always: test, test, test.
Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps
