If you've ever opened an email newsletter on your phone only to find weird layouts and gaping holes, CSS problems might be to blame. For those of us who love our drag-and-drop email builders, we primarily think about CSS in email when something goes wrong. 

So can you use CSS in email? Absolutely. While using CSS in HTML email isn't as straightforward as it is in web design, CSS can provide your emails with visual appeal, brand consistency, and interactive elements.

There's good news, too. I'm a writer and marketer, not a professional coder. A person doesn't have to be a certified programmer to take advantage of CSS in email.

You just need to learn the rules of the game, including tips for maximum compatibility and deliverability and the best practices for clean coding and testing.

Table of Contents

• Understanding the Basics of CSS in Email

• Designing for Maximum Compatibility

• Boosting Engagement with Advanced CSS Techniques

• Optimizing Email Deliverability with CSS

  • CSS Best Practices for Email Design

  • Troubleshooting Common CSS Issues in Emails

  • Innovative Uses of CSS in Email Marketing

  • Email Design with CSS: Getting Started

Understanding the Basics of CSS in Email

What does CSS mean in email?

CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, is a coding language used to style and format HTML content. In email, CSS can make your email visually appealing and functionally effective across multiple devices and email clients.

Why CSS Matters for Your Email Campaigns

CSS affects the visual appeal of your campaigns. It creates an engaging, visually cohesive experience for your readers. Moreover, CSS ensures consistent branding across your sends, reinforcing brand recognition and trust.

More advanced CSS in email body impacts user engagement and click-through rates by increasing interactivity or personalizing content to increase its relevance.

The Difference Between Inline and Embedded CSS

When it comes to using CSS in emails, you have two main options: inline and embedded.

Embedded CSS involves including a style block in the head of your HTML document. This method allows you to style multiple elements at once and keeps your code clean and organized.

However, it's not supported by all email clients, which could affect how your email displays. Even Gmail, which has CSS support for most variables, may strip certain properties or selectors.

On the other hand, inline CSS is applied directly to individual HTML elements within your email, making it highly specific and overriding other styles. This method is favored by email designers for its high compatibility with most email clients, but it can make code lengthy and difficult to manage.

How Do I Add Inline CSS to an Email Template?

Adding inline CSS to an email template involves adding the style attribute to your HTML tags. This method ensures the styles you define are applied, regardless of the email client's CSS support.

For example, if you wanted to turn a certain paragraph blue, you would use: <p style="color:blue;">Your text here</p>

Need to turn source HTML into inlined CSS? Try a free CSS inliner for email.

Designing for Maximum Compatibility

It’s essential that your emails look and function consistently across different email clients. Here are some tricks to improve responsivity as well as a few general dos and don'ts.

The Do's and Don'ts of CSS in Email Clients

Not all email clients interpret CSS the same way. For example, Outlook email rendering issues include its lack of CSS support in email for background images or certain CSS3 properties.

A few quick rules to follow:

• Do use inline CSS as it's widely supported across email clients.

• Don't rely on CSS shorthand properties as they might not be fully supported.

• Do test your emails across different email clients to ensure they render correctly.

• Don't use complex CSS selectors as they might not be recognized by all email clients.

• Do learn common email client hacks for designers.

Crafting Responsive Emails with Media Queries

Media queries play an integral role in creating responsive email designs. They enable you to apply specific styles based on the screen size of the recipient's device.

When writing media queries for emails, target common minimum or maximum widths for the devices used by your audience.

Boosting Engagement with Advanced CSS Techniques

Email design plays a huge role in boosting engagement, such as time reading and click-through rates. Maximize yours with a couple of advanced CSS techniques.

Using CSS to Create Eye-Catching Buttons

Buttons are the key to driving action. Improve your button design with CSS:

• Start with the basics. Use border-radius for rounded corners, background-color for fill, and color for the text.

• Make them pop. Consider adding hover effects with the :hover pseudo-class or css animation in email using keyframes.

• Ensure responsivity. Your buttons will look great across all devices if you use relative units such as percentages instead of fixed pixels.

Incorporating Web Fonts Responsibly in Emails

Web fonts can add a unique touch, but you will need to provide fallback fonts in your CSS font stack. Even some commonly used word-processing fonts aren't fully web-safe.

Always use reputable sources and limit the number of different web fonts per email to keep load times low.

Optimizing Email Deliverability with CSS

CSS can also impact email deliverability. Improve loading times and avoid triggering spam filters with CSS in email.

How CSS Can Affect Email Loading Times

Long loading times tend to lead to lower open rates and engagement. Here's how to avoid the drag:

• Aim for simple, clean code. Complex or redundant CSS can slow down your emails.

• Optimize your CSS. Minify it, employ shorthand properties, and remove any unused styles.

• Avoid large background images or multiple web fonts. Email clients may strip them, or recipients may lose patience.

Strategies to Avoid Spam Filters When Using CSS

Spam filters look at your CSS as well as your content. They may interpret overly complex or sloppy CSS as an attempt to hide something, increasing your spam score.

Avoid practices that could trigger spam filters, such as hiding text with CSS or using too many different fonts and colors.

You also want to stay current with changes in email security mandates to ensure your emails continue to reach the inbox.

CSS Best Practices for Email Design

Creating effective email designs isn't just about aesthetics; it's also about performance. Implement these related best practices.

Clean Coding Techniques for Better Performance

Clean, organized CSS code is vital for efficient email design. It leads to faster load times and easier troubleshooting.

Common mistakes include:

• Over-nesting

• Using too many !important declarations

• Not validating your code.

Instead, adopt best practices like using comments to describe your code, keeping your CSS DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself), and organizing your styles logically.

For example, this email from Open Table does a great job of incorporating comments for ease of editing.

Testing and Previewing Emails Across Different Platforms

Test designs across multiple platforms. If you don't have dedicated HTML email tools (or yours don't allow you to preview the way your message will look on the most popular devices and clients), email a friend or two that use a different service.

Troubleshooting Common CSS Issues in Emails

CSS issues in emails can be tricky, and every email client has its own quirks and limitations. Sometimes, it's best to fall back to the lowest common denominator in your design, particularly if it's a crucial message. You can also use fallbacks for unsupported CSS properties.

But if you suffer from CSS not working in an email template, you can troubleshoot your design. Check out the free website: caniemail.com. It functions as its name suggests, allowing you to adjust your design and figure out where the issue lies.

There's also a website dedicated to the protocols for targeting every email client: howtotarget.email.

Innovative Uses of CSS in Email Marketing

CSS in email is the secret to creating engaging, personalized content. Your beehiiv editor lets you easily embed forms, but you can add your own special, interactive flair with CSS.

Interactive Elements: Enhancing User Experience

CSS is the key to creating interactive elements that can significantly enhance user experience in emails. You can add quizzes or interactive images.

I love this deceptively simple interactive email from McDonald's. It effectively plays on the romance of old letters and the process of opening up an envelope to read.

The Role of CSS in Personalized Email Content

CSS also plays a role in personalizing email content. By manipulating CSS classes and IDs, you can create dynamic content tailored to each recipient. Personalized content can lead to higher engagement and conversion rates.

Email Design with CSS: Getting Started

From being able to troubleshoot common issues to creating interactive and personalized content, CSS in email can significantly enhance your newsletter and marketing efforts.

Practice by creating a simple HTML email template with CSS styling. Start with a basic layout and add CSS properties to style the text, colors, and layout.

Take advantage of the best drag-and-drop email builder that also allows you to add your own HTML templates. Create a beehiiv account today, and watch your brand grow exponentially.

Why Trust Us

beehiiv is the go-to platform for both experienced programmers and amateur newsletter entrepreneurs. As for me, I specialize in creating emails and other long-form content for personal clients and digital marketing blogs.