Most of us have encountered a situation where, after sending out a newsletter, some emails are cut off in certain email clients. The thing is that most email clients set limits to the size of emails' HTML code. For Gmail, it is 102Kb.
For example, when your email size exceeds this volume, Gmail automatically "clips" your email. This leads to many unpleasant moments; for instance, many clients simply do not see the Unsubscribe link - in this case, it is much easier to send the email to Spam.
What is the weight of the email?
First of all, let's discuss what the weight of an email consists of. In simple terms, the weight of an email is the weight of the file, which is made up of several components. Templates created in Stripo are written in HTML, and the base is the first thing your file consists of - you should keep it clean and as simple as possible.
Then, here goes the CSS. Inline styles, which are common in emails for compatibility, add extra size but are necessary for proper rendering.
If your email has any images or attachments, they will add some additional weight to your file, as well as tags - after sending, they will be changed to the real data, which may add a significant amount of weight to your design. Please keep this in mind!
The part everyone forgets about is the subject line and preheader. Usually, when implying weight, clients refer specifically to the content within the design, forgetting about the subject and preheader, vital for each mailing.
Sometimes, we would like to add a pinch of gamification to our mailing. It makes emails more exciting than standard text or static content. Also, AMP content drives people to act. Some customers may see the newsletter without this content, and then their email will be lighter in weight and load faster than those for whom the AMP is visible.
How do you check the weight of your email?
Stripo provides a number of ways you may use to check the weight of your email.
When you enter the Preview mode, you will see the approximate template size:
If you click on it, you will get this pop-up:
Please remember that the weight of the email in the editor does not equal the weight of the same email after sending it!
But why? The reasons may include some tags, subject lines, plain text, AMP, special links that will be changed (Unsubscribe, view in browser), images if they are loaded from scripts, attachments, and even more.
To check the weight of your current template, please press the Export button, choose the HTML file, and export it.
After this, you can get info on your file and check the weight. On Windows, you can find it this way:
On Mac:
How do you avoid the email from getting clipped?
Please reduce your email weight by removing some content from the containers, structures, and stripes and minimizing the number of styles applied to email elements.
For instance, the "Support for Outlook" option alone is 1KB per button in the email. Disable this option to prevent your emails from being clipped.
In the next step, you may check the sizes of images and compress them if needed.
Also, you can export the email template as an HTML:
Toggle the "Minimize HTML" button; this will reduce the weight of the email template file.
Please note that all line breaks, spaces, and extra characters will be removed; however, this won't affect how your email content displays.
Then open this file with any text editor and copy/paste the HTML code into the service you need for further sending to Gmail.
You should also remember that if an email contains merge tags, after sending, they can be transformed into real data, which also adds additional weight to the email.
Thank you for taking the time to read our articles. We hope you will find this information helpful.
If you have any additional questions, please email us at support@stripo.email.
We would be glad to talk with you.