A new study by the Email Experience Council says that images and links in emails are often not visible because of email reader restrictions and coding errors. The EEC Rendering Report examined 1,000 emails from business-to consumer and business-to business to find out the renderability of the messages.

"Rendering challenges have come about as a way for e-mail client designers to combat spam," said Jeanniey Mullen, founder of the Email Experience Council, Upper Montclair, NJ.



"Spammers get trickier in the way they serve messages, [so] the e-mail client designers are going to continue to design features that safeguard against it," she said. "So, rendering is an ever-changing challenge that we need to be ready to work with."



The Email Experience Council study revealed that 21 percent of the emails reviewed appeared completely blank when images were turned off. Another 28 percent showed copy but did not have working links.



The study found that 70 percent of companies have difficulty when it comes to creating deliverable email. Mullen recommends working with a professional company to test image rendering across multiple email clients.



When it came to handheld devices the study noted there was an area of opportunity for image rendering in emails. This is an area that has been largely ignored by most marketers but is beginning to be addressed.



"As the adoption of reading e-mails on smart phone devices continues to be more popular, we are going to start to see vendors designing enhancements that help us move forward in the renderability of these types of messages," Ms. Mullen said.



"The EEC is currently in discussions with the Mobile Marketing Association to determine the best way we can proactively address these opportunities to create a positive user experience," she said.







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