There's a lot of information out there on email. Frankly, a lot of it is outdated, ill-informed, or just plain bullshit. This is the good stuff. Trust me—I've seen it all.

I thought I already had many tricks and tactics down pat, but time and again as I kept reading I found myself SMH as you presented a more elegant, supported, and email client-friendly way to accomplish the same or better! Bravo! - Lenny Tafro
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Email Marketing Resources

This page exists to give you the best resources on all things email, hand-picked by someone that's been in the industry for years and has spent a lot of that time wading through the muck to find reliable, valuable resources.

Looking for something specific? Try using ⌘+F or CTRL+F to search, this is a loooooong page.

Jump to:
Learning • Websites • Tools • Email Service Providers • Newsletters • Code • Interactive Email Resources

Learning

Books, courses, and articles to help you become a better email marketer, designer, and developer, fast.

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Book Cover

The Better Email On Design

The ultimate guide to HTML email design and development. Learn how to code robust, responsive, and interactive email campaigns that subscribers devour.

Buy Now & Start Learning

The Better Email on Design

Course

My latest course and book. All you need to start coding emails.

Frontend Masters - HTML Email Development, v2

Course

My comprehensive course on email dev for Frontend Masters. Filmed live over the course of a full day.

Email Marketing Essentials - Designing Effective Emails

Course

Fabio Carneiro's (formerly of Mailchimp) classic course on designing and coding emails.

Email Marketing Essentials - Writing Effective Emails

Course

Awesome copywriting and strategy tips from Mailchimp's Kate Kiefer Lee.

Email Marketing Essentials - Measuring Impact with Metrics

Course

Mailchimp's John Foreman (who literally wrote the book) on understanding and using marketing data.

The Coming Revolution in Email Design

Article

A classic (if I do say so myself) of mine for A List Apart.

Accessibility in HTML Email

Presentation

Mark Robbins' fantastic presentation on creating accessible email campaigns.

Can email be responsive?

Article

Another one of mine for A List Apart. Spoiler alert... the answer is yes.

Why don't email clients use modern rendering engines?

Article

A great breakdown from Ted Goas on why we have to do what we do in email design.

Mailchimp Email Design Reference

Resource

Fabio Carneiro once described this as his brain online. Worth the read, even if it's a little old.

The Hybrid Coding Approach

Article

A good overview of one of two major responsive coding techniques.

Hybrid Coding Redux

Article

And its follow up. Cool research from Mike Ragan.

Creating a Future-Proof Responsive Email Without Media Queries

Article

Nicole Merlin's classic on media query-less email development.

Using Video and Email Together

Article

A wonderful guide from the Wistia team on the Holy Grail of email marketing.

The Fab Four Technique for Responsive Emails

Article

A novel approach to responsive emails from Rémi Parmentier.

Email Marketing Rules

Book

Just about the best book you can read on email marketing strategy. From Chad S. White.

How to Improve Your Email Workflow with Modular Design

Article

Words of advice on one of the best ways to make email easier from Brian Graves.

A Type of Email

Book

A fantastic overview of typographic concepts for email designers from Paul Airy.

Using Images in HTML Email

Article

This post is still one of my top-performing articles, five years later.

The Ultimate Guide to Using Snippets in Email Design

Article

Kevin Mandeville's excellent guide to making email development easier with code snippets.

How to Recover from Email Marketing Mistakes

Report

Excellent guide from Litmus on how to handle the dreaded email mistake. We've all been there.

How to Code a Live Dynamic Twitter Feed in an Email

Article

A killer post from Kevin on the design technique that nearly broke email Twitter.

A Guide to Animated GIFs in Email

Article

One of mine for the Litmus blog on exactly what it says.

The Ultimate Guide to Bulletproof Buttons in Email Design

Article

Covering all the techniques you need to know for your CTA needs.

Understanding Responsive and Hybrid Design

Article

A good breakdown of the two major approaches to responsive email development.

Accessible Email Documentation

Resource

Wilbert Heinen's awesome roundup of articles on email accessibility.

The Ultimate Guide to Accessible Emails

Article

A hell of a resource from Litmus' Jaina Mistry on accessible email production.

HTML Email and Accessibility

Article

My CSS-Tricks article on the major components of an accessible email.

Correcting Outlook DPI Scaling Issues

Article

Awesome technical resource from Courtney Fantinato on fixing some of the tricker Outlook issues out there.

Email Deliverability - The Definitive Guide

Resource

A massive resource on understanding email deliverability.

Best Practices for Email Marketing During a Crisis

Presentation

A webinar and post on being a better marketer during uncertain times from me, Kristin, and Matthew.

Litmus' State of Email Research Series

Resource

Some of the most comprehensive resources available for email marketers.

What Every Developer Needs to Know About HTML Email

Article

One of my articles for LogRocket that digs more into the deliverability side of things.

CSS Animation in Email - Keyframes, Transitions, and Sample Code

Article

Awesome, in-depth look at how to do CSS animations in email.

Interactive Hotspots in Email - A Step-by-Step Guide

Article

Alice Li with a killer tutorial on how to add interactive hotspots via HTML and CSS.

Animated GIFs in Email Are Worse Than Static Emails

Study

An interesting study from the Nielson Norman Group. Skip to the last paragraph.

10 Ways You Can Use Email Insights Across Your Entire Company

Article

Whitney with an awesome roundup of ideas for going email first.

Channel 4 Email Master Template Refresh

Article

Kristian Robinson gives an absurdly detailed look at his master template redesign process.

The Questions to Ask Instead: Email Performance Measurement

Webinar

Some excellent takeaways from Chad S. White on how to better look at our metrics.

Why Consumers Subscribe and Unsubscribe from Email

Article

Good data from HubSpot to keep in your back pocket.

What is email automation and how you can use it to grow your business

Article

A good overview of how email automation works from MailerLite.

Websites

Awesome resources for email professionals. Blogs, online communities, and the like.

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The Litmus Blog

Blog

Industry-leading email marketing resources. I write some of these.

Litmus Community

Community

Online forums, code, and more for email professionals.

Email Geeks Slack

Community

The Slack community for email marketers, designers, and developers.

Women of Email

Organization

Awesome professional network promoting leadership among women in the industry.

Email Marketing Rules

Blog

Chad S. White's classic research and strategy blog.

Really Good Emails

Inspiration & Research

The best resource for campaign design inspiration.

FreshInbox

Blog

Great resources from Justin Khoo on interactive and advanced techniques.

StyleCampaign Blog

Blog

Anna Yeaman's email blog. Not updated often, but each article is absurdly good.

Mailchimp Resources

Blog

A collection of articles and guides from the folks at Mailchimp.

Campaign Monitor Blog

Blog

Tons of articles and research from the CM team.

Email Design Review

Blog

Articles from the Action Rocket team.

Email Snarketing

Blog

Funny and insightful takes on the industry from Kristin Bond.

James' Email Blog

Blog

Not updated anymore, but great info from James White, especially for older clients.

Word to the Wise

Blog

Excellent industry blog and deliverability articles from Laura Atkins.

Return Path Blog

Blog

Articles mostly focused on enterprise-level topics.

Oracle Modern Marketing Blog

Blog

Great research and thinking, largely from Chad S. White.

AWeber Blog

Blog

Good, practical advice from an industry stalwart.

MailerLite Blog

Blog

Really like all the stuff MailerLite has been doing, including their blog.

EmailMonday

Blog, Research, Services

Classic articles, research, and services from Jordie van Rijn.

Email Experience Council

Organization

Professional organization, blog, and resources for email marketers.

Emma Blog

Blog

Great articles from the awesome team at Emma.

Email Marketing Gurus

Community

LinkedIn group for email pros. Useful if you can stand LinkedIn for more than five minutes.

Tools

Various tools to help get email campaigns out the door.

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Book Cover

The Better Email On Design

The ultimate guide to HTML email design and development. Learn how to code robust, responsive, and interactive email campaigns that subscribers devour.

Buy Now & Start Learning

Litmus

Build, QA, Analytics

Build, test, and analyze better email campaigns, faster.

Parcel

Coding, Testing

The email coding platform. Developing at an amazing pace.

Visual Studio Code

Coding

Code editing, redefined. Free and open source.

Sublime Text

Coding

A sophisticated code editor for code, markup, and prose.

Adobe Dreamweaver

Coding

An email geek-approved favorite, with live view.

Figma

Design

An amazing design tool focused on collaboration and design systems.

ImageOptim

Utility

The classic image optimizer for Mac.

JPEGmini

Utility

And a great option for Windows users.

Squoosh

Utility

For those who like web-based tools and amazing compression.

Emmet

Coding

The best coding helper in the universe.

Sketch

Design

Design and prototyping for Mac.

Affinity Designer

Design

Killer cross-platform design software for less.

Affinity Photo

Design

Killer cross-platform photo software for less.

Adobe Photoshop

Design

Expensive, industry-standard software.

Adobe Illustrator

Design

Expensive, industry-standard illustration software.

Bulletproof Background Images

Coding

Awesome code generator from Campaign Monitor.

Bulletproof Buttons

Coding

Another awesome code generator from Campaign Monitor.

Google Docs

Planning

Great for collaborating on strategy, copy, and presentations.

PutsMail

Testing

Quick, easy email tests to your inbox. From Litmus.

Movable Ink

Service

Dynamic content as a service.

Nifty Images

Service

Less expensive dynamic content as a service.

Kickdynamic

Service

Dynamic content as a service.

Taxi for Email

Design

THE content management system for email.

BEE

Design

Drag & drop email editing.

Accessible-Email.org

Testing

Quick accessibility testing for HTML email.

Trello

Planning

Project management and productivity super powers.

Asana

Planning

Project management with a focus on collaboration.

Slack

Communication

The place for remote work and communication. And distractions.

Mailtrap

Testing

Test email sending functionality in your app without the risk of sending to real customers.

EmailPreview.io

Cool Utility

Saving emails is a pain in the ass.

Email Characters

Cool Utility

Chrome extension for ensuring your subject lines and preview text work well for subscribers.

Parcel EML Viewer

Cool Utility

Inspect the code behind EML files.

Email Service Providers

The platforms used to get campaigns into subscribers' hands (or at least inboxes).

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Campaign Monitor

Straightforward email marketing and automation tools.

Mailchimp

The 800-pound gorilla in the industry. All-in-one marketing platform.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

a.k.a. ExactTarget. The enterprise-level stalwart.

Oracle Responsys

Personalization at scale. Part of Oracle Marketing Cloud.

Oracle Eloqua

Marketing automation leader. Part of Oracle Marketing Cloud.

Salesforce Pardot

B2B marketing automation with deep Salesforce integrations.

Adobe Marketo

Lead management and account-based email marketing.

Cordial

Emotionally intelligent email marketing powered by real-time data.

Iterable

Growth marketing platform that drives lifetime value.

IBM Watson Campaign Automation

Personalized customer journeys geared towards SaaS automation.

SendGrid

Scalable, reliable transactional email provider.

Postmark

Lightning fast delivery for transactional emails.

Constant Contact

Powerful email marketing made easy.

HubSpot

Marketing, sales, and service software.

Cheetah Digital

Powering marketing channels at scale.

dotdigital

Omnichannel marketing born out of dotmailer.

Act-On

Personalized email marketing that nurtures leads and closes deals.

Mailgun

API-driven transactional emails.

Emarsys

Omnichannel customer engagement platform.

WhatCounts

Email marketing software and agency services.

Adestra

Email marketing software built to suit your needs.

EmailOctopus

Email marketing for less.

MailBlast.io

Terrible name, but good service. Budget email marketing with Amazon SES.

Sendinblue

All-in-one platform to help you grow your business.

ActiveCampaign

Email marketing and automation focused on great customer experiences.

AWeber

Powerfully-simple small business email marketing solutions.

Cakemail

Reseller-friendly, partner-friendly, and developer-friendly email.

Campaigner

Powerful automation made visual.

ConvertKit

Email marketing for creators.

Drip

Engage with everyone from inbox to Instagram.

Emma

Email marketing that works for you.

GetResponse

Powerful automation with professional templates and easy design tools.

iContact

Beautiful and personalized emails that resonate with subscribers.

Klaviyo

Email marketing platform built for online businesses.

Mad Mimi

The easiest way to create, send, share, and track emails.

MailerLite

Email marketing tools to grow and build better relationships.

Mailjet

The email solution for fast-moving teams.

MailUp

A simple and scalable solution for email, SMS, and messaging apps.

Maropost

Powerful email marketing tools.

Pure360

An easy-to-use email marketing platform that lets anyone create unforgettable emails.

Sailthru

Empowering digital retailers and publishers to deliver dynamic, 1:1 emails.

Vero

Email and push notifications that drive engagement.

Zoho Campaigns

Email marketing software that drives sales.

Newsletters & Podcasts

Stuff to keep you educated and entertained.

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Delivering

Podcast

A podcast (I hosted) from Litmus. All things email.

The Intermittent Newsletter

Newsletter

My infrequent email newsletter, mostly about email.

Litmus Newsletter

Newsletter

Great articles and resources, brilliant design and code.

Email Weekly

Newsletter

A weekly roundup of email design and strategy stuff from Action Rocket.

Feedback Fridays

YouTube Channel

Email design teardowns from the Really Good Emails team.

My Dog Ate My Email

Podcast

A podcast about email from the DMA.

Ask Me About Email Marketing

Podcast

A podcast from the AWeber team.

Modern Marketing Newsletter

Newsletter

Insights from the Oracle Modern Marketing team.

Campaign Monitor Newsletter

Newsletter

Good resources and research from CM.

MailerLite Newsletter

Newsletter

Well-designed with good articles. Sign up in the footer.

Code

Templates and coding resources to help you build your own emails.

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Book Cover

The Better Email On Design

The ultimate guide to HTML email design and development. Learn how to code robust, responsive, and interactive email campaigns that subscribers devour.

Buy Now & Start Learning

Litmus Community Templates

Templates

Free templates built by me and a few email friends.

Litmus Community Snippets

Snippets

Community-sourced code snippets for all kinds of things.

Slate - Responsive Email Templates

Templates

I built these a while back for Litmus. Should still work well.

Good Email Code

Snippets

Mark Robbins' growing collection of good email snippets.

Cerberus

Templates

Ted Goas's responsive email stalwart.

HTMLEmail.io

Templates

Lee Munroe's pre-built, paid, responsive email templates.

Accessible Emails

Templates

Some accessible email templates I built for Litmus.

Maizzle

Framework

A framework for rapid email prototyping. Works with Tailwind CSS.

MJML

Framework

Write less, build more with this coding framework from Mailjet.

Foundation for Emails

Framework

For Zurb's Foundation fans, quickly build with less code.

EmailFrame.Work

Framework

Glenn Smith's email framework. Hasn't been updated in a while, but still solid.

Codepen Email Collection

Snippets

A nice roundup of email-related pens.

Interactive Email Resources

Articles, code, and examples for building interactive emails with HTML, CSS, and AMP for Email. Push the inbox envelope (pun intended).

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Punched Card Coding: The Secret of Interactive Email

Article

One of the original resources from Mark Robbins.

Interactive Hotspots in Email: A Step-by-Step Guide

Article

A wonderful tutorial from Alice Li.

Fallbacks for Interactive Email: How to Combat Limited Support for Interactivity

Article

Alice Li again with some of the best advice you can get.

5 New Ways to Use Interactive Email Elements

Article

Some interesting ideas from Email on Acid.

Kinetic Email CSS Support

Resource

Justin Khoo's helpful CSS support chart for the code that powers interactivity.

Dynamic and Interactive Email Examples & Techniques

Resource

A wonderful roundup of examples of individual techniques from Justin Khoo.

The Ultimate Guide to Interactive Forms in Email

Article

Surprise, surprise... Alice again with a tutorial on using forms in email.

How to Get Buy-In for Interactive Emails

Article

A good guide to getting the support you need to create interactive emails.

Interactive Email for Beginners: 6 Interactive Elements You Can Add to Your Emails Today

Article

Some more ideas for adding basic interactivity.

How to Build an Interactive Quiz in an Email

Article

A classic resource from Kevin Mandeville.

Delivering Podcast: Matt Schmitter on Interactive Email in SFMC

Podcast

An interview about how interactivity made its way to Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Interactive Email's Opportunities and Challenges

Ebook

A good overview of the power and pitfalls of interactive email.

Understanding CSS Animations in Email: Transitions and Keyframe Animations

Article

My older, but still relevant, article on all things CSS animation.

How to Create an Accessibility Switcher in Email

Article

An in-depth tutorial from Paul Airy on how to expose accessibility options via interactivity.

Bringing the power of AMP to Gmail

Article

Google's initial AMP for Email announcement.

AMP for Email Homepage

Resource

Exactly what it says.

AMP Playground

Tool

The best place to play around with and test AMP emails.

Register with Google to send dynamic emails

Resource

A step-by-step guide to registering to send AMP emails.

Create your first AMP email

Resource

A good initial guide to getting started with AMP for Email.

Really Good Emails Interactive Category

Resource

A good source of inspiration with code from real interactive campaigns.

Interactive Forms in Email

Video

Mark Robbins' Litmus Live session on building forms in email.

Adventures in AMP

Video

A great, practical talk on the realities of using AMP from Janie and Rohan of Indeed.com

Testing Interactive Emails

Video

Really cool techniques for testing advanced interactive emails from Cyrill Gross.

AMP Validator

Tool

An essential tool for anyone looking to send AMP emails.

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