{"id":4528,"date":"2022-01-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/when-forwarded-emails-break\/"},"modified":"2023-07-12T17:03:46","modified_gmt":"2023-07-12T21:03:46","slug":"when-forwarded-emails-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/when-forwarded-emails-break","title":{"rendered":"What Causes HTML Email Breaks When Forwarding?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Email forwarding is a quick and easy way to share an email with friends, family and co-workers<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some email marketing teams even forward emails to their team members as a part of the email review process before sending.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But, <span data-sheets-formula-bar-text-style=\"font-size:13px;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;font-family:'docs-Roboto';font-style:normal;text-decoration-skip-ink:none;\">html email breaks when forwarding<\/span> can be a big headache for email marketers,<span data-sheets-formula-bar-text-style=\"font-size:13px;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;font-family:'docs-Roboto';font-style:normal;text-decoration-skip-ink:none;\"> impacting<\/span> <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/a-guide-to-bulletproof-buttons-in-email-design\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">bulletproof buttons<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, adding <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/litmus.com\/community\/discussions\/6400-extra-space-when-i-forward-email#comment-11784\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">extra spaces<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to your email design and other issues. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this post, we discuss why emails break when forwarded and what you can do about it.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why does an HTML email break when forwarded?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Email clients all <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/why-is-email-rendering-so-complex\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">render email differently<\/a>. When a subscriber forwards an email, some email clients make changes to the code of the forwarded message. This may include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Stripping out certain HTML elements<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wrapping your email in a block quote<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Inserting additional classes to your code\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here&#8217;s an example\u00a0of a button\u00a0that breaks when the email is forwarded:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"post-17930 media-17930\" class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/forwarded-notbroken-1000x307.png\" alt=\"example\u00a0of a button\u00a0that breaks when the email is forwarded\" width=\"1000\" height=\"307\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"post-17931 media-17931\" class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/forwarded-broken-1000x261.png\" alt=\"When forwarded emails break in Outlook\" width=\"1000\" height=\"261\" \/><figcaption>When forwarded emails break in Outlook, as seen by Community member Sarah Oldenburg in the <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/litmus.com\/community\/discussions\/6398-outlook-changes-look-of-button-on-forward\">Litmus Community<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What to do when forwarded emails break<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bad news first? There is consensus in the email development world that very little can be done to completely avoid changes to your design when subscribers hit the forward button. Whether or not an email client alters your code simply isn\u2019t something you can control.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s why some email marketers have just come to accept HTML<span data-sheets-formula-bar-text-style=\"font-size:13px;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;font-family:'docs-Roboto';font-style:normal;text-decoration-skip-ink:none;\"> email breaks when forwarding<\/span> emails is a part of the territory. But if forwarding and sharing is key to your campaigns, try these tips to minimize the impact. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1. Keep your email design simple<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While it doesn&#8217;t work for everyone, simpler <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/foundations-of-email-design\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">email design layouts<\/a> (e.g. single-column) typically hold up a little better when forwarded. If your email is less complex, there is less that could go wrong. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2. Offer alternative sharing options<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using the email client\u2019s forward function clearly is the most natural way for readers to share an email. However, there are ways you can encourage readers to share your email without hitting the forward button. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, many <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/a-snapshot-of-the-email-service-provider-landscape\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">email service providers (ESPs<\/a>) provide tools that allow you to embed a \u201cforward to a friend\u201d link in your email which, when clicked, will send your email to the email address the subscriber provides\u2014without messing with your code.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If your audience is social media savvy, you could also experiment with a prominent placement of <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/litmus.com\/blog\/how-to-successfully-integrate-email-and-social-media\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">social sharing options<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that allow your readers to share the web-version of your email via social media. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3. Use an alternative review method<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Avoid confusion over emails that look broken by using alternative review methods. If you\u2019re using our <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/email-builder\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">email <\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">builder<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, it has an entire <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/litmus.com\/blog\/how-teams-can-use-our-email-builder\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">share panel devoted to getting feedback<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on your campaigns. You can share your email via a public URL, or easily send a test email to your coworker\u2019s inboxes, ensuring the whole team sees the email as it\u2019s intended. <\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"cta\">\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"block-1\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/css-inlining.png\" alt=\"illustration of Litmus Builder\" width=\"140\" height=\"165\" \/><\/td>\n<td class=\"block-2\">\n<h2>Litmus Builder\u2014A Code Editor Built for Email<\/h2>\n<p>Build and preview your email in real-time, plus utilize reusable code snippets and templates to save time and reduce errors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"zero\"><a class=\"btn medium orange button\" rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/litmus.com\/email-builder\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Explore Builder \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unfortunately, forwarding an email often \u201cbreaks\u201d the email. Learn why they break when forwarded and what you can do to minimize issues due to forwarded emails.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[478,10059,1575],"blog_category":[53],"class_list":["post-4528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-design","tag-ip-address","tag-rendering","blog_category-tips-resources"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.5 (Yoast SEO v27.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What Causes HTML Email Breaks When Forwarding? - Litmus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Unfortunately, forwarding an email often \u201cbreaks\u201d the email. Learn why they break when forwarded and what you can do to minimize issues due to forwarded emails. 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