If you are a marketer you have to be pulling your hair out at the new Outlook 2007.
Check out the article at Marketing Sherpa.
What we have here is a major shift in how marketers will have to approach email marketing, since Microsoft has decided to move away completely from usability and technology in favor of security. (It should be noted that I don't accept the premise of the argument that it is ultimately a choice of one or the other...)
If you are a web designer - you may want to relearn how to design using tables because the new Outlook does not support CSS floating or positioning. The irony for us old web designers is that we actually remember what it was like to hack together a design using tables - most new designers are unfamiliar with the old way of designing on the web...welcome to 1999!
If you put forms in your email - don't expect those to render either. You know those sophisticated emails that contain surveys or registrations...kiss them goodbye because they are now the odd man out. Sit back and think about what this means as marketers...yep, it sucks that bad.
And if you were ever holding out for rich media - videos, flash, applets ect...fuhgettaboutit! Microsoft doesn't seem to think that those spam filter issues are going away any time soon - so now it will be even longer before they become available in email. Thanks alot.
The biggest point I am making besides the fact that all of these changes really impact email marketing negatively - is that its a fundamental shift in Microsoft's way of thinking. Instead of pioneering the way to help make email more user friendly and extending its functionality, they have decided to force us into much more primitive email. It almost feels like Microsoft is trying to revert back to 1999.
But then those were much better times for Microsoft.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Outlook 2007 - more like 1999...
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3 comments:
I hate to be the one to say it, but I actually think the new Outlook is a good thing.
There are many email clients that don't accept CSS & forms (or certain attributes), but often were ignored in favour of making the email look nicer. Now, Since Outlook is the most popular B2B email client, (and even used for personal email addresses) it can't be ignored. Now those poor folks who've been receiving botched HTML will finally get the real deal.
Of course it would be far greater if ALL email clients did accept CSS & forms, but for now we work with what we have!
Unfortunately you are right in that we must "work" with it. I am just disappointed that there hasnt been more progress!
Yes i think i'd have to agree with you Luke, it's definitely a BIG step backward from an eMarketer's perspective.
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