HTML Email Table: Everything You Need to Know

No one likes to see a sloppy email in their inbox. It's quite easy to spot inconsistent spacing, misalignment, or extra borders between email elements. These mistakes don't just harm the reputation of the email; they harm the reputation of the sender, too.

So, it's important to avoid them and make your emails consistent across devices. To get this done, you must have a good enough understanding of HTML framework and particularly, tables element in emails.

In this guide, we'll cover the basic and advanced techniques that will help you create a responsive and well-structured layout while coding HTML emails.

What is an HTML email table?

An HTML email table refers to a table element in emails that are used to build and structure the layout of the overall email.

In HTML email design, tables are uniquely valuable due to their consistent rendering across various email clients. In contrast with web pages, where CSS is preferred for layouts, email clients often struggle with CSS, making tables the preferred choice for structuring and styling emails. Email templates created with HTML tables are also visually appealing and organized.

Why use HTML to create email tables?

In email marketing, HTML email tables offer several key benefits:

1. HTML email tables ensure consistent formatting across various email clients and devices. Tables provide a structured layout, preserving the intended design regardless of the recipient's email service provider.
2. Tables enable responsive email design, allowing marketers to create mobile-friendly layouts. By structuring content within tables, emails adapt to different screen sizes, providing optimal user experience on desktop and mobile devices.
3. Tables allow marketers to organize content neatly, making it easier for recipients to scan and comprehend the email's message. Information can be segmented into rows and columns, improving readability.
4. HTML email tables allow for the precise placement and customization of images, text, and other elements, enhancing the visual appeal of your emails.

What are the attributes of an HTML email table?

In HTML, you’re allowed to play around with the elements to customize how they are displayed or positioned. This is done using attributes. Some basic attributes used in the Tables are listed below.

• Cellspacing: This is used to adjust the space between cells. Its input is a number in pixels.
• Cellpadding: This is used to adjust the space between the cell wall and the cell data. This also takes input as a number in pixels.
• Align: This is used to specify the alignment of a table with respect to the surrounding text. The input can be either of these - left, right, or center
• Border: This is a binary input used to choose if the table has a border or not. It can be set to either 0 or 1.
• Width: This is used to specify the width of the table. The input here is a number in pixels. The standard email width is around 600-800 pixels.

In case you're interested, you can see the full list of attributes.

How to create HTML email tables?

You can utilize the different tags to create HTML tables. Let’s take a look at this step-by-step guide to learn more about this:

1. Use the table tag in the HTML code to define your table.
2. Inside the table, use the tr tag to define table rows.

<table>
      <tr></tr>
      <tr></tr>
</table>

3. Within the tr, use the td tag for adding data in table cells.

<table>
  <tr>
    <th>Header 1</th>
    <th>Header 2</th>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>Row 1, Cell 1</td>
    <td>Row 1, Cell 2</td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>Row 2, Cell 1</td>
    <td>Row 2, Cell 2</td>
  </tr>
</table>

5. Use span rows or columns using the rowspan and colspan attributes to merge cells horizontally and vertically for intricate layouts.

<td rowspan="2">Span 2 Rows</td>

<td colspan="2">Span 2 Columns</td>

6. You can nest tables within tables to create complex structures.

7. Optionally, you can se CSS or the border attribute within the table tag to add borders.

Remember to adjust the number of columns and rows according to your needs. Tables can be further styled and customized using CSS for a polished appearance.

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7 Best Practices for Creating HTML Email Tables

When testing and troubleshooting email tables across various email clients and devices using HTML, it's essential to follow these best practices:

1. Use inline CSS to apply styles directly. This ensures consistent rendering across different email platforms and webmail services.
2. Don’t link to external CSS files. Some email clients may block external stylesheets, leading to inconsistent formatting.
3. Keep your tables simple. A complex nesting causes rendering issues across different clients.
4. Define explicit widths for your tables and cells in pixels. This prevents the table from stretching unexpectedly, especially on mobile devices.
5. Use background colors sparingly. As some email clients might not support background colors or might render them differently.
6. Test your HTML email. Use email testing tools to ensure your table renders correctly everywhere. And test them cross various email clients, devices, and screen sizes.
7. Use HTML attributes wisely. Stick to well-supported HTML attributes and elements. Avoid using JavaScript or complex interactivity within tables, as these might not function as intended in many email clients.

Limitations of HTML email table

HTML email tables are widely used for structuring emails, but they come with limitations:

1. Email clients have varying support for CSS styles, making it challenging to achieve consistent table formatting across platforms when CSS is used.

2. Tables in HTML emails have limited interactive capabilities compared to web-based applications.

3. Creating responsive email tables that adapt well to different screen sizes is challenging due to inconsistent CSS support in various email clients.

An effective alternative to creating email tables using HTML

Creating HTML email tables can be challenging and not everyone enjoys coding. Hence, Email Service Providers (ESPs) offer easy solutions that allow users to create tables visually without writing any code.

Mailmodo is an ESP that focuses on simplifying email creation while getting 2x conversions on your email campaigns. Table elements can be dragged onto the template easily and you can also add interactive elements to emails without writing a single line of code. It's all due to Mailmodo's drag-and-drop editor, which creates both HTML and AMP email versions of each template by default for all popular email clients like Gmail.

Users can customize these templates according to their needs, adjusting table layouts, colors, and fonts to match their branding. It also supports dynamic content integration within tables. Marketers can personalize table data based on recipient attributes, creating highly targeted and relevant content for each recipient.

Final takeaway

Creating well-structured HTML email tables need a combination of basic coding knowledge and creativity. Marketers must consider table layout, column widths, cell padding, and responsive design to ensure emails are displayed correctly on different screens. Moreover, optimizing email tables for mobile devices is essential.

HTML email tables play a significant role in structuring emails, organizing content, and thus improving user experience. Using HTML and CSS techniques, marketers can design visually appealing and responsive email tables that adapt seamlessly to various devices and make your emails more appealing and engaging to your readers, resulting in more effective email marketing campaigns.