”View this email in your browser” – What it is and why you should use it

If you use email to connect with your audience, you’ll always be looking for ways to improve engagement and reach. Enter “View this email in browser,” a powerful but often overlooked tool in your email marketing arsenal. Let’s explore how this simple feature can solve formatting issues, increase accessibility, and even grow your audience.

What is “View this email in your browser”?
The simplest explanation is that the “View this email in browser” option takes the user to a browser version of the email they are reading. That is, it is a text with a link that takes the user out of their inbox and into a separate browser where they can see the email in its entirety. In more technical terms, it is a web-hosted version of your email, rather than just an email that lives in someone’s inbox.

What is the purpose of “View this email in your browser”?
Improving accessibility
Accessibility is an important component of email marketing , as all content should be easily accessible and viewable by all users (such as those with low vision). But not all email service providers are able to process and deliver your email information optimally for all audiences. With an alternative viewing option for your email campaign, those who want to consume your content differently can more easily use assistive technology (such as screen readers) regardless of their email client.

Fix Email Formatting Issues
You can send yourself and your colleagues a bunch of test emails to double-check your formatting and image loading, but ultimately it’s impossible to know how your email will look on every mobile device and through every email client. Some recipients may even have image loading turned off, blocking graphics and hypertext images. By including a web browser version of your email, you give subscribers the ability to view your email outside of their inbox , giving them access to the accurate, complete version of the email without rendering issues.

Help visualize content- or image-rich emails.
Some emails may be particularly image-heavy, or may include animations or other visual elements that take longer to load on some email providers or devices. This can result in the content not being able to be viewed, which will not only impact the reader experience, but also your message. Some users may even become so annoyed that they end up marking your content and sending your emails to spam . By clicking “View this email in browser,” recipients can exit to the web, where the full content of the email can be loaded more easily .

Enable sharing and reach a wider audience
By having a web browser version of your email, you make it shareable . In other words, if a subscriber clicks on the “View this email in browser” link, they can copy the link and share it with others, allowing you to reach a wider audience.

How to use the “View this email in your browser” link.
As we said, the beauty of the web browser link is that it makes your emails accessible beyond the recipient’s inbox . This allows your information to reach more people and also means that you can refer back to past content and use it in the future.

This is all well and good, but you may be wondering how to exploit this apparent potential. Here are some creative ways to do so:

Take advantage of social sharing
As we mentioned above, having a linkable version of your email allows for sharing and therefore gives your business more ways to reach more people. Here are a couple of ideas for taking advantage of sharing: