If you’ve ever run an email campaign and wondered why your beautifully designed message didn’t land as expected, you’re not alone. Detailed email health reports can seem overwhelming or just plain cryptic. This guide is for marketers, designers, and anyone sick of crossing their fingers and hoping for decent deliverability. We’ll walk through how to actually use all that data from Emailonacid to improve your results—without getting bogged down in jargon or chasing phantom issues.
Step 1: Know What an Email Health Report Can (and Can’t) Tell You
Before you start dissecting a report, set your expectations:
What matters: - Rendering issues: Does your email look broken in any popular email clients? - Spam checks: Are there obvious red flags likely to land you in the junk folder? - Accessibility: Is your email readable for everyone, including folks using screen readers? - Load times and image issues: Are images and styles actually showing up? - Broken links: Nothing tanks trust like a dead link.
What doesn’t matter (as much as you think): - “Scores” that aren’t tied to real-world results. - Warnings about obscure clients your audience doesn’t use. - Minor HTML quirks that don’t affect appearance or functionality.
Pro tip: Don’t try to get a “perfect” score. Focus on what your real-world audience actually sees and cares about.
Step 2: Open the Report—But Don’t Panic
When you first crack open an Emailonacid report, you’ll see a wall of info. Here’s how to avoid analysis paralysis:
- Start with the summary. See what’s flagged as critical versus minor.
- Look at client previews. Which email clients are showing problems? Are those clients relevant for your list?
- Skim accessibility and spam checks. These usually surface the biggest “fixes with impact.”
Ignore the urge to fix every yellow warning light. Most won’t matter.
Step 3: Prioritize Issues by Real-World Impact
You don’t have unlimited time. Here’s how to decide what to tackle:
1. Rendering Problems in Major Clients
- Focus on the big names: Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, and mobile clients.
- Look for: Layouts breaking, images not showing, buttons missing.
- Ignore: Warnings on Lotus Notes or other niche clients unless you know your audience uses them.
How to fix: - Use inline styles. - Avoid complicated layouts (especially tables inside tables). - Host images on reliable servers.
2. Spam and Deliverability Warnings
- Check for: Blacklisted domains, missing DKIM/SPF, fishy subject lines.
- Don’t sweat: Overly cautious warnings about “potential spam phrases” unless your subject line is truly sketchy.
How to fix: - Make sure your sending domain is authenticated (DKIM, SPF, DMARC). - Don’t use URL shorteners. - Avoid all-caps and too many exclamation points.
3. Accessibility Flags
- Look for: Missing alt text, low-contrast colors, small fonts.
- Don’t worry (too much): About obscure ARIA roles unless you’re building something very interactive.
How to fix: - Add descriptive alt text to images. - Stick to readable font sizes and good color contrast. - Use semantic headings (h1, h2, etc.) for structure.
4. Broken or Redirecting Links
- Check every link: If Emailonacid flags a broken or redirected link, test it yourself.
- Ignore: Minor tracking redirects unless they’re causing real delays.
How to fix: - Fix typos in URLs. - Update or remove links that go nowhere. - Limit the number of redirects—too many can trigger spam filters.
Step 4: Make Changes—But Don’t Over-Engineer
Tweak the big stuff first. Don’t get lost in the weeds. Here’s a practical order:
- Fix anything totally broken in Gmail, Outlook, or Apple Mail.
- Patch up spam triggers and authentication issues.
- Address glaring accessibility problems.
- Clean up broken links.
Pro tip: If you’re not sure about a suggested fix, test it. Don’t blindly follow every recommendation—sometimes “fixes” break more than they help.
Step 5: Retest, but Don’t Chase Your Tail
After you’ve made your changes, run another test. Here’s the catch: chasing minor warnings can waste hours for little gain.
- Did your main issues disappear? Good, stop there.
- Still seeing obscure warnings? Ask yourself: will this actually affect my results?
- Did the changes introduce new problems? If yes, roll back and try a different approach.
Remember: Email clients are unpredictable. Sometimes you just have to accept “good enough.”
Step 6: Learn From Patterns Over Time
One report won’t tell you everything. Over multiple campaigns, patterns will pop up.
- Are the same rendering issues popping up? Time to update your template.
- Consistent spam warnings from the same phrases? Change your copy.
- Accessibility flags you keep ignoring? Maybe it’s time to fix your base styles.
Don’t reinvent the wheel every send. Build a checklist of the issues that actually matter for your audience.
Step 7: Know What to Ignore
Some stuff in these reports just doesn’t matter:
- Obsolete clients: If nobody on your list uses them, skip the warnings.
- “Perfect” color contrast: You’ll never please every accessibility checker. Aim for readable, not mathematically perfect.
- Tiny HTML errors: If the email looks fine and works, don’t sweat the small stuff.
If a warning feels like nitpicking, it probably is.
Step 8: Use the Report to Communicate—Not Just to Fix
If you work with a team, use these reports to:
- Show stakeholders real examples: Screenshots of how broken an email looks in Outlook can be eye-opening.
- Justify fixes: Citing specific Emailonacid warnings can help you push back against “just send it” attitudes.
- Document wins: When you see improvements over time, share them.
But don’t weaponize the report—use it to make better decisions, not just to point fingers.
Step 9: Keep It Simple and Keep Iterating
Don’t let Emailonacid reports run your life. Use them as a tool, not a ruler. The goal is better emails, not a perfect score.
- Focus on the fixes that actually move the needle.
- Ignore noise and nitpicks.
- Over time, you’ll spend less time firefighting and more time creating emails that actually work.
Bottom line: Stay grounded, act on what matters, and let the rest go. Good email is about results, not perfection.