---
schema_version: "1"
id: a151564942bff6ac1ee819dda407afc2106ca79ba324825cd8b821008e8d0c37
title: Guidelines for Sending Emails
collection: admin
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/mktg/264-0-0/mcae_classic_email_guidelines.md
canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=mktg.mcae_classic_email_guidelines.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5
source_site: help.salesforce.com
content_type: documentation
content_hash: a7a2d11091fc09353abd27be68282a9735c3cf99b9fc6107ecdf8b1b9fee2a29
description: When working with email in Account Engagement, keep these guidelines in mind.
products:
  - Marketing
  - Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
release: "264"
---
# Guidelines for Sending Emails

When working with email in Account Engagement, keep these guidelines in mind.

### Required Editions

<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small edition"><colgroup><col></colgroup><tbody><tr class=""><td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;">Available in: <span>All Account Engagement Editions</span></td></tr></tbody></table>

## General

- All email sent through Account Engagement must abide to the [Permission-Based Marketing Policy](http://www.pardot.com/legal/permission-based-marketing-policy/).
- To avoid spam filters, limit the number of images and links you include in emails.
- For links, use an absolute URL that includes all the information needed to access it. For example, instead of salesforce.com, use https://www.salesforce.com.
- For tracked links to resolve correctly, you must manually encode special characters. [Learn how to encode URLs for HTML](https://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_urlencode.ASP).

## Design

- To create structure, such as margins and padding, design emails and templates with nested tables. Most email clients don’t support more advanced HTML, such as div tags, floats, or standard margins. Tables are the safest way to structure your email.
- To render tables consistently across email clients, specify table cell widths.
- Use inline styling. Not all email clients support cascading style sheets (CSS).
- We recommend making your designs about 600 pixels wide.
- When creating an email template, specify text styling, such as font family, color, and size.
- We recommend avoiding content such as Flash and JavaScript. Many email clients block this type of content, and your email doesn’t render properly.
- The classic email builder strips empty HTML tags from the source code of your email. To keep empty tags for formatting purposes, add &nbsp between the empty tags.
- To ensure that your images render properly, specify the height and width.

## Testing

- For best results, test each template and email that you create.
- The Preview function in the classic email builder gives you a general idea of how your email looks to a prospect. However, every email client is different. Use a variety of testing methods, including sending real test emails to yourself and your collaborators.