Here’s an HTML email I recently sent (open it in another window):

http://eepurl.com/ENa

Here’s what it looks like in Outlook 2003:

Not too bad, except the fonts are wrong.  That’s what I get for choosing a font that’s not available on Windows, I guess. I’ll need to switch that to Arial.

and here’s what it looks like on a Blackberry:

Hmm, I know that newer Blackberry devices can theoretically support some form of HTML email (“rich content”), but when you read Blackberry Knowledgebase documentation like this PDF, you start to understand why some IT departments choose to leave that turned “off” at the server level.

and here’s what my email looks like on Windows Mobile 5:

the moral of the story?

Always create the plain-text version of your HTML email, just in case (that’s what these mobile devices defaulted to).

And always test your campaign rendering in as many email clients as you can. You could setup lots and lots of separate computers and software and email accounts at different webmail services like Yahoo, Gmail, etc., or you can use MailChimp’s built-in campaign preview tool:Inbox Inspector.

You click one button, and we generate actual screenshots of how your email renders in over 20 different email clients from all over the world. Including Blackberry and Windows Mobile.