Is your email campaign cut short? This guide explains why your emails are getting clipped by Gmail and how to avoid it.
Why Gmail clips emails
Email clients, like Gmail, have algorithms to determine how they display your email.
This can mean that different email clients will display your email up to a certain size. In the case of Gmail, they are thought to "clip" or cut email messages short at 102kb.
Although the exact limit may vary based on their unique algorithm, it is best practice to keep your email messages under the presumed 102kb size limit. This will ensure that your email campaigns stay well within the limits of the various email clients your recipients may be using to view your marketing emails.
Most commonly, when an email is larger than the email client supports, the email client will hide the remaining email content behind a "View Full Email" or "View entire message" button at the bottom of the email:
Your email recipient must then click the link to view the remaining content in your email campaign.
Elements in your email may be larger than they appear.
Although 102kb may seem like a relatively large limit, it may surprise you just how easy it is for your email campaign to surpass an email client's size limit.
The size of your email actually consists of the entire code that makes up your email campaign. These elements can include text, tracking codes of links, URLs, and HTML used to style your message.
This can ultimately result in an email campaign that exceeds the size limit for email clients like Gmail.
Check before you send
Before sending your broadcast, check its current size:
The fastest way to spot a size problem before it reaches your audience is to send a test email to your own Gmail address and download it immediately (see Test and inspect email size below). If it's already over 102 KB in draft, trim the content before sending live.
Common causes of unexpectedly large file sizes include:
Content copied and pasted from Word, Google Docs, or a website (hidden HTML formatting is carried over)
Many tracking links — each adds code to the email's HTML
Large in-line images (use the image optimization steps to reduce size)
Avoid email clipping
Minimizing your email content can be a challenging task when you have a lot of value to provide.
However, this obstacle may create an opportunity for you to design an email marketing strategy that best fits your audience and boosts your sender reputation.
To minimize your email size, begin by analyzing your email content.
Can you remove any extraneous imagery or styling?
In email marketing, using a combination of text and images will make your emails look professional, reveal your brand, and captivate your audience.
Nonetheless, too many images and text links can trigger spam flags and result in clipped emails. To optimize your email, use both text and HTML or text only.
Are you focusing on the value you have to offer?
Be sure to include only relevant information in your marketing email. If you find yourself needing to provide additional information, build the information into landing pages on your website. Then, include Call to Action (CTA) buttons in your email to link to your landing pages.
Can you break up your email content?
If you notice that your email campaign contains multiple topics that may or may not relate to the main message, break up your message into multiple email campaigns.
When drafting and designing your email campaigns, breaking up your content can help:
Prevent email clipping
Increase engagement from your recipients
Lead to an improved sender reputation with consistent email sending
Are you copying and pasting content from a word-processing program or website?
Copying and pasting content from a word-processing program, website, or extension can add extra formatting code to your emails without you realizing it.
Not only can this increase the size of your email, but it can also result in the introduction of malware to your site.
Did you test your email?
A great practice is to always test and preview your emails before sending them. We recommend sending your email to your own Gmail account to ensure that your emails render correctly.
Continue reading to learn how to test and inspect email size.
Test and inspect email size
The best way to avoid email clients, like Gmail, from clipping your emails is by testing and inspecting your email size.
To test and inspect your email campaigns, send a test email to your own Gmail email address and download the message to inspect the file size.
Send a preview email
First, draft and design your email campaign. Then, send a preview email to your own Gmail email address.
Download the email message
After sending and receiving your preview email in your Gmail inbox, download the email campaign:
Sign into Gmail and open your preview email.
Navigate to the top right corner of your email and click the three vertical dots.
Click Download message.
Inspect your email size
Open the Downloads folder on your computer.
Locate the downloaded email file.
View the Size column or right-click to Get Info.
If the file size is smaller than 102kb, you are good to go.
However, if the file exceeds the size limit, your email may be clipped when recipients view your email campaign in their email inbox. If you find that your email campaign exceeds the size limit, consider re-analyzing and editing your email to best fit your recipients' email client size requirements.
FAQs
Why does a link keep reappearing in my email even after I delete it?
If a link keeps coming back after you remove it from the broadcast editor, the link may not be stored in Kajabi at all — your recipients' email client may be generating it automatically.
Email clients like Gmail can recognize certain content as a link and add one automatically, even if you didn't include it. The most common example is a physical address: Gmail detects it and adds a Google Maps link without any action from the sender.
How to confirm this is the cause:
Open a sent test email in Gmail and hover over the link. If it points to Google Maps (or another service you didn't configure), the email client added it.
Check the broadcast editor — if no link is visible there, the email client is the source.
How to resolve it:
Remove or reword the address so the email client no longer recognizes it as a location. For example, abbreviate the street type, omit the postcode, or move the address to a footer image.
If you need to include the address but not the auto-link, use an image of the address text rather than plain text.
Note: this behavior is controlled by the recipient's email client and cannot be changed from within Kajabi.