HTML, everyone’s favorite universal language

By Julia, Deliverability Expert

The absolute coolest thing, among many other impressive things, about HTML coding is that it is almost a completely universal language. This means it can be understood by anyone who comprehends the code, regardless of its origins.

In short, the coding will be compatible with any content platform, no matter where it comes from. And, yes, that does mean you can use any other HTML-coded documents from past-used systems in the Nucleus platform.

There is one catch, though… Many email marketing platforms find value in the use of variables to pull custom information within the HTML as it helps to reach people on a more individual level… without having to manually send thousands of customized emails. Examples of this custom data would be a recipient’s first name or email, and other bits of personal information.

In these cases, the variable codes may differ slightly between platforms. That simply means that it is important to find and replace any variables with the proper ones so they function properly.

For instance, on Nucleus, we use the following variables very frequently:

PROTIP: you can actually find these located at the bottom of our html-coding-email-builder function:

These are very incredible tools as they can be crucial to your marketing technique but it is important to always remember to use the codes that are compatible with your platform.

This prevents us from sending wonky subject lines like “Hello, %%FIRSTNAME%%!”

These variables are usually very similar to the ones you are using, so just locate and replace any that you found. Most platforms, like our own Nucleus, will not even let you send when there is an error in the variables or coding so hopefully you will not encounter this issue anytime soon…

For example, just for the first name variable, I’ve seen some of the following variable codes:

• %recipient.first%
• %%FIRSTNAME%%
• %NAME%
• {{RECIPIENT.FIRST}}

…and there are way more than that! Always be on the lookout!

By Julia, Deliverability Expert

For those of you familiar with MySpace, you probably weren’t aware at the time but you were actually preparing for a future in email marketing.

HTML coding is one of the most commonly used methods to design and develop promotional email content. And, while we make it super easy to avoid here at Campaign Nucleus, it can’t hurt to learn the basics…

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language and it is a type of coding that defines the structure of your content.

Rarely in this day and age do we have to start our HTML coding from scratch, but the basic commands can always come in handy for fundamental understanding even when we are just altering a previously-coded document.

First and foremost, it must be known that the entirety of the code is defined by opening and closing tabs:

Open tab: < >

Closed tab: < />

Our open tab begins a command and our closing tab completes a command.

Below are some commonly used commands to get you started:

Now, let’s put it all together…

HMTL coding = Formatted Content