Resolve Gmail email clipping

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.

​

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. Learn how to improve 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. Learn to add buttons to your email broadcasts 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

Learn how consistency can impact your sender reputation 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. Learn how to diagnose, locate, and remove malware from 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. Learn to test your email campaigns

​

Download the email message

After sending and receiving your preview email in your Gmail inbox, download the email campaign:

1. Sign into Gmail and open your preview email.
2. Navigate to the top right corner of your email and click the three vertical dots.
3. Click Download message.

​

Inspect your email size

1. Open the Downloads folder on your computer.
2. Locate the downloaded email file.
3. 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.