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Email & Module Best Practice Guide

Advice, suggestions and tips for building beautiful emails

Updated yesterday

Building Emails

Fonts

  • Use web-safe fonts for consistency across email clients.

  • Select Inherit font to apply your brand’s default typography. This option isn’t a separate font—it's a placeholder that automatically adopts the default font family, size, and color set in your brand settings.

  • Limit font choices to improve load time.

  • Recommended font sizes:

    • 12–16 pt for mobile

    • 16–20 pt for desktop

Inherit font selected under text attributes

Images

  • File Size: Keep all images under 1MB total.

  • Formats Supported: GIF, JPG, PNG.

  • Alt Text: Always include for accessibility and fallback visibility.

  • Animated GIFs: Keep small; ensure first frame displays well.

  • Dimensions: Use double-width images for retina (e.g., 1200px for 600px layout).

  • PPI: Minimum 72 recommended.

  • Videos: Link externally; use a static screenshot with play icon.

  • Placeholder Images

Email File Size

  • Keep under 102KB to avoid Gmail clipping.

  • Reduce the number of rows unless different layouts are needed.


Layout and Design Tips

Padding

  • Use consistent padding across all layout sections.

  • Apply the same padding on all sides for mobile optimization.

Global Settings vs. Pop-Up Editor

  • Use Global Settings for consistent styling across modules.

  • Use the Pop-Up Editor for individual tweaks.

    Best practice: Favor global settings. Use Pop-Up Editor only for specific overrides.

Links

  • Add links to emails, phone numbers, and addresses to avoid auto-formatting by email clients.

  • Use link attributes to style your links for better control.

link attributes section

Special Links

Your email should include:

  • An Unsubscribe link that is easy to find and use.

    Consider adding:

  • Forward to a Friend link

  • View as Webpage link

Use “special links” in Knak by editing your merge tag, checking “special link,” and applying the link in the Pop-Up Editor.

Special links menu expanded in the popup editor

Mobile Optimization

  • Use Do Not Stack for fixed layouts.

  • Adjust stacking order if needed.

  • Use hide-on-mobile/desktop toggles for alternate versions.

⚠️ Keep duplicate content minimal to reduce file size.


Working With Modules

Modules

  • Categorize First: Set categories before creating new modules.

  • Clone for Consistency: Build once and duplicate for reuse.

Custom Themes

  • Build themes using reusable modules.

  • Use Apply to Themes to push updates across themes.

Publishing Modules

  • Save work in progress as Unpublished Changes.

  • To publish a module:

    • Select Actions at the top right of the module builder then press publish

    • Or click Unpublished ChangesConfirm and Publish

  • Assign modules to all brands or specific ones using the dropdown menu

Actions menu in red box in the module builder view

💡 Reminder: If you're actively working on an email or landing page and publish module updates in another tab, refresh the asset to ensure the latest module version is loaded. After refreshing, check the Optimize tab and update any Out of Date Modules to apply the latest changes.


Brands

  • Set brand defaults for email settings including:

    • Colors

    • URL Parameters

    • From Name and Email

    • Reply-To Address

Email settings section of Tutorial Brand set up on the admin side of the platform

Need more help? Contact support via live chat within Knak using the chat bubble in the bottom right corner or email support@knak.com

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