Interactive email templates are that one high-performing team member—hyped but less trusted.
They’ve been discussed as one of the best email design trends over the last few years. Email marketing experts talk about them in webinars, reports, and Twitter threads. You’d think our inboxes would be full of slick, scrollable, tap-here-and-it-expands type of email interactivity by now.
They’re not.
The demand for interactive email templates exists. In one survey, 60% of email recipients said they’re likely to engage with an interactive email. Over 50% want to interact inside their inbox.
Email marketers aren’t blind to this, either. According to the 2023 State of ESPs Report, nearly 37% of respondents already use interactive elements powered by HTML and CSS.
Yet, most inboxes still look… static. Why?
Because this “high-performing teammate” has a downside that makes it less straightforward. Interactive features rely on advanced HTML and CSS that don’t render consistently across email clients. They don’t always present themselves in the same way for every audience.
In this blog, we’ll break down what’s really behind these rendering issues, explore the overlooked role of the opening environment, and show you how to use fallback strategies that make interactive email templates shine—even on their off days.
What Are Interactive Emails?
Interactive email templates are basically mini-microsites that live and breathe inside your inbox.
Email interactivity utilizes HTML and CSS to enable recipients to take action directly within the email, without being redirected to new landing pages. That’s what makes them different from your usual email templates.
These are engaging email templates that used to need a landing page. Now? With interactive email campaign templates, you can explore them all without leaving the email.
We’re talking about sliders, tabs, expandable sections, clickable product cards, polls, quizzes, forms, and more.
And just to be clear, some marketers are adding GIFs and countdown timers to emails, assuming this makes the content “interactive”. However, if the content doesn’t prompt the reader to take action, it’s not interactive. Action is the key here.
And while these interactive email campaign templates feel slick and modern, here’s the catch: their success depends entirely on whether the inbox lets them work.
Not every email opening environment supports many HTML and CSS elements that these emails rely on.
So yeah, email interactivity is cool—when it actually renders.
Why Interactive Emails Don’t Always Render Right
Interactive email campaign templates look brilliant —until they land in an inbox and look poles apart from what you designed. Why? Because emails don’t behave like websites, and email clients don’t fully support modern HTML and CSS standards.
When you create an email, you’re writing code that includes HTML and CSS. It decides the structure and style of your email template.
But once it’s sent, the recipient’s email client processes it before displaying. The rendering engine is the software component that email clients use to interpret the code and display it as a visual layout on the screen. Each email client uses a different rendering engine, and most don’t support the full range of HTML5 or CSS3.
It’s not just about rendering engines, though. Media queries—essential for responsive layouts—aren’t supported equally across the board. So, your engaging email template might look flawless in Apple Mail, but it may appear broken or static on other clients.
And just when you think it can’t get messier, the Email Service Providers (ESPs) join in.
Not all ESPs reliably send emails with interactive components. Some ESPs sanitize your code or block interactive features, meaning that even if the email client could render it, it still won’t display correctly.
So no, your interactive email template didn’t “break.” It rendered exactly how that environment allowed it to. That’s why fallback design is your safety net.
Understanding the Opening Environment
When discussing the support for interactive elements in email templates, a key concept is the “opening environment.”
This term refers to the technical context in which an email is opened and viewed. More specifically, the device, email client, and app or software used to display an email.
Why does the opening environment matter?
Because the ability for an email to display advanced or interactive features depends entirely on the capabilities of the email client and app, not the address itself. You cannot predict if a recipient can view an interactive experience just by knowing their email address.
The thing with opening environments is that they’re unpredictable. One user might open your email on their laptop first, then check it again later on their phone or tablet. Different device, different app, totally different experience for the same email.
Which is exactly what brings testing under the spotlight. Creating interactive email templates, regardless of how simple or intricate the interactivity is, should always be coupled with early testing in real-time across a range of different opening environments.
This will help you move forward in understanding which types of interactive elements work or do not work for specific email clients.
Taking into account the non-supported interactive elements, you can plan fallbacks so that if interactivity isn’t supported, it doesn’t fall apart.
That makes fallbacks a baked-in strategy in your email design process rather than an afterthought.
Smart Fallbacks for Interactive Email Campaign Templates
1) Conditional Content Based on Support
Just as mobile users get a different email layout than desktop users, interactive emails can serve two versions:
- One for clients that support interactivity (think Gmail, Apple Mail).
- Another for clients that don’t (Outlook, Yahoo, older Android apps).
You use media queries and @supports rules to hide the fallback by default and only display it when interactivity fails.
Heads-up: This can double your code length if you’re not careful. And yes, managing two content blocks does increase email weight.
2) Stack Instead of Swipe
Let’s say your interactive layout is a carousel or slider. In clients that can’t render it, you don’t have to ditch the whole thing, just reflow it. Use a stacked layout where all the content panels appear one after the other.
Technically, you structure the layout to stack by default, and then convert it into a carousel using :checked or other pseudo-selectors—but only where supported.
3) One Set of Content, Two Layouts
If duplicating content feels excessive, a leaner approach is to keep a single block of content and switch the layout based on client capability.
For example:
In interactive clients, display as tabs or accordions.
In others, show everything expanded or stacked.
You’re not rewriting content, only changing how it appears.
4) Hide the Extras in Non-Supporting Clients
In some cases, all you need to do is prevent broken visuals. You can hide interactive-only elements—like carousel thumbnails or animation triggers—in email clients that can’t render them.
Let’s say you have an interactive rating scale. In unsupported environments, you show a static version and suppress the dynamic behavior using fallback classes or conditional targeting.
Wrapping Up
Interactive email campaign templates are powerful. However, only when they’re designed to accommodate email client inconsistencies.
That’s why smart fallback strategies are bare essential. They’re part of the interactive email build. Maybe it’s a product carousel, a live poll, or a gamified quiz. Whatever interactive element you’re working with, you’ve got to plan. By doing so, you can be prepared for each client’s unique approach to interactivity, which may vary.
Sometimes that means showing a simplified layout. Sometimes it means sending users to a web version. Any which way, the goal is to retain a smooth and frustration-free user experience.
If you don’t plan for graceful fallbacks, there are good odds of leaving a significant portion of recipients behind.
Done right, engaging email templates that incorporate interactivity can make a significant impact. Higher click-through rates, better engagement, and stronger brand recall.
If you’re worried about the depth of work that comes with interactive email coding and testing, don’t be. You can always lean on experts like Email Mavlers, ensuring your email templates are interactive, high-performing, and client-compatible.
