In either case, the linked information could be valuable to subscribers, whether they want to add a phone number to their contact list or look up an address online. Although boring from a brand perspective, blue links are actually great for usability and accessibility, providing essential functionality. This raises the debate: should we override this behavior in the first place? On one hand, we want our email designs to stay consistent and on-brand. Email clients that override our own style can cause surprises, stakeholder anger, and accessibility issues. On the other hand, people can rely on this feature and expect to be able to act on the information in an email.
So what should email designers do? In our opinion, overriding the styles ( but not the functionality) of these links is the best approach. The ideal solution for blue links should retain the ability to act on those auto-generated links, but allow us to style those links, not the operating system or email client. Some would argue that replacing the underlined blue style E-Commerce Photo Editing Service is going too far. However, the default behavior has serious accessibility issues that we can combat. For example, look at this email footer with blue links added to the address: blue link in email footer It's a common design: white text on a black background, with small text to keep the focus on the content above. When information is linked and blue styling is applied, the contrast is extremely low.
Anyone with a visual impairment - or those with excellent eyesight using a dim screen or mobile device in a sunny environment - will have an extremely difficult time consuming this information. A useful feature turns into a frustrating experience. Not all email clients treat automatic links the same way either. While blue links are the most common culprit, some clients keep the font color but add a subtle underline. Some customers associate phone numbers but not addresses. With all this inconsistency, it can be frustrating to deal with. So how can email designers deal with blue links? Best way to override auto link style While we've looked at different solutions in the past, like targeting commonly related text with scopes and classes, or inserting non-visible characters into that text to break the behavior, the best solution we've found is to rely on the built-in CSS.