Email Not Displaying Correctly in Gmail: Fix Default Image Blocking Layouts for Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) for Retail & Consumer Brand Campaigns
Retail campaigns rely on high-fidelity visual assets, coupon borders, and clear promotional layouts. Default image blocking or button collapses disrupt the visual journey. Below is the targeted integration guide to fix Default Image Blocking Layouts inside Gmail App (iOS & Android) templates when using Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC).
Technical Breakdown
Gmail App (iOS & Android) uses the WebKit / Blink which lacks support for standard rendering rules. This causes Default Image Blocking Layouts elements to break or collapse when rendering templates.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) Behaviors
SFMC's Content Builder wraps block exports in div frames that can break conditional comments. Additionally, AMPScript calls for personalizations can trigger parsing errors if they are inside MSO conditional comments. Ensure your AMPScript tags are evaluated *outside* the VML blocks. Always define ALT descriptions for retail product shots, and base64-encode your brand logo so the email headers render cleanly even when images are blocked.
Remediation Code Block
To resolve this, always define explicit width and height attributes on your images to preserve their layout boxes when blocked. Add robust alternative (ALT) text styled with CSS font-sizes and colors, and encode vital brand logos directly as Base64 data URIs. In your Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) campaign manager, make sure you configure your links to run via %%unsubscribe_url%%.
<img src="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAADIA..." width="150" height="40" alt="Company Logo" style="display: block; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: #111111; font-weight: bold; border: 0;">Live Code Sandbox Test
How to Deploy inside Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC)
Copy the fixed VML or table wrapper code block from the remediation box above.
Create an 'HTML content' layout block in Content Builder. Paste the table structure. Enclose any custom merge tags inside standard AMPscript wrapper lines.