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INDUSTRY Target

Email Not Displaying Correctly in Gmail: Fix Outlook Background Image Collapse for Campaign Monitor 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 Outlook Background Image Collapse inside Gmail Web (Desktop) templates when using Campaign Monitor.

Technical Breakdown

Gmail Web (Desktop) uses the Goog/WebKit Layout Engine which lacks support for standard rendering rules. This causes Outlook Background Image Collapse elements to break or collapse when rendering templates.

Campaign Monitor Behaviors

Campaign Monitor wraps custom blocks in dynamic edit tags, which can break the column flow inside Outlook. Ensuring correct class names is essential. 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 in Outlook desktop, you must wrap your element or cell inside a Microsoft VML (Vector Markup Language) shapes structure that declares the background image explicitly using the 'v:background' or 'v:fill' vector properties. In your Campaign Monitor campaign manager, make sure you configure your links to run via [unsubscribe].

<td background="https://example.com/bg.jpg" bgcolor="#222222" valign="top" style="background-image: url('https://example.com/bg.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: cover;">
  <!--[if mso]>
  <v:rect xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" fill="true" stroke="false" style="width:600px;height:300px;">
    <v:fill type="tile" src="https://example.com/bg.jpg" color="#222222" />
    <v:textbox inset="0,0,0,0">
  <![endif]-->
  <div>Overlay Content</div>
  <!--[if mso]>
    </v:textbox>
  </v:rect>
  <![endif]-->
</td>

Live Code Sandbox Test

Interactive Campaign Monitor Custom Sandbox

Target Environment: Gmail Web (Desktop)

How to Deploy inside Campaign Monitor

1

Copy the fixed VML or table wrapper code block from the remediation box above.

2

In Campaign Monitor, click the 'Source' button on your selected editable text region, or edit the template code files directly. Ensure you append the 'class="cs-editable"' flag if you need inline editing later.

Targeted Fixes by Use Case & Industry