Email Not Displaying Correctly in Gmail: Fix Outlook Button Border Collapsing for Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) for Client Rendering Engine Anomalies
Email client rendering variations are caused by differences in parser engines. Legacy Outlook engines ignore modern block models, forcing layouts to stack vertically. Below is the targeted integration guide to fix Outlook Button Border Collapsing inside Gmail Web (Desktop) templates when using Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC).
Technical Breakdown
Gmail Web (Desktop) uses the Goog/WebKit Layout Engine which lacks support for standard rendering rules. This causes Outlook Button Border Collapsing 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. Test layout code regressions side-by-side using the Campaign Diff Comparator before pushing visual style changes to your production templates.
Remediation Code Block
To guarantee perfectly rounded buttons inside Outlook, we must generate a hybrid VML (Vector Markup Language) roundrect structure overlaid with normal HTML tables. VML is read only by Outlook, while WebKit clients read the HTML layout. In your Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) campaign manager, make sure you configure your links to run via %%unsubscribe_url%%.
<!--[if mso]>
<v:roundrect xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" href="%%unsubscribe_url%%" style="height:44px;v-text-anchor:middle;width:200px;" arcsize="15%" stroke="f" fillcolor="#720e9e">
<w:anchorlock/>
<center style="color:#ffffff;font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-weight:bold;">Click Here</center>
</v:roundrect>
<![endif]-->
<!--[if !mso]><!-->
<table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse:collapse;">
<tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#720e9e" style="border-radius:6px;"><a href="%%unsubscribe_url%%" style="padding:12px 24px;color:#ffffff;display:inline-block;text-decoration:none;font-weight:bold;">Click Here</a></td></tr>
</table>
<!--<![endif]-->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.