Should images be Base64 encoded when sending with the Bulk Email API

Issue

When sending emails using the Mobile Marketing Cloud Bulk Email API how to embed images? Should I use Base64 encoded string?

Product

• Mobile Marketing Cloud

Resolution

For the Bulk Email API you can use any valid HTML. So Base64 encoded images will work, but by far most customers host their images themselves and link to those images in the HTML. Not all e-mail clients are able to parse Base64 encoded images and it will inflate the size of the e-mail unnecessary. 

If you send the e-mail using our E-mail Campaigns app we are also able to offer image hosting.