Background image not displaying in the outlook using HTML emailer - html

Question

I am trying to show the background image in Outlook using HTML emailer but it's not showing. I am getting only a blue box. I am using the below code but it's not working.
<table class="container" role="presentation" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="600">
<tr>
<td>
<!--[if gte mso 9]>
<v:rect xmlns_v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" fill="true" stroke="false" style="width:600px; background-color:#B5CFE3;height:431px;">
<v:fill type="frame" src="https://i0.wp.com/techacute.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/how-to-find-royalty-free-images-on-google-1.png" />
<v:textbox style="mso-fit-shape-to-text:true" inset="0,0,0,0">
<![endif]-->
<div>
<table role="presentation" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="100%">
<tr>
<td style="background: url(https://i0.wp.com/techacute.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/how-to-find-royalty-free-images-on-google-1.png) #B5CFE3; background-size:cover; background-position:center;" height="430" width="750">
<!--add your content here-->
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]>
</v:textbox>
</v:rect>
<![endif]-->
</td>
</tr>
</table>

Answer 1

Couple of issues here.
First, if you had it right, the content inside the VML would show on top. So the td with the background image for non-Outlooks would show again - but just the background colour. So we put that outside the VML.
Second, the background image should be on a <v:image ... />.
Working solution:
<table class="container" role="presentation" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="600">
<tr>
<td style="background: url(https://i0.wp.com/techacute.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/how-to-find-royalty-free-images-on-google-1.png) #B5CFE3; background-size:cover; background-position:center;" height="430" width="750">
<!--[if gte mso 9]>
<v:image xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" fill="true" stroke="false" style=" border: 0;display: inline-block; width: 450pt; height: 150pt;" src="https://i0.wp.com/techacute.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/how-to-find-royalty-free-images-on-google-1.png" />
<v:rect xmlns_v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" fill="true" stroke="false" style="width: 450pt; height: 150pt;display: inline-block; position: absolute;background-color:#B5CFE3;">
<v:fill type="frame" />
<v:textbox style="mso-fit-shape-to-text:true" inset="0,0,0,0">
<![endif]-->
<div>
<table role="presentation" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="100%">
<tr>
<td>
<p>content here</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]>
</v:textbox></v:fill></v:rect></v:image>
<![endif]-->
</td>
</tr>
</table>
You'll see I also used points instead of pixels. Outlook tends to work better that way, particularly if using text zoom. (Multiply the pixel value by 0.75 to get points)