Use graphics effectively in email marketing
For many internet marketers, graphics are an essential part of their email marketing campaigns. By combining images with persuasive text, marketers hope to influence their readers to take their call to actions that can ultimately boost sales or increase awareness of their brand!
Improper use of Graphics
Nevertheless, there are still many marketers who are unable to effectively use graphics in their emails, thus resulting in undesirable conversions with their email marketing campaigns.
While graphics can help increase the effectiveness of an email marketing campaign, they are reasons for a lower rate of deliverability as well as viewing problems. There were also studies which show that heavy graphics could result in emails being dropped right into the spam folder.
Dos and Don’ts of Using Graphics in Emails
There are not many rules that dictate how you should use graphics and images in your emails. However, the following are some guidelines that you should take note of when inserting images into your emails.
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Size Matters
Much had been said about how image size can affect your entire email campaign. Too large and it will make your email difficult to load and hence, risk having your readers deleting your email. Too small and your readers will not be able to read what you are trying to say and will become uninterested.
It is recommended that you adjust the size before inserting the image into your email. You can easily do so using any photo editing software such as Photoshop. In the software, use the highly effective “Save for Web” option to automatically optimize your image for use on the web as well as in emails.
Once the image is inserted and your email drafted, be sure to test out on different browsers to ensure that the image is shown as it should be and not distorted.
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Don’t Overuse Graphics
Keep in mind that you are going to send an email and not a print material. You only have less than 5 seconds to make an impression and convince your readers to continue reading. Furthermore, this generally takes place at the preview pane of the email reader! Inserting too many graphics will result in longer loading time. Your subscribers may get bored and click away or delete your email.
Even if they had waited for your email to download, too many colors and images can project an overcrowding feeling and distract your readers from the real message you are trying to get across.
The other thing with too many graphics is that it may trigger the email clients to label your email as spam!
Try filling the top 2 inches of your email with both graphics and text. A good idea is to design a uniquely yours email header that combines both images and text. You can reuse this header next time you plan another email campaign. An unofficial rule of thumb is having graphics occupy 30% of your entire email space.
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Check Images’ Copyrights
Firstly, use your own images and logos. These images can be those that you took or created yourself. However, if you must use a third party’s image, be sure to check for copyrights.
If you Google and find an image that you would like to use in your email campaign, do check with the image’s owner. Enquire if the owner allows you to use the image and if yes, are there any conditions that you need to fulfill e.g. crediting the owner for the image. If you wish to avoid all these hassle, then seek an image that is publicly available and that’s free for use.
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Hyperlink Your Images
You don’t have to limit your links to just your call-to-action words or phrases. You can hyperlink your graphics or your logos. Have them link to the same webpage or different webpages as long as they are relevant. You can also link these to your email address too.
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Which Format to Use
Images come in many different formats and not all of them are the same. There are some that you should use like jpg and gif which are commonly found and thus, more likely to be supported by different email readers. Formats like png are not as popular and may be less supported by older email clients. Thus, they are not recommended for email marketing purposes.
Most mass email marketing software like Thunder Mailer enables you to insert images and adjust its “properties” such as width, height, border and etc. You can either click on “Insert Image” and browse for the image source or you copy and paste the image into your email. Either way, inserting images and graphics can be easily done.
Final words…
While graphics are important in attracting your subscribers’ attention, you should realize that you should not rely too much on these graphics to deliver your message. Many email clients such as Gmail and Yahoo!Mail are set to hide graphics by default. You have to click on “Show images” to display them.
Trust me, you don’t want your email to appear as one big blank space. Therefore, always add some plain text to your email so that even if your images are hidden, your text message still gets through. Make your text message brief and persuasive. Your main intention is to attract your readers to read further and to want to view your images!