VerticalResponse for AppExchange Blog

Get the Most From Your Email Images

Most, if not all of the marketing emails you send out likely include images to illustrate the content.  But are you using best practices to get the most from your images?

It takes more than just pretty pictures to be successful. So what do you need to know about images?

The 80/20 Rule - As a general rule of thumb, you should try to balance your email with no more than 20% image content and 80% text content.  Though 25 / 75 and 30 / 70 are not bad ratios either.  How do you calculate this ratio?

Just look over your email.  If it looks like it is roughly 20% image content to 80% text content then you’re doing just fine.  This particular rule is more of a guide than an exact science.

Why should you follow this rule?  Because many email browsers these days - around 40% or so - initially block images when the email arrives in the inbox, requiring the recipient to click a button or a link to turn the images on.  If your email is too image heavy then your recipients may not see enough content to take action, leaving them with no reason to turn your images on and see the full impact of your message.

Use the Quick Preview tool in the Canvas, Salesforce Mail Template and Freeform editors to take a look at how your email looks with images turned off.

Use Alt-Text - Giving all your images alternative text essentially provides you with an “emergency backup” in case a recipient cannot initially see your images.  Many of the same email browsers that block images will display the alt-text for the image so that the recipient knows there is image content there. 

So you should use the alt-text to either describe your image or the action you’d like people to take when they see the image.  How do you add alt-text?

In the Email Canvas or Salesforce Mail Template options found with VerticalResponse, we prompt you to create Alternative Text for an image after you select to add it to the email. 

If you write your own HTML, you can add alt text by entering the img alt=”description” attribute as part of your img src tag. 

Keep the File Size Small - You should try to keep the file size of every image in your email below 30k.  The smaller the file size, the faster the image will load for your recipients. 

You can check the file size of any image you’ve uploaded to your library simply by looking directly beneath the thumbnail for that image.  If you notice the file size is larger than 30k, simply scroll over the image and click the pencil icon to access our image editor. 

Any image edited and saved with our editor is optimized for web use to make the file size as small as possible.  So all you have to do is make a slight change to the image, save it and we’ll significantly shrink the file size automatically.

Turn Your Images into Links - Images are fairly big, pretty and tempting to click on.  Turn them into links, so they can lead people back to your website.

To turn an image into a link using our Canvas editor just select the image, click the chain link icon in the toolbar, enter the web address to which you want to link and click submit.

Use Your Resources - VerticalResponse provides a free stock photo gallery with more than 75,000 images.  To access this gallery, you need to use the Media Library link found in the Tools & Resources section on the main page of your VR Email tab.  There is a link to the Stock Photo Gallery within the main Library page from where you can search for images that fit the needs of your email message.

Any thoughts or questions?  Let us know in the comments. 

Improve Response With an Easy to Scan Email

My mom reads every single email I send her, word for word.  I bet your parents (or kids or grandkids or grandparents) do the same thing with your emails.

But I’ll also bet there is at least one group that does not read every single word of every email you send them: the customers and prospects on your mailing list.

Once someone opens up one of your emails, you have (on average) 15-20 seconds to really grab their attention.  If you don’t succeed, then they’ll move on to the next email in their inbox. 

How can you can get the most attention possible from the highest percentage of your readers?  By making your email easy to scan.

You can do this in a variety of ways:

Use short bullet points.  Like in this example below:

 

A brief glance at that email tells you the exact value of their offer.  No need to dig through several paragraphs of text to find out how to take action.  “Print subscribers now also get access to this exclusive online content and here’s how to access that content.”  This is a simple and effective message that you can read through in less than 20 seconds.

Break you content into short blocks of copy.  Of course, not all written content is appropriate for use with bullet points.  If your message requires multiple paragraphs, then break those paragraphs up into short blocks.  

You may have noticed we do this in our VerticalResponse for AppExchange newsletter.  No paragraph in the opening of article of each newsletter ever includes a paragraph that takes up more than 4 to 5 lines of space.  This makes the paragraphs much easier to look at.  A message with longer paragraphs, especially several longer paragraphs, could look overwhelming to a reader who only has a short amount of time to look over your message.

Use teaser content.  If you have a lot to say, don’t say it all within the email.  Use teaser content to allow readers to easily find the stuff that interests them and then push them to that content on your website or blog.  Like this example:

 

Even shrunk down to the small image size we see here, it’s pretty easy to see what this email is about.  They use big headlines, illustrative images, and a line or two of descriptive text to pique reader interest and guide them to the appropriate place for a longer video, article or product description. 

No recipient is likely to be interested in every single thing you have to say in your message.  Taking this approach makes it easy for people to find an item or two that interests them and then take action with those items.

Highlight links and descriptive sentences.  If you do have a longer newsletter or email that includes numerous paragraphs, consider highlighting or bolding important information within each paragraph.  That way a reader can easily scan your email for the most notable info without having to read every word you’ve written. 

Bolding your links makes them stand-out.  And if the goal of your email is to drive people back to your website, then you certainly want your links to be very noticeable. 

Limit the number of articles and calls to action.  Try not to include more than 3-5 topics in a newsletter and 1-2 topics in a general marketing email.  If you include too much info, then your recipients may overlook an item that would have interested them and that means you’ve lost someone who would have otherwise become a customer, registrant, viewer or reader. 

Thoughts or questions about this post?  Let us hear them in the comments.