by Nick James
©
2010
http://www.incomesecrets.co.uk People
view their emails through many different programmes that treat each email differently
- Outlook, Lotus Notes, Gmail - and there are also many different screen sizes,
from desktops to mobiles. Although we are all able to dictate our own personal
settings, people generally use the preview panes to view emails and have an email
account that requires them to right click to download the images. Busier
inboxes mean marketers can no longer rely on pictures of fancy cars or pretty
ladies to get the interactions they want, as all we see is a box with a little
red cross and the words "Right click here to download pictures. To protect
your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the internet".
What does this mean from a marketing perspective? What it
doesn't mean is that we should stop being creative with our emails. It just means
we need to test what our audiences like and make sure we include a good ratio
of text to imagery. Remember, people expect email to be interactive. We can use
it to drive recipients to the web where we have a much more flexible and live
environment; your videos can play and people can submit forms and interact. The
internet is much more standardised from desktop to desktop so it is easier for
you to test your campaigns on different web browsers, such as Explorer, Mozilla
or Firefox, and therefore have confidence that most people will get the same interactive
experience. Here are a few tips for optimising your emails
for image blocking: - Design for the inbox
Do not just re-purpose
an offline piece or webpage and dump it into an email. You need to optimise what
you are sending for the inbox whilst making sure the brand journey remains consistent
from email to web.
- Use text before imagery and include your company
name
Even with image blocking on, the recipient can still read an introduction
and know who the email is from before having to right click.
-
Host images online
Avoid embedding images in your email as most firewalls
will strip these out and people won't even be able to right click to see them.
-
Use headlines
People scan emails when they receive them so make sure you
have meaningful headlines that your recipients can pick out quickly to get an
understanding of the content.
- Do not use images for headings
Make
sure that relevant content is in text format. This will ensure recipients quickly
know what you are trying to say without having to right click to download designer
titles.
- Front load your sentences
Use keywords and hot
topics early in your paragraphs as people will not always read to the end of the
line.
- Repeat your calls to action
People are more likely
to click on text than images, so write your actions out and repeat them within
your email.
- Keep the design simple
Do not have too many
colours or competing pieces of content, as there will be too much noise. Your
recipients will delete your email rather than try to work out which elements are
important.
- Make sure there is brand consistency from email to
web
Create landing pages if necessary, but ensure that when a recipient
clicks on a link to the web they feel like they are on the same message journey.
-
Consider your subject line and from address
These are the first pieces
of information people will see when they get your email. If they are not intriguing,
the time you have spent on your creative and content will be wasted as people
will delete the email without even opening it.
- Be a safe sender
Get
people to add you as a safe sender as this will mean your images will be downloaded
automatically in the future.
Credit:
About the Author: Nick James is a true
example of a self made success. He offers the inside track in every aspect of
internet business creation and development. Right now he's giving away a Free
Income Secrets DVD for only £1 S&H while stocks last!
http://www.incomesecrets.co.uk
Related
Information: NBA
Benefit Provider - Custom
Toll Free NBA
Resource Article - The Pitfalls
of Email Marketing NBA
Resource Article - How
Email Needs To Grow Up To Be Treated Like A Trusted Adult Reprint
of this article does not constitute an endorsement by the National Business Association;
the article is for informational purposes for our members and viewers of our Web
site. |
| |
