Comments on: Do Your Images Detract From Your Message?

By: MaAnna

MaAnna — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 21:32:00 +0000

Nice guest post by Marianne. I remember back in the day, when most folks still needed a coder to have a site, I had to create email templates for the lowest common denominator. At that time it was Gmail, which displayed the least fancy code. My how things have changed – and not. Now Gmail is one of the better online clients, but because of security issues and the popularity of reading email on the go, we are back to deliverimg emails in plain text.

Last year, that’s how I started delivering my emails. But several of my readers lamented how plain they were, so I switched to a more colorful template with a graphic header. You know what, I’m going back to simple text. The newsletters of every marketing guru I subscribe to is in plain text format. If their money is in their list and that’s how they deliver their info, then there’s something to learn from that.

By: DeniseWakeman

DeniseWakeman — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:15:00 +0000

In reply to Karen Runtz. Thanks for stopping by, Karen. Glad to know the information was helpful to you.

By: Karen Runtz

Karen Runtz — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:05:00 +0000

Very helpful analysis. While images can dial up interest, they can also “pump up the volume” in less friendly ways. I’ve been careful about some aspects–ratios, alt tags etc. but I see there are other things I need to look at as well, such as the hosting, instead of embedding. You mention that “We recommend not using large banners or clickable graphics in the header.” That reminds me that I need to follow up on something with my email marketing provider: I’ve noticed that the “follow us on facebook” etc. icons show up as inordinately large text in the top part of the email. Definitely need to get this fixed.
Thanks for the information.