You can create professional emails by following best-practice email design guidelines without an on-staff designer. Information about how to design for tablets, mobile, Web sites… can confuse anyone. But basic principles still apply.
The left image demonstrates what an email created with only images looks to a recipient who doesn’t download images.
The right image is what the email looks like after images were downloaded.
You can create an email template that decreases your chances of negative email analytics (bounces, etc.) with the following tips:
Text On Top! If you include important details in an image, and the recipient doesn’t download the image, you’re throwing away a potential lead. This rule also shows how using images throughout an email can hurt your follow-through rates, i.e. email clicks, etc.
Down With Spam! This is obvious but almost any word is considered spam today. That puts retailers in a tough position. The words sale, buy, bowl, cash, holiday, season, hotel, free, purchase…. Are considered spam words! One way to get around these pesky spam rules is to include spam words in an image and to include the least amount of text possible.
Use. Few. Words. If you follow the above rule and use the fewest words, you should receive the smallest spam rate, right? That’s the idea. This rule coincides with the fact digital readers spend less time reading an online device compared to printed material; therefore, online readers have shortened attention spans. Unless you’re at a beach with your Kindle, you’re reading at work or in between activities. So do your readers a favor – keep it short!
Fewer & Smaller Images – One large image doesn’t follow the first email best practice rule, so why would you include a large image? Large images increase the chances your email is going into a spam filter. Spammers get around the spam word problem by sending one large image with all information on it. Using too many images increases the chance your recipient will miss important information.
What’s the exception to these rules? If you receive emails via an opt-in subscription, then your bounce rates may be lower. But if you receive emails from various sources, the correct address may get lost in translation and you need.
