<< HTML or Text - Practical Advice on Campaign Formatting
The Benefits of HTML Messaging
If your message is promotional or informative, but not one you would typically send via post on letterhead, we recommend designing it in HTML. This format offers greater control over formatting, layout, color, fonts, graphics and branding. A visually pleasing design can affect your reader’s ability to process and enjoy the information you’re providing, while offering one more avenue for brand saturation. HTML design also opens up a wealth of possibilities and interactive functionality within each email. It gives you the ability to embed forms, links and surveys to truly participate with your reader.
When creating an HTML email, developers should keep best practice strategies in mind:
Properly Embed Graphics: When graphics or logos are imbedded improperly into your HTML email design, recipients will see a small red X and an empty graphic box where your image should have been displayed. This not only reflects poorly on your company, but also frustrates your viewers. If you’re promoting a product with images to entice shoppers, this can cause campaign ROI to plummet.
Copying or cutting and pasting an image or logo into your email can cause this problem. Instead, your image file must reside online and the image URL must be embedded into the message itself. Many professional email marketing solutions, like Listrak, give subscribers access to media libraries, allowing online storage and easy graphics placement to ensure visual integrity.
Guard against Image Blocking: Several email clients and services, including the popular Microsoft Outlook and Hotmail, Google Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and AOL versions 8.0 and 9.0 , block image files from incoming emails by default. This includes your product images, banner ads, logos, headers and masthead, causing one more hurdle to overcome when delivering HTML email promotions. Image blocking features have been implemented to protect users from pornographic material. Because images are not viewed, senders cannot detect if an email has been opened or not, thus spammers never know if the address is valid. As a result, marketers might want to focus less on open rates and more on click-through and conversion rates.
To minimize deliverability issues caused by image blocking:
- Use an email marketing service, like Listrak, that works diligently to stay on major ISP whitelists
- Include a text link on the top of your message so recipients can view your message on the Web
- Include alt tags along with each image
- Test your message’s visual integrity in the preview pane, providing the most critical information ‘above the fold’
- Use text-based instead of image-based banner ads
- Give subscribers the option to receive text or HTML emails dependant on their personal viewing preferences
Use Color and Graphics to Enhance, Not Overwhelm: A common mistake occurs when designers use overpowering colors and graphics in their message. When creating email campaigns, just as with print advertisements, less is always more. Large text, bold colors, and overwhelming graphics not only distract your readers from your content, but can reduce your campaign ROI and flag spam filters. So use visuals sparingly, focusing on content and your overall objective, whether that’s selling your products, informing your subscribers, or reinforcing your brand.
To improve message deliverability, Listrak offers a Spam Score feature that rates each message prior to launch. Spam Score is a powerful feature based on the popular Spam Assassin architecture, which helps marketers identify and change their messages proactively to avoid false-positive spam blocking.
