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To add or not add images to an email....

by roytee
20 replies
Hello Seasoned Email Marketeers,

I am a relative newbie to your world and would greatly appreciate your opinion on the mater of placing images in email newsletters.

I was thinking of maybe a header/banner at the top of the page, maybe a profile pic at the bottom.

Does adding images affect in anyway either the deliver-ability of emails from your AR service or the success rate of inbox delivery rates? Or am I worrying about nothing.....

Any advice is most welcome,

Many Thanks
#add #email #images
  • Profile picture of the author pjman
    I guess it depends on your niche. I always find that using multi-mime (text and HTML) with no images works best. I make buttons via CSS as my call to actions. My tests always so a 40% increase in clicks this way.

    The best advice is to test all version. Simple format with short attention getting messages as works best.
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  • Profile picture of the author lukeguy
    Images do in fact affect open rate. You can read more here: How to Land Your Emails in the Gmail “Primary” Tab Every Time I wrote something for Pat Flynn and had published on his site a few months ago. It talks about this.

    Gmail will send you to promotion tab if you in fact do this.

    I also talk about it here: http://lukeguy.com/2-examples-viral-newsletters/

    I study email like a hawk and hate how Google sometimes like to be our nanny.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Ray
    In my opinion Images (header images, signature images etc.) are great ways you can brand yourself and your site/service to the people who sign up.

    The only downside in my experience is if these people do not go and white list you so that you go directly into their inbox it's pretty much a crap shoot from there.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by roytee View Post

    Does adding images affect in anyway either the deliver-ability of emails from your AR service or the success rate of inbox delivery rates?
    Yes; it typically reduces open-rates very significantly.

    Originally Posted by roytee View Post

    I was thinking of maybe a header/banner at the top of the page, maybe a profile pic at the bottom.
    The underlying idea (of "branding yourself" and "making your emails more recognisable than anyone else's") is a good one, but for most people that isn't the optimal way to try to do it. Making your content far more valuable than anyone else's, setting and fulfilling your subscribers' expectations appropriately, and having such a powerful continuity-system that your subscribers eagerly and enthusiastically await your next email work much better: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post6123982

    .
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  • Profile picture of the author artflair
    I've tried many different email formats from a newsletter full of images, through mixing text and images to text only and the last one works best by far!
    Especially if you have one clear call to action.
    The idea of a newsletter is fine for raising brand awareness but I'm always looking for clicks and taking specific action now...
    Good luck
    Art
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      There are still a lot of people who keep images turned off, both for bandwidth and security. When they do, all they get is the little image icon, and you don't get much branding value from that.

      The only image I use is the 1x1 pixel image that helps track views.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jeff Lenney
    I've had luck before adding a IMAGE of a video I might be promoting with a play button on top. I find that some of the bigger marketers add images to their emails - and I've found I get a pretty good open rate when I do this
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  • Profile picture of the author Member8200
    Pics on email will generally affect your inbox rates

    Have success by using mailing soft and a whitehat SMTP before around 70% inbox rates on pure text. with pics it gradually goes down to 40%.

    How about email them in pure text then just direct them to a page on your site with tons of pictures they can view?
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  • Profile picture of the author Tim P
    If I'm receiver, an email with image doesn't impress me at all.
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  • Profile picture of the author bobby_shahzad
    I think it is not a good idea to sent a simple text message to your subscribers it will not only reduce your open rates also reduce the interest of your subscribers who are actually reading your messages.

    Given below are some of the benefits of using an html campaign.

    Html Email campaigns can Track Opens
    Html Email campaigns can Make Text Links Clickable
    Html Email campaigns can Use Images and Colors – Good Branding Opportunities!
    Html Email campaigns are easy to Break Up Content into Digestible Bits (using columns, headers)
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  • Profile picture of the author talfighel
    I've tried to use images a few times in my emails to test if I get better conversions all around and to tell you the truth, it didn't.

    The only thing I do suggest you do is to have your picture show when you mail your subscribers and just use text instead of having some banners inside your emails.
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  • Profile picture of the author vedremo
    Banned
    Keeping it simple and clean is the key. If you don't think you'll go far with fancy images that nobody would bother to look at anyway, then you can play with how your texts appear. Highlighting, bold, italic, underlining and even coloring your texts as needed will definitely make a difference. Just make sure not to overdo it. Otherwise, your email might end up looking just like another spam.
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  • Profile picture of the author madelyndon
    Well, I'm glad I read this before creating my first email. I actually just got my first subscriber today! So, I thought I was supposed to create these fun emails (I'm in a niche related to kids) and do the main topic on let's say birthday party themes, then on the side have a Birthday Toy spotlight and maybe a great kid food recipe and so on. I was going to pack it with good stuff but I planned to do a lot of pictures. How do I recommend a toy, without the pic? I guess get them to come back to my site, but I didn't know if repeating content from your site in your email would be good. Thought the email should have special info that wasn't on my site.

    Now with this talk of text only emails, I'm not too sure about the email response setup. I know, as a mom, the emails I subscribe to all have pictures and that's why I would click. So I get Zulily emails for kid clothing or Etsy emails on crafts and I click because it looks good, I don't think words would do it for me.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by madelyndon View Post

      Well, I'm glad I read this before creating my first email. I actually just got my first subscriber today! So, I thought I was supposed to create these fun emails (I'm in a niche related to kids) and do the main topic on let's say birthday party themes, then on the side have a Birthday Toy spotlight and maybe a great kid food recipe and so on. I was going to pack it with good stuff but I planned to do a lot of pictures. How do I recommend a toy, without the pic? I guess get them to come back to my site, but I didn't know if repeating content from your site in your email would be good. Thought the email should have special info that wasn't on my site.

      Now with this talk of text only emails, I'm not too sure about the email response setup. I know, as a mom, the emails I subscribe to all have pictures and that's why I would click. So I get Zulily emails for kid clothing or Etsy emails on crafts and I click because it looks good, I don't think words would do it for me.
      Like any rule, there are exceptions to be made - as long as you know why you are making them.

      I get a lot of emails from companies promoting physical products, recipes, etc. with lots of images. Something a lot of them are doing, which I intend to copy when needed, is adding a link to an online version. The link usually says something like "Having trouble viewing this email? Click here to read online."

      If you want the email content to be somewhat exclusive, just put the emails in a sub-folder that isn't linked to on your main site and don't link the emails together.
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  • Profile picture of the author madelyndon
    Does it count when you use a certain template within Aweber? I liked one with flowers, but that is an image, so that counts?
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    "The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it."

    A man asked Buddha "I want happiness" Buddha said " First remove "I" that's ego, then remove "want" that's desire. See now you are left with only happiness "
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  • Profile picture of the author Masondavis
    In my opinion Images (header images, signature images etc.) are great ways you can brand yourself and your site/service to the people who sign up.
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    Digitallyy

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  • Profile picture of the author James1212
    I would say add A Image, it's like the Audi car icon. It stays in their mind.
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    Mike Schlecht

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  • Profile picture of the author Edwin Torres
    Hey! What I recommend you do is make your emails HTML that look like plain text ones. No fancy graphics. No fancy headers. Just plain ol' text. I'm saying to make them HTML only so you can track opens.
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    • Profile picture of the author lukeguy
      Originally Posted by Edwin Torres View Post

      Hey! What I recommend you do is make your emails HTML that look like plain text ones. No fancy graphics. No fancy headers. Just plain ol' text. I'm saying to make them HTML only so you can track opens.
      I agree with this guy
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  • Profile picture of the author loprox
    Just remember to focus on mobile devices. A very high % of emails are read on mobile devices. If your user is super engaged, they'll be reading your email right as it comes in. This means making sure he/she can read and digest the content on any device they choose.

    Specifically with images, that does mean you need to be careful and see how your emails looks on mobile or tablet devices.
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