Did you know that you have less than 60 seconds to get your message across to most of your email subscribers? Once a subscriber clicks on your email, they typically spend less than a minute absorbing information and determining whether the email is pertinent to them before they decide to keep it or trash it. Since the amount of text a person can read in 60 seconds is negligible, you’ve got to make your initial impact another way: with graphics!
There are plenty of arguments that deal with why using images in your email newsletters is a bad idea, but when planned effectively and used in proper proportion, they still offer the most bang for your buck in an intensely visual medium. Here are eConnect Email’s tips for using effective imagery in your emails.
- Choose pictures that communicate your message.
If a visitor couldn’t read the text in your email, would he still have an idea what your company does and what the topic of your newsletter is? If not, then your images are just taking up space and creating large files that might get your email misdirected to the spam folder. With eConnect Email’s unlimited image hosting, you can upload a library of images to store and use within email content.
- Communicate without images, too.
Images are important, but there are two reasons your message should still be communicated even if a viewer can’t see your images. First, viewers who don’t have HTML viewing turned on will miss out on important information if it’s contained only within images. And second, viewers who check email on their smart phones will miss out on image rich messages if they don’t convert easily to mobile format. Either way, you’ve lost a potential customer if you trap vital messages within images.
- Maintain a 25/75 ratio of images to text.
The most effective email newsletters use approximately 25% images and 75% text. This ratio ensures that viewers find your emails visually pleasing but not cluttered and that they can still understand your messages if images can’t be viewed. eConnect Email can help keep your messages balanced by using our predesigned templates provided or one of our talented designers can customize an email template for you to effectively communicate your message.
Creating a visually effective email newsletter depends on your ability to marry text and images so that viewers clearly understand your message whether they spend a few seconds glancing at pictures or whether they have access to text only. The design help you’ll receive from eConnect Email will ensure that you have achieved that perfect balance in order to reach the most viewers with your message. Happy imaging!