Why is Email Marketing Newsletter Content and Image Balance Important?

By Heather Truitt

There is nothing like opening an email on your computer or phone and seeing the following screen:

The average person received 90 emails per day in 2016. As digital marketers, we want to ensure that our messaging stands out in the crowded email-marketing space. Unfortunately, email marketing messages such as the above, that rely on only images and no words, are far more likely to miss their mark. Unless the email has a subject that has captured my attention, this email would immediately get deleted. In fact, I might even take the extra minute to unsubscribe.

Using an image is a great way to grab attention in your email marketing, but adding text content that supports the image is a best practice. That way, if your image doesn’t display correctly in your recipients’ inboxes – showing only a message to “right click here to download image” – they still will have an idea what your message is about.

You are selling yourself and your company short by not including any text-based messaging along with an image in your email marketing content. By taking a shortcut and using only images, more of your email recipients will unsubscribe from your email marketing database.

By balancing the image-to-text ratio in your email marketing messages, however, you will create content that engages more readers. For example, take a look at this Netflix email marketing message:

Netflix has included a large, attention-grabbing image at the top of the email, and below, they have added text content that supports the image. The image immediately presents the promotion, and the text content provides more insight. Even if you don’t “load the images” for this email, you will still understand the message. At the bottom of the message, Netflix add two action buttons (if you need help constructing an effective call-to-action, check out our recent blog post).

Below are a few email marketing best practice tips:

• Test, test, test, test, and do another test before you schedule or send your email blast. I can’t tell you how many emails I receive and just ask myself… Why? Twice last week, I received emails that were either mis-formatted, missing images, or contained broken links. Sure, everyone makes mistakes, but these were very simple things that could have been avoided if a round of testing was incorporated into the email marketing process as a quality control measure.
• Make sure you optimize your images. People don’t have the patience to wait for large images to load in an email. A particular daily email publication that I follow often features vintage artwork and vintage graphic design images of historical significance, but it sometimes takes 2 minutes for the entire email to load. Make sure you are saving your images so the file size is less than 50kb. That will ensure that they load more quickly for your recipients.
• Test on multiple platforms. This is something that we do in-house at Furia Rubel, where some of us work on Macs and some of us are on PCs. Sometimes there is a world of difference between what you see on the screen and what your coworker sees. You can also subscribe to a platform like Litmus, where you can test and view different platforms and versions all in a simple interface. 

The appropriate balance of images and text ensures that your recipients are more engaged in your marketing messaging and are more likely to click-through your call-to-action links.

Email Marketing Matures with Litmus and Microsoft Partnership

By Heather Truitt

For 10 years of my career, I’ve supported clients with email marketing. No matter the message, there is always one factor that is critical to all email marketers: will the email present well in Outlook?

Recently, while working with a coworker to finalize an urgent client email alert, we experienced an issue with Outlook. The eAlert looked exactly as I had designed it in my Outlook, but it did not display the logo properly on my coworker’s screen.  As soon as I saw a screenshot of her display, I knew what needed to be fixed.

If you’re an experienced email marketer, one screenshot usually will provide you with enough information to solve the issue. Outlook display issues can range from not displaying a background color or an unexpected border around an image with a link to fonts displaying improperly and images showing up with incorrect justifications. In fact, virtually thousands of things can go wrong when designing for email marketing.

I recently participated in an “Industry-Changing News” live stream by Litmus. Litmus is an email marketing service that provides access to view your email on various platforms including Mac, PC, Mail, all Outlook platforms and more. This service is invaluable to email marketers and developers because you can log in and view the email in all the platforms. I easily could have spotted the Outlook issue I described above if I had been able to test it in Litmus or other email testing and delivery tools.

Here is a list of some other email testing websites that evaluate email messages for design and content, including spam scores:

• Aurea, which acquired Lyris (http://www.aurea.com/products/email-marketing)
• Email on Acid (https://www.emailonacid.com/)
• Email Reach (http://www.emailreach.com/)
• Email Spam Test (http://www.emailspamtest.com/)
• Postmark (http://spamcheck.postmarkapp.com/)
• PutsMail (https://putsmail.com/)

In addition to hearing more about the Litmus platform, about 15 minutes through the live stream, a special speaker from Microsoft was introduced. Caitlin Hart announced that Litmus is partnering with Microsoft to #MakeEmailBetter, the details of which can be viewed online at https://litmus.com/microsoft-partnership.  The announcement comes after 15 years of having to create specific work-arounds just to make sure an email displays properly in Outlook.

With a team of Microsoft engineers working with Litmus, I believe we will see some great things for email marketing in the future, things we were not capable of doing via email before.

Lessons From Shutterfly's Pregnancy Email Campaign Gone Awry

By Sarah Larson

Shutterfly thinks I just had a baby.

Shutterfly probably thinks you just had a baby, too, which might come as a surprise to you - especially if you’re male.

The online photo developer sent out an email marketing campaign on Thursday, May 14, that went a bit awry.

“Congratulations,” it read. “There’s nothing more amazing than bringing a new life into the world. As a new parent, you’re going to find more to love, more to give and more to share - we’re here to help you every step of the way.”

I was a little puzzled when I read my email. My first baby just turned 13, and my youngest baby is 7.

Intended to go to Shutterfly account users who recently purchased baby-related items, the email went instead to what a company spokesperson told The Huffington Post was “a larger distribution.” Judging by the number of my friends and acquaintances and perfect strangers around the ‘net who received the email, that number was pretty large.

Because it lets no opportunity for humiliation to pass by unnoticed, the Internet had a field day with the error, especially the platform of all that is snarky, Twitter.

From all appearances, the email was an honest mistake. If it were about a generic subject, it might not have elicited the reaction it did. For couples struggling with infertility, however, the email was a knife to the heart. "After 3 miscarriages and no babies, this email ripped me apart." wrote one woman on Twitter.

In response, Shutterfly sent another email later in the day apologizing to those who received the first message in error.

The Shutterfly incident offers a few takeaways on how to handle marketing and public relations fails.

1. Pay attention to the reaction to the error so you can respond swiftly.
2. Apologize when necessary, from the highest management level responsible.
3. Distribute contact information (phone number, email address, etc.) so upset customers have a way to provide feedback.

We've written extensively about crisis communications in prior posts, including Crisis Averted - Advice From the Pros and Crisis Communications for Nonprofits. Do you have any helpful tips for communicating during a crisis? Please share them in the comments.

Top Tips for E-Communications Layouts

Posted by Laura Powers

Marketing materials delivered via email should be branded, well-designed and full of rich audience-centric content. When going through the stages of design, it is important to keep in mind best practices and industry standards. One design item we are frequently asked about is email width and sizing. The maximum sizing that is recommended is 600 pixels wide, the typical width of an email viewing pane.

Contactology.com explains that even as computer display monitors become larger, the email industry standard remains around 600 pixels wide due to the small number of folks that have a computer with smaller screen resolution. If the content of your campaign exceeds 600 pixels in width, some webmail clients may require the user to scroll horizontally to view all of your content. When a user has to take the extra step of clicking the scroll bar to see all your content, the campaign faces the danger of not capturing the user’s full attention.

The service provider Vertical Response also recommends that users stick to 600 pixels wide for email layouts to plan for the preview pane. The average pane is 600 pixels wide by 200 pixels tall, but that is going to vary by recipient since each individual’s preview pane is adjustable. Make sure that easily digestible content is at the top of the page that will drive the recipient to take action or read more.

MailChimp.com, another popular e-communication service provider, has a wide variety of resources available for email communication best practices and tips. How to Use Templates is a useful guide for understanding structure and layout standards.

In conclusion, many factors go into successfully planning and managing company e-communication campaigns. The goal is to have your target audience view, read and share the email’s content easily. When planning the design it is important not only to incorporate the brand, colors and images, but to follow industry standards and best practices even for something that may seem simple like layout size.

Direct Mail Marketing vs. Email Marketing – Response Rates and Trends

Posted by Laura Powers

At Furia Rubel, we are frequently asked how email marketing campaigns measure up to classic direct mail marketing campaigns. Our answer is: they really don’t compare.

Law firm email marketing campaigns (like printed business-to-business traditional newsletter campaigns) have the primary objective of raising awareness for the firm and sharing firm news and accomplishments. This is why open rates, the number of people who click open an email, are so important.

When measuring classic direct mail marketing, we measure a response from the audience. There is no "open rate" data for direct mail. Since response rate is the measurement, the primary objective of a classic direct mail piece is to drive the customer to make contact with the company.

Q: Can you share any information on direct mail open rates vs. email open rates?

Classic direct mail open rates vary depending on the mailing list and the mailing piece. For this data, I always reference reports from the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). A helpful example that answers the question is from DMA’s most recent data which shows that letter-sized envelopes mailed to in-house lists, generated from databases, Outlook or a CRM system, had a response rate of 3.42 percent in 2010. However, letter-sized envelopes mailed to purchased / prospects lists only had a response rate of 1.38 in 2010.

Q: Are email open rates getting lower while direct mail open rates are getting higher?

Classic direct mail response rates held steady from 2006 to 2010. While, we typically see a drop in open rates in client email marketing campaigns if the lists are not kept current, or the email content is not client-centric (i.e., there is only marketing messaging included or there is no valuable content included for the audience). Email marketing open rates are expected to continue to increase in the short-term. Currently, this is one of the most popular and favorable ways for businesses to connect with customers.

Q: Are the stats different for unsolicited junk mail vs. mail from your attorney or someone you do business with?

Yes, see above regarding in-house list vs. prospect list response rates.

For more information: http://www.the-dma.org/cgi/dispannouncements?article=1451