Thursday, 28 October 2010, 11:26 PM
Forget All You Think You Know – Pictures in Emails Are Different Animals
Let’s say I sell Swedish grown oranges. It would have been so special – because oranges don’t grow in Sweden. But we’re using it as an example anyway. And we’re going to use a picture that makes you want oranges grown in Sweden – or elsewhere. One that sells.
On the web it will probably look like this:
Looks great! Alright, now let’s send it out to thousands of people in an email:
Hmm, not so great. Did you know that 10% felt no need to download the missing picture? 10% saw the picture properly, and 75% of the newsletters ended up in the fearsome spam box. The left over 5% decided they could no longer ignore that unrelenting curiosity, gave in, and downloaded the picture. I’m slightly exaggerating, but you get the idea.
Pictures in emails and pictures on the web are like comparing apples and, well…oranges. Pictures in emails and pictures in that lovely junk mail waiting at your front door aren’t really the same thing either. If we count on spam filters and image blocking, we could do it this way:
Try to even create the feeling of oranges when the picture pulls a no show:
I’m going to write more about this in an article about pictures in emails in a newsletter soon.
I’m going to run through these main points:
- Pictures in emails
- This is picture blocking
- Dressing up picture blocking
- Pictures and spam
- General picture rules
And of course Sarah and I have some more exciting tips and ideas we want to share with you!
