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Here’s (One Reason) Why I Don’t Recommend Fancy Images For Emails
Posted by
Ian Brodie on 17th December 2013.
Got this email from Copyblogger today.
I like Copyblogger. I think they create some good material. In fact I've paid for a couple of their programs.
And I think they've done a good job with their new branding.
However, this recent email from them (and most of the emails they send with images in) is unreadable on my iPhone as the picture shows.
Like very many emails sent with images in, if the image is bigger than the 300 or so pixels of the mobile devices screen, it will shrink the whole email to fit the screen. The result is that the text becomes far to small to read without zooming and panning (ie no one in their right mind will do it).
And since emails you've opened on your mobile device usually then appear as read on your desktop, you tend not to open them again.
Result = high open rates, but low genuine read rates. And no action taken on the email.
I understand why Copyblogger have gone a bit upscale and started making their emails look more branded. In Email Persuasion I make the case that for most of us, very plain formatting that makes our emails look like normal emails from friends and colleagues works best.
In Copyblogger's case since these days they're clearly a business rather than a person the professonalisation of their branding is understandable.
But it just shows you how tricky it is to get images to work well in emails. And since the latest stats say that more email is opened on mobile devices than desktops, it's something you need to think about carefully before going down that route.