SEO Hosting Blog

A well-placed image in an email marketing message doesn’t just add aesthetic appeal…it also can motivate readers to take the action you desire. On the flipside, haphazardly adding images to your messages can decrease readership, create severe layout issues, and distract from your main call to action.

To sort out how to use images properly in email marketing, I’ve come up with this list of 5 common mistakes I’ve seen. Avoid these and you’ll be on your way to email marketing success.

1.    Using generic and/or irrelevant images—Placing a picture in your message simply for the sake of having a visual element is pointless. Images should be used to help you better make your point, to attract attention/grab the interest of your reader, and to motivate your reader to take action. For the love of all things holy, don’t toss in a few clipart images because you think they’re cute.

2.    Not resizing your images—All images in your emails should be resized for both their appearance size and the size of the file. A general guideline for file size is to keep it below 25kb. If you can get it lower than that, great. This will keep your emails light and fast to load. As far as the size of the actual image, keep it under 470×150. You don’t want the reader to have to scroll for 5 minutes to see your image.

3.    Putting too many emails in one message—Putting too many images in your email causes a couple of problems. First, it makes your emails load more slowly. And we all know how impatient internet users are. Your readers will not wait around for your images to load; they’ll click “delete” instead. The other problem with using too many images is that it can clutter your message and distract the reader from your call to action. Use no more than 1 image per section/offer in your message.
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