Bronto Blog

In the final post in a 3-part series (see first and second) written by our partners at Return Path, Dan Deneweth continues the discussion on issues affecting email deliverability. Want more deliverability information? You can check out their blog, the Email Marketing Water Cooler and sign up for real-time alerts when new content is published.

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Spammers have negatively influenced email in lots of ways, with one of the most visible being the need for image suppression. There is no question that the average consumer prefers pretty, graphically-enhanced email over the boring, plain text versions. But there is also no question that the average consumer prefers that pictures with "adult" themes don't accidentally pop up while at the office or in front of impressionable kids. The ISPs have combated this problem by suppressing graphics — essentially treating all images as potentially problematic. (Thank you, Mr. Spam.) Despite how widespread this practice has become, few marketers really think about how image suppression affects their email program. They should. Why? Four reasons:

1. Image suppression messes up your tracking: Open rates are calculated when an invisible graphic pings your servers. No graphic, no ping, no open. Data from DoubleClick and others suggests that an overall decline in open rates is due to the rise in image suppression. Knowing this when analyzing your data is important.
2. Image suppression can make your email unreadable: Depending on how your email is designed, your message without images might look very bad or it might be completely unintelligible. Through the design process consider what the email will look like without graphics. You may not be able to make it look great, but you can at least make it readable.
3. Image suppression limits your response rates: When someone can't see your email, or read your email, they are less likely to interact with it. How much money do you leave on the table because your best offer is in a graphic that doesn't display?
4. Image suppression can hurt deliverability: When subscribers don’t recognize an email because images are blocked, they may inadvertently mark it as spam. Also, the lack of responses (reason #3) and tracking (reason #2) can lead to poor marketing decisions, hurting the relevance and value of your program.

Our recommendation is to design for life without images. You can design a very attractive HTML message with no images at all. Most importantly, don’t use images in place of text. Instead, think of images as the spice in your message – a little bit goes a long way. It’s also crucial to use a safety link at the top of your message include hyperlinked copy that says, “Can’t read this email? Click here to view in your browser.”

Spend a little time on your email design and you can create great messages that will be readable in a variety of environments.

Dan Deneweth, Sr. Director, Sender Score Product Management, Return Path

One of the many cool aspects of working in the technology industry is learning (and developing) new terms. In case you missed it, a few newbies over the past several months include:

• Bacn: Bronto highlighted it in this very blog a few months back; there is even an entire site dedicated to Bacn (buy your shirt now)
• Remail: Tactic #5, or remarketing as some have named it
• Preheader / Snippet Text: see details below

So…what is the "snippet text?" Stefan Pollard defines it as the "tiny but significant parcel of real estate in your email message." I especially like his "3-step Extreme Snippet Makeover."

Lisa Harmon - one of the Voices of Email contributors from the Email Experience Council Blog - evaluates a few messages which utilize the snippet text, or preheader as she calls it. The Pottery Barn Kids example is most in line with what I'd recommend. The key is adding value (i.e, more than "if you're having trouble viewing…"), while avoiding rehashing what you have in the email body. Comment #1 validates this very point.

I wrote about preheaders back in October of 2007. Since that time, I've worked with several clients and you'd be amazed at the results. Click-throughs on the clear call-to-action in the preheader have shot through the roof. It's amazing that your creative department can spend all that time (and $$) on building "the perfect" email design, and all subscribers want to do is go directly to your site!

Please comment on this blog post with ways you've successfully utilized the preheader. The revolution begins now.

DJ Waldow
Account Manager at Bronto

You've probably heard that all of the cool kids: Windows Live (Hotmail), AIM Mail (AOL), Yahoo! Mail (Yahoo!), and Gmail are turning off images by default. To avoid a costly detour by this potential roadblock you could include the old standby "If you are having trouble viewing.." message in your emails.

However, does this messaging really help your bottom line? As a consumer, I bet you don't even see those words anymore. You've subconsciously trained yourself to read right over it at the speed of light. Some phrases - like the ones in my Gmail inbox…

…have become so overused that eventually, they go overlooked and "unread," wasting valuable email real estate.

I see the words: problems, trouble, online, web version, click here, viewing, and email being used too often in ineffective ways, such as:

1. If you are having trouble viewing this email, view it online.
2. Problems viewing this email? Click here to view a web version.
3. If you are having trouble viewing this email, click here.
4. Problems viewing this email? Click Here.

If you think you're a culprit, instead of restating the obvious, I challenge the you to be like Apple of the late 1990's and "Think Different." What would happen if you put a "call-to-action" as your first line in addition to the online version (gasp). Dare to be different…add some spice!

For example…

1. View our entire collection now or the simply check out the online version
2. What are you waiting for? View all offers now.
3. Short on time? Go straight to the source.

As we always stress at Bronto: Test, Test, and then Test again. You may be surprised at the results.

Just beware, after making this change your next problem maybe your subscribers are too busy buying a featured product than reading your message! Not a bad problem to have…

DJ Waldow
Account Manager at Bronto