8 best practices for effective email marketing in a preview-pane world
Have you tested your emails for preview pane optimization? If not, you’re blindly assuming that everyone you send an email newsletter (or promotion) to either opens or doesn’t open your daily beacon of light based only on your subject line. Right?
The preview pane is the juicy snippet that people see when they click on your email. Depending on how their email client is set up, they might see the top inch or two of your email, or if you’re lucky, they have the preview pane set up on the left or right, enabling them to see the whole thing. Most email clients don’t have that last feature as an option (and your users may or may not be informed enough to change it), so don’t be too optimistic.
According to iMediaConnection, these are the 8 best practices for effective email marketing in a “preview-pane world”:
ONE: Put the most important call to action in the upper left-hand corner, so it can be seen in either horizontal or vertical preview panes. For promotional emails, the offer or “shop now” call to action goes here. For newsletters, the table of contents or “In this issue” teaser goes here.
TWO: Do not embed copy in images or use single, large images. What happens if your headline, call to action or even the entire email is encapsulated in a graphic? The reader can’t see it at all if that image is blocked. Make your most important points in words, as well as in graphics, and place descriptive copy under each image. Also, always link to a web version of your email with all graphics intact.
THREE: Use HTML instead of graphics. Many of the issues with image-blocking can be avoided simply by using HTML design choices. HTML background colors, font colors, font tags and font sizes can give you a great look, without the headache.
[text_ad]
FOUR: Reduce the size of masthead images and logos and move them out of the upper-left corner. Those pretty images may brand your email, but they don’t spur the consumer to click through or convert, and they may not even be seen if blocked images are a factor. Again, devote the upper-left corner to driving desired actions.
FIVE: Add text-based email navigation in case images are automatically blocked. For example, instead of relying solely on a “Shop Now” button that may never be seen (or clicked), also add a “Shop Now” text link.
SIX: For big impact, design small. In the early days of email marketing, most templates were 800 pixels wide. Today, 600 pixels wide is a widely accepted standard, and smart marketers may do well to start designing even narrower. Even when the user opens an email and views it in a full window, shrinking real estate can still be a factor. Many email clients now serve display ads on the right-hand side of the screen, taking that space away from the message window.
SEVEN: Use a third-party rendering tool to avoid surprises. Rendering tools show you exactly what your message will look like in all of the most popular email clients so you can improve your design before you click “Send.” It’s smarter than scratching your head post-launch at puzzlingly low open rates.
EIGHT: Use Alt Tags as teaser copy in case images are blocked. A short, well-written Alt Tag that says something like “Strategies for improving ROI” where your newsletter banner would be, or “50% off Wonderful Widget” where a product photo would be can boost your metrics, but only for Gmail users. All of the other email providers that block images also block Alt Tags.
There are several great tools that you can use to optimize your email newsletter:
EmailLabs has a great Email Preview Pane Quiz that you should try out on your own email newsletter. They also have a Email Marketing Usability Rating Calculator that will put the design of your emails to the test, and a “From” and “Subject Line” Tester you should check out.
Lyris has an Inbox Snapshot Tool that will tell you what your email looks like in 40 different email clients. They also have some other cool tools and offer a free audit, so check them out.
W3C is the ultimate in code validation. Their free instant Markup Validation Service should be used on all of your sites, but perhaps even more importantly on your emails. Your email code needs to be as tight as can be in order to pass through spam filters. Even the smallest error can trip up and get you sent into junkmail.
