Worldwide Email Marketing

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Email Marketing Best PracticesDesigning for
Image Blocking
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Why talk about image rendering?

• Proper coding and design of emails can
• Increase opens
• Improve click-throughs
• Activate engagement
• Reduce spam complaints and unsubscribes
• Without changing anything else, you can
  substantially improve opens and clicks

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The email gets designed and sent
For the record, this was not designed by Ogilvy!
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And ends up looking like this
Requires person to click to show images
unlikely they will
Links are disabled cant click, cant
click-through
No descriptions to encourage turning images on
Can be considered SPAM deleted or flagged
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Or like this, this and this
Images broken
Appears as HTML code
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28 emails arrive with blocked images

• More email programs GoogleMail, AOL, Outlook,
  Yahoo! are blocking images by default. The
  reader must select to turn them on, which many
  dont do
• An issue for B2B marketers too. 2 companies with
  the same firewall software can render images
  differently. Different versions of the same email
  program (like Lotus) can also impact rendering
• Fewer than 50 of marketers create emails that
  render correctly
• 1 in 5 marketing emails are invisible and
  ineffective due to blocked images and disabled
  links
• An increase in viewing on mobile devices can
  create more issues

Source Email Experience Council, January 2007
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Blocked images have a negative impact

• Open rate results
• Opens for HTML emails are tracked by a pixel
  image within the email. If images are blocked,
  the image doesnt register
• Click-throughs
• If the reader sees only broken images with no
  links, there is no way for them to click-through.
  A low CTR may not be the email offer, but that
  the person literally cannot click-through
• Engagement
• Heatmapping shows people may think there is a
  problem with loading and wait for the images,
  detracting from the message
• Spam complaints/unsubscribes
• Lack of trust and concerns of SPAM can cause the
  person to hit the This is spam button or
  opt-out altogether

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Heatmapping example
Readers focus almost entirely around the main
image, waiting for it to load
Some attention shown to the copy, but readers
keep returning to main image area
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Missed opportunities
Clickable tags but hard to read
Unclear who its from
Vague ALT-tags (there is an offer here but cant
see it)
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Good design for image blocking
Company name repeated
Use of clickable descriptive ALT-tags
Benefit-oriented ALT-tag
HTML vs. image for important fare information
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Good design for image blocking
Link to hosted version
Whitelisting request
Description to encourage showing images
Price/value repeated in tag
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Test rendering before sending
See email in preview panes, with images blocked
and in consumer or B2B email programs before
sending

• Ogilvy partners with Pivotal Veracity for
  rendering and delivery testing services
• Talk to a practice team member for more
  information and pricing

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So, what to do next? Some simple steps

• Share this information (and the suggestions on
  the next page) with your account, interactive and
  creative teams who work on email marketing
• Ensure briefs include direction for the
  copywriter to write descriptive ALT-tags for
  images
• Provide your coders with the ALT-tag copy, which
  images to link to, and the link location
• Test emails in Pivotal Veracity to see how they
  render in major/popular email programs (speak
  with a practice team member for more information
  on PV)
• If Ogilvy is not designing the clients emails,
  share this information with them to open
  opportunities for rendering testing, heatmapping,
  digital workshops on best practice design

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For your creative, PM and coding teams

• Avoid all-image emails, even if images are
  spliced
• Use HTML code instead of images where possible
  (for copy, background)
• ALWAYS include ALT-tags on email images
• Make sure the ALT-tags are descriptive of the
  action, not the image
• Good IBM SOA Executive Summit is the premier
  event for IT professionals. Register now.
• Weak A00345.jpg Man at Computer
• Make images clickable/linked so when people hover
  the broken image as they often will they have
  an action to take
• Ensure emails include a View as Web page link
  at the top many people use this (view your
  clients link tracking and youll see)
• Build rendering testing into schedule and budget
  contact an Email/DD team member for more
  information

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For more information on best practices and
Pivotal Veracity

• BeNeLux/Eastern Europe tamara.gielen_at_ogilvy.com
• Other EMEA/Latin America amy.doliveira_at_ogilvy.com
• UK skip.fidura_at_ogilvy.com
• AP sangita.patel_at_ogilvy.com
• Canada diksha.dua_at_ogilvy.com
• New York andy.goldman_at_ogilvy.com

Other resources

• Truffles Worldwide Email Marketing Community
• www.b2bemailmarketing.com (Tamaras blog)
• www.emailexperience.org (DMA Email Experience
  Council)
• www.emailmarketersclub.com (Social network on
  Ning)
• www.email-standards.org (Delivery/rendering info)
• Facebook Groups Ogilvy Worldwide Email Marketing
  Community Unofficial Email Experience Council
  Group Email Standards Project