Don't open sesame

We hear more and more about crowded inboxes, competition for attention, and how email recipients have so little time to read what we send them.
I am no different; I too receive a very high volume of email, and today I caught myself doing something that I suspect may be very common behaviour.

I cleared my weekend inbox. In amongst the mass of messages were some newsletters that I read avidly. Today I read them avidly, but I did so in the preview pane. I thought about this and tried to remember the last time I actually opened an email. Some time ago, was my initial response. I racked my brains and reached the conclusion that it was in fact some considerable time ago, like a year or two.

If I am right, and if more and more people are behaving in this way, what does it mean for email publishers?

Well, quite a lot. Opening rate metrics become irrelevant. Brevity, preview pane impact, and low image levels become vital. Use of preview pane real estate become even more important.

I know the golden rule of email analysis is never assume your behaviour is typical, but I am willing to bet that just this once this is a growing trend; one that probably will not, and cannot be reversed.

Next up, based on this assumption, I am going to reflect further on the design of an email in a world where readers only ever use the preview pane.

Don't let branding hide your key impact message

Just as all websites began life with headline banners that covered the width of the site to brand and identify the site, so most Html newsletters did the same.

Again, as with last week’s post, this is valuable real estate, and if you are communicating with an audience who are not brand new, is it the best use of that space?

What is your key intent in the email – is it reinforcing your branding, or perhaps the delivery of a message which hopes to stimulate action and response?

If it is the latter, then you should consider split headlining – reduce your branding to 30% of the headline banner, and replace it with rich text – headline news, calls to action which work in conjunction with your subject line and new top text headline (see last week’s post).

This is unlikely to diminish your brand or identity impact – remember that is already enforced through your sender ID.

It may not look quite as slick initially, but it will improve impact – especially in the preview pane.

Images and the Design Compromise

The need to render properly in different browsers; image blocking; image to text ratios; file size limitations; font and colour protocols - these are all factors in successful email design.

Pretty pictures do not work - unless they form no more than about 20 percent of an email, alongside plain and rich text.

Designers must learn to compromise on aesthetic appeal in order to increase functionality - deliverability, preview pane impact, and image blocked impact.

Image blocking is on the increase; it is estimated that 40% of NZ recipients have images blocked, so if your email is one big Jpeg, or has a large screenwidth banner image, then it will not render well in the preview pane. Browsers such as Gmail allow users to permanently enable images from trusted senders, but first you must become a trusted sender.

So if you want to communicate with 100% of your audience rather than 60%, then cut back on the headline banners - share the top spot with text headlines and semi screen width banners.

Alt text is important, although this may change with some latest browsers disabling this as well. Alt text sits behind an image in email - if the image is blocked, the Alt Text appears, so give careful thought to what you put there.

Why not drop images altogether? Just send plain text emails? Because you would be catering for the minority. 60% will still see your images, and they do increase impact, and reinforce branding.

So remember, email is a unique medium with it's own set of rules. It is not web design, and unless you recognise that, your audience will suffer.

Keep your images small and relevant - complementing text in the body of the message.