Tip of the Day: NOI

It's easy to become seduced by fancy, colorful html emails. But beware: fancy emails don't necessarily perform better. Here are a few reasons I urge caution with images in your emails.

• Images make your email less personal. The emails that most people read in their inboxes don't contain fancy graphics at all; they're simple messages from family and friends. It's hard for an organization to look personal if it's obvious they spend days and days working on graphics placement in an email.
  
  
• Images won't always show up. Many email browsers automatically block images. That means a large percentage of your readers are only seeing blank rectangles on a screen unless they click a button.
  
  
• Images aren't mobile-friendly. More and more people are checking email on mobile devices. Not only do fancy images not render well on most mobile phones, they'll take over the screen and make your email hard to read.
  
  
• Simple is often just as good. In the many tests we've done, using an email button and not using an email button often doesn't have a statistically significant impact. And when we compare simple text buttons vs. elaborate Photoshop masterpieces, many of the simple email buttons perform better.

Yes, if you're an animal rights organization and you have an adorable picture of a puppy, or if you're an international relief organization and you have a heartbreaking picture of a starving child, use it. But the lesson is this: don't hold up your entire email just to finish an image, and don't make your whole email an image.