Hello, fellow email lovers!
Last time we talked, we chatted about putting a stop to mediocre campaigns and adapting preheader text to your marketing emails. Today, my friends, we’ll take a look at another piece that will help you create killer emails.
As automated as Marketing Automation is, we still have the opportunity to provide a human-to-human experience. Email should be viewed as a one-to-one platform; it connects with users at a very personal level—embrace that. Actual people are designing the email, coding the email, and sending the email. At the same time, actual people are receiving the email. It’s become the norm for us as marketers to focus on a massive list and forget that we are sending our email to a person, straight to their inbox.
So, what’s one quick way to re-establish human interaction? Easy. Let’s talk alt text.
Marketers tend to overlook alt text, but it should be on a QA list for every email that goes out the door. Alt text, formally known as alternative text, is text that appears in place of images in instances that images are turned off either by the email client’s default settings or by the user’s choice. (If your images are turned off, you’ll see a message similar to the one below.)
The truth is (as told by Litmus), 43% of users view their email with images turned off. What should we do about that? Here’s a secret: spruce up your alt text! Force people to want to see those images! At the least, get creative with your alt text. Give it personality. Use the real estate to entice your recipients. Personally, I love when alt text is comedic. Delight your audience and provide them with an email experience with or without images.
Below, I’ll show you some alt text examples I grabbed from my inbox.
1. Bad: (No alt text. Leaves the user wondering if the email is broken. Wasted space. Very very bad!)
Images off
Images on
2. Same ol’ same ol’: (Repetitive section headers, image titles, etc. You can do better.)
Images off
Images on
3. Good: (Email is user-friendly with images off.)
Images off
Images on
4. A Killer Email: (Surprising, engaging, use of smiley faces, hashtags, etc. CLEVER!)
Images off
Images on
Images off
Images on
Setting the alt text in your email is an easy must for email marketers. Tip from a fellow email lover: turn off your images. See how other companies are being creative with their alt text and share some of your favorites with me!
That’s all folks. #EmailRocks
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About the Author: Relationship One
