One of these emails is not like the other
September 9th, 2008 by Jim HitchAlt tags: Part one of a three (or four, maybe five) part series.
These two emails arrived in my inbox within about 20 minutes of each other. They’re similar at first glance. Almost identical, really. Both are very image heavy, both came from brand name clothing retailers, both include simple calls to action, both drive traffic to an online store, on and on I could go. This time I took a look ‘under the hood’ to see how these two email marketing teams prepared their campaigns for the all-too-common scenario of images being blocked.
The Gap team (left) coded their html with a backup plan, since about half of the email programs out there don’t display images by default. That backup plan is known to the html-savvy as the alt tag - the alternate text that shows when the images don’t load. For a visual, peek at the screen shots to see how the message of free shipping still comes through, even when the images don’t.
Next time you create a campaign, be sure to think about your own backup plan. The general rule is to set an alt tag for all of your images. Sound complicated and technical? It’s not at all. We’ve made it easy by offering to ‘add a description’ each time you upload an image into your campaign. (If you’re working with an html designer, they’ll add the alt tag before uploading the code your Emma account.)
Last, but not least, don’t forget to test the email and see the alt tags in action. A simple preference tweak in your email client of choice should let you see the test email with the images blocked.
One note to Outlook users: Outlook has a default text that overrides these tags. You’ll see a note about clicking to download images.
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September 12th, 2008 at 9:43 am
I was at TechCrunch50 for the past couple of days. There was a company there who focused on this same issue, but as related to advertising in emails. They are providing ads in emails with a differentiator of alt text ads for people who don’t load images.
That doesn’t seem like much to base a company on to me, but they did have interesting research stats into what percentage of users do not load images by default (over 30%).
They are called AdRocket. http://www.techcrunch50.com/2008/conference/presenter.php?presenter=59
September 12th, 2008 at 10:37 am
We run across other services similar to this, but I haven’t seen AdRocket. Thanks for sharing, Jackson!
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:49 am
[…] Part two in a multi-part series on alt tags (read part one) […]
November 5th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
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November 7th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
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November 11th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
[…] Part 1 - Set an alt tag for all of your images within an email. When sending out HTML emails, it is always recommended to have an established backup plan in place. Since about half of the email programs out there don’t display images by default, the fallback is to rely on the alt tag that displays the alternate text that shows when the images don’t load. […]
November 11th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
[…] Part 1 - Set an alt attach for every of your images within an email. When sending discover HTML emails, it is ever advisable to hit an ingrained patronage organisation in place. Since most half of the telecommunicate programs discover there don’t pass images by default, the retreat is to rely on the alt attach that displays the move book that shows when the images don’t load. […]