Always use a text alternative to images

Always remember that your recipients may never see the images that you put into your mails. The default setting for Microsoft Outlook 2003 and later is to block all images, and more and more ISPs and email clients (including Gmail and AOL) automatically block images.

Many of the people on your list won’t have adjusted these settings so your images may not be getting through. LiveWire Campaign promotes good email design because the templates encourage you to use text rather than just images for your headlines and sub-headlines.

You’ve probably received emails in your in box that have been made entirely from images. I’m sure they looked great on the designers computer but many will get deleted without users ever clicking on the ‘download images’ button. Without a text based headline to grab attention then the message simply isn’t getting through to the majority of recipients.

1 Comment so far

  1. Simon on February 22nd, 2007

    Yeah, this is one of my pet peeves…

    An email which you can’t understand without the images visible, is a waste of time.

    If I can’t tell what an email is about without downloading the images, then 99% of the time it goes straight to trash…

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