How to incorporate images into your email campaign

[Grace_R]

When designing your email, you want it to be visually pleasing for your readers. Naturally, images play an important role in this. But that doesn't mean you should pepper your email with random images. Choosing the right images and placing them strategically within the text will deliver the most impact.

Here are a few tips:

• Use the right number of images - Emails that use too many images can trigger spam filters. Emails with three images or less — not including your logo or social media icons — see much higher click rates.
• Pair text with the image - Wrap text around the image to create a more unified look or add a caption.
• Make your images pop - Ensure your images stand out by designing a balanced layout, adding polish to your photos, and using a background that creates contrast.
• Stay on brand - Whether you use photos you've taken yourself or stock images, make sure to use high-quality images that align with your brand identity.

Take a look at more tips on our blog and check out this Knowledge Base article for the "how-to". We want to hear your thoughts on this topic, as well. Drop them below!

Want an extra set of eyes on your campaign before you send it out? Share it to our Campaign Feedback board!

[Abigail_S]

I am such a visual person so I love seeing images in my emails! This doesn't mean you should flood your email creation with only images and no text. Find a nice balance between text and images that are tasteful and capture the message you are trying to convey. 

@DavidFischerSolutionsForGrowth Do you have any additional tips to add? 

[MelanieDiehl]

"A picture is worth a thousand words." A single image can convey multiple messages, and nowhere is this more relevant than in marketing and advertising. 

It's almost a non-negotiable for product-based businesses to include images of their products. IMPORTANT: link the image to it's page on your website! If you send an email with an image of a pair of red shoes, the recipient is almost certainly expecting the ability to click on the image and be taken to that webpage where the shoes can be purchased. Or at least learn more about the shoes.

For service-based businesses, the same is true. However, I've found for those industries photos of real people using the service works great too. My client is in the health and wellness industry. Her recent campaign showing the space for an upcoming retreat hit it out of the ballpark.

As @Abigail_S said, less is more and we definitely want to avoid analysis paralysis. Test-test-test to best understand your subscribers behavior and use that for your basis for future campaigns.

[Elizabeth_K]

I agree and emphasize that a good balance of images and text is essential in your email because image-only emails have a much higher chance of being marked as spam by internet service providers, and don't make it into your contacts' inboxes!

[Nick_S]

Great points, Grace, and lots of additional great advice from the rest of the gang here.

If I had to organize it by a few different industries, I'd probably frame it like this:

Retail/Ecommerce

- Like @MelanieDiehl said, if you're selling a product make sure that it is clickable to the relevant page on your website. Even if you're selling a service, there's probably a visual element to it (like a masseuse giving a massage) that could still lead back to your services page for that type of massage.

Real Estate

- Similar with real estate, but if you are promoting a listing of a house that is on the market, you'll want to make it clickable back to the listing page. If you were to share additional images of, say, some interior/exterior shots you might not need to make them all clickable, but make sure it's apparent that there is some place they can click either using one image as the "header," so to speak, or adding a button at the end encouraging them to click.

Designing for Impact: Email Template Structures for Real Estate 

Nonprofits

- It might feel a little more tricky with nonprofits, but let's say you're hosting a fundraising event, you could use a photo of a past event or whatever graphic you may have designed to promote the event and make that clickable to the registration page.

Designing for Impact: Email Template Structures for Nonprofits