If you use images as the focal point of your email marketing campaigns and no accompanying non-image based text, here’s how a recipient might be seeing it.

I still see a few instances of where a marketing email consists of an image and little or nothing else, so I thought it worth mentioning again.

I can’t remember the stats offhand, but substantial numbers of people have image blocking switched on by default in their email reader, whether it’s a desktop application or webmail service. While the image can be toggled on by the user clicking a button, an email like this doesn’t give them much cause to do so.

If you are relying heavily on images, ensure there’s text accompanying it, even below the image to take into account those users who may not be able to or want to view it. Don’t set the image attribute size if possible – this means that for those people who block images, the text will appear closer to the top of the email.

Whether using single or multiple images, always remember to use alt descriptor text in the image attributes, so at least folks get an idea of what the graphic is of.

Another important tip is to ensure at the top of the email a link saying “Email not displaying properly? Click here to view online version” – with a link to a HTML version of the email stored on your server. Some email marketing software applications can generate this link and store an online version for you automatically.

The text doesn’t have to be in a huge font, just noticeable. I’ve even seen some marketers use that text as the alt text on the image and linking the image to the online version.

Pick up some more tips for using images in email.