Are you emailing newsletters, event invitations, forms, or other text heavy content as image-only files?
Yes, it’s easy to plop an image file of your newsletter into the body of an email and hit send.
Same goes for an event invitation — I understand why you’d want to paste it as an image directly into your email and send it off to your list.
But think about it from your recipients’ perspectives. 🤔
Is receiving an image-only email convenient for your audience?
Here are some drawbacks to sending image files as emails you may want to consider:
❎ Image files sent in the body of emails are not responsive.
That means they won’t resize properly when viewed on smaller screens like tablets or mobile phones. People who open your email with their phones won’t be able to read your content.
❎ Image files may reduce your email’s deliverability.
Some email providers or clients may block images. Others may mark emails with no text as spam. How often do you check your spam?
❎ Image files can lower the accessibility and usability of your email.
Some recipients may have visual impairments or use assistive technologies that cannot process the images.
❎ Image files can limit the interactivity and engagement of your email.
Recipients won’t be able to click on links, buttons, or other elements within the images. And if the whole idea of your email is to get your reader to take an action, this is a big miss.
A better way ✅
Send your newsletters, event invitations, and the like, using a combination of text and images, with a clear and attractive layout and design. This way, you can ensure your message is delivered and received effectively, and that your recipients can easily read, understand, and act on it.
Getting Personal with Mail Merge
Did you know there’s a mail merge feature in both Outlook and Gmail? 😲
You can use mail merge to send personalized emails to multiple recipients — straight from your inbox.
If, like me, you’re of a certain technical vintage, you’re probably familiar with mail merge for letters. 😉
Turns out Outlook and Gmail mail merge is basically the same idea. You need a recipient list (in Excel or Google Sheets) and a main email template (in Word or Gmail).
💡 There are lots of tutorials on the Internet to help you get started with mail merge for email.
And if you graduate to the point where you’re looking for more bells and whistles, you can also use an email marketing software — Constant Contact and Mailchimp are examples of email marketing software. 🐵
These services let you send emails to multiple people. They also offer templates to help you design your email, and analytics to help you track your email’s performance (open rates, link clicks…).
I hope this helps you find alternatives to sending images as emails.
And if you want help figuring out the best option for you and your organization’s needs, I hope you’ll feel welcome to reach out to me. I’d be happy to help you. 📨
Keep your chin waaay up! You’ve got this!