Email Marketing News and Tips

Word came out last week that AOL is introducing a new interface for customers who access their AOL email accounts online, and the new interface has a default setting that blocks all images in emails.  That was always the case in AOL 9.0, but it’s the first time web users will see it. 

AOL joins a long list of major Internet Service Providers and other email clients (most prominently MS Outlook 2003 and Lotus Notes) that block email images by default.  In addition to the negative affect this has on your brand and message, it has also led to steadily dropping open rates within the industry, since opens are recorded by displaying a tiny, invisible graphic within each HTML message.    

Since it looks like the trend of image blocking won’t be going away any time soon, it is time to change the way that you code your emails if you have not already done so.

While HTML emails are still considered preferable to text-only emails, you need to take into account the fact that a portion of your recipients are going to see a red “x” where that cool graphic used to be.  If your key message or branding is represented by an image, especially “above the fold” in your email, you need to start adding alt tags to your HTML code.

An alt tag provides alternative text when an image cannot be displayed, so that instead of a red “x” where your promotion was, they might see something like “Free shipping until May 31^st”.

If you need help figuring out how to use and when to apply alt tags, our Customer Care team is a great resource for all kinds of helpful HTML for email tips and tricks.  You can reach them

here