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How Should I Use Graphics in B-to-B Emails?

Thursday, July 17, 2008 by Design Team

Q: I work in the industrial b-to-b market. I have been told NOT to include graphics or photos of any kind, as these are typically caught in spam filters. Is this true? Do you have a strategy (other than the one you state here) to create more attractive emails in the b-to-b world?

A: Having too many images in an email can limit the effectiveness of a B-to-B campaign, but when used appropriately, images can improve your results. Images in and of themselves are inherently good and will not cause your email to get caught in a spam filter. Sender reputation plays the largest role in determining whether or not you end up in the junk or bulk folder. Reputation is primarily influenced by your bounce and complaint rates.

Images can be a great way to promote brand synergy. Placing your logo in the upper left hand corner of your email helps to create brand recognition and trust with your subscribers. The more subscribers trust you, the more likely they are to interact with your campaign. Your branding should be cohesive across all of your different marketing channels in order to present a consistent voice to your clients.

The effective use of background colors, borders, and varying text treatments can help make your email easier to read. This allows for an email design with visual impact that doesn’t rely solely on images. Due to the prevalence of image blocking among popular email clients (specifically Microsoft Outlook in the B-to-B space), you want to maintain a proper balance of images and HTML text. It’s better to treat your headlines and primary call-to-action as HTML text in order to ensure that information is seen even when images are not displayed.

Regardless of whether or not you have a B-to-B or B-to-C audience, I cannot stress enough the importance of relevant content. Content should be timely and add value to your subscriber’s lives. Long emails that don’t have a clear call-to-action are more likely to be ignored and deleted, and a clear and focused message will pay dividends. Instead of including the full article for a news item, use one to three sentences as a teaser and link to the full article externally. The full article can be hosted on your website, in a Word document or PDF stored in the ExactTarget document library, or in an ExactTarget microsite landing page. This will cut down on the length of your email and allow your subscribers to easily skim the content.

Performance driven email design is a combination of many factors. Your design should make appropriate use of HTML text and images, as well as have a subscriber-centric content strategy. Provide your subscribers with a relevant and valuable communication and you will be rewarded with a strong company-client relationship.

Tim Siukola
Senior Email Marketing Designer

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