For any marketing campaign, sitting to send emails sometimes feels like an interactive game where engagement rates, inbox placements, and delivery rates are wagered to guarantee conversions. To ensure you meet the goals you set for your email marketing campaign, one of the choices you have to make is whether to use graphics or text in your emails.
Html emails have become quite famous in recent times, giving marketers more choices when it comes to marketing emails. For most people, deciding whether to include a bit of graphics in your emails or leave them looking like regular email correspondence can be difficult.
Here is everything you need to know to be able to choose between graphics and text for your email marketing campaign.
Understanding graphic and text emails
Text emails are simply emails that only comprise of words without any form of formatting, including the use of font styles, bolding, italics, or hyperlinks. On the other hand, graphic emails, also referred to as HTML emails are types of emails that incorporate the use of formatting features like a signature, hyperlinks, and font styles.
Html emails also refer to visually appealing emails that include infographics and images to give the email a magazine feel.
How to determine whether to use text or graphic emails for your campaign
You need to consider a few factors to determine which option to use between text and graphic email options.
Which option makes sense for your brand?
One factor to consider is how much graphic use is ideal for your brand and marketing campaigns. If design is an integral part of what your brand represents, your emails should reflect this to your subscribers.
Graphic mailing also works for product marketing. It is easier to convince a potential client to buy your product if you include images of the product in your correspondence.
On the other hand, if you run a B2B marketing business with a conservative brand image, it is best to go for a text-only email option to represent what your brand stands for.
While vibrant graphic emails have become common in the consumer market, text-heavy emails are still more popular in B2B marketing.
The customer’s preference
It is a common assumption that people are more likely to be drawn to colorful emails with more images. However, according to research, including too many images in your emails can affect your open rates, and too much text in an email can damage your campaign. Therefore, finding the balance between text and images can make up the perfect email for your target audience.
Before you start using text and graphics, it is advisable to run a test and see what works best for your niche audience. You can send graphics-heavy emails to one group of subscribers and send text-heavy emails to the other group, ensuring both emails carry the same message, and if you’re sending out many emails, try Active Campaign. This platform can help you with your email marketing strategy.
Technical considerations to make
While it has become increasingly easy to use html than it was a few years back, using faulty html formatting will see your emails ending up in the spam folder, which can hurt your brand. On the other hand, using heavy html formatting is also a gray area. While it will help you reach your target audience, it can come off as too ‘salesy’ and end up in the promotional tab.
The extent to which you use graphics and text in your emails is important to your brand image. Texting the two for your target audience is the best way to know what percentage of graphics and text to incorporate into your marketing for maximum effectiveness.
The best way to ensure your emails are formatted appropriately for your campaign is to consider using an email marketing tool. This increases the chances of landing your email in the inbox folder and less in promotional and spam.
As it is with many other forms of marketing, your brand identity should be your guide when choosing the most effective ways to communicate with your clients.
