You probably think that if you pack your next email marketing campaign with images and little copy, it might well go to the spam folder, or even be bounced. To an extent you are correct. ISPs tend to bin image heavy marketing emails but there are simple, cheap and easy ways around the problem.

Quite reasonably, you might think, ISPs will compare your alt text to the HTML version. If they don’t correspond, they’ll class it as spam. However, another reason for the rejection of image heavy emails is that ISPs want to process emails quickly, and one packed with images slows its processes. It makes things easier to block them. 

Your text to image ratio will also be a factor, which pleases me as a copywriter. If you have little or no text accompanying the image, and this doesn’t include any text in the image itself, then it is risky. Spammers tend to rely on images to get around filters as banned keywords are not picked up.

If, for instance, you, like many others, have discovered that you get a higher completion rate with email marketing campaigns which contain a lot of images, then all is not lost. There is no need, of course, to opt for text only. You need to focus on the balance between image and text.

One simple method is to add text. It’s obvious really. Describe the product at the top of the email, just under the header. A sentence or two might be enough, depending on the proportion of image. You will probably have a footer image that contains the unsubscribe button, preceded by the ‘manage your subscription one, and gives the other details required by the regulations. 

Replace this with text. There’s no disadvantage and it tends to look more friendly. If you’ve included a fair bit of copy in the image, then consider splitting the image and putting the copy into text.

According to research, images sell. There seems to be no reasonable argument against it. However, too much can cause problems with ISP filters. A little forethought can mitigate the threat without compromising the design.