Email marketing has become an effective way to market a persons business online. People usually design templates and newsletters that are in text only format or HTML email templates. Most marketers prefer to design their messages as html email templates because it allows them to add a creative touch to their marketing message. But the drawbacks they face are certain email services that don’t allow images in mails. In this article I am going to discuss how to optimize html email templates when images are disabled.

One of the most commonly overlooked challenges designers face is that recipients view messages without images enabled. This is usually due to personal preference or settings of the email client. Almost all email clients nowadays default to not showing images and video. The reader would have to click on the “allow image” option or change their settings. They usually allow images from only trusted addresses. There are some readers and recipients who are completely unaware that they are missing out on images. Regardless of the reason its not worth pulling your hair out thinking about how to improve presentation with recipients who have the images option turned off. Here are some tips you could use to optimize html email templates without using any images.

1. Build using web text - Try and make sure that your important copy is encoded as web text instead of an image. This would ensure that it would show when images are disabled. The fewer images you have the more likely your spam score is going to reduce. This would help you get into intelligent inboxes like Gmail’s priority inbox. The only drawback I can think of is that you are limited to using standard web fonts. This would mean that you would have to sacrifice having headlines in your brand font. What you could try I having your headlines in the brand font and then styling the alt attribute.

2. Use Alt Attributes - If you do want to show your images you could use alt attributes on your images. You could use these alt tags to specify replacement tags. Do this especially when headlines and copy have to be included in an image. These tags are blue by default so if your image is over a dark background you may want to consider adding a little style information to change the color. Specify a replacement typeface and font size with certain web browsers.

3. Code Background color - Remember that you can still add background colors which are going to make your email unique and structured.

4. Keep the preview pane in mind - If you have a huge image taking up all the preview pane area it will look great when images are allowed or enabled but if not it will not be as pretty. Try and add some web text and color up there.

5. Use the pre-header - It’s always important to get your key offer right at the beginning of the message or right at the top of the mail. This will draw the customer’s attention immediately.

Overall you need to have a trial run after implementing these steps. This is very important to do. Try disabling images and see if you still get the right message across from your campaign.

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