Email marketing graphics: Opposites are attractive
I always find it interesting when seemingly opposite strategies can be successful in a given situation.
We see this today with email marketing graphics.
Some businesses invest a great deal of time and effort crafting beautiful emails that are loaded with gorgeous images. Other businesses are sending nothing more than the most plain, text-only newsletters.
The crazy thing is that both strategies can be successful.
Let’s start by looking at the minimalist approach. Here’s one of Neil Patel’s recent newsletters. Few people know more about online marketing than Neil. Given the fact that he has been sending this style of email newsletter for a long time, we can be certain that it’s performing well for him.
Note that Neil’s newsletter has no email marketing graphics. He even uses a typeface that looks like it came out of my old Underwood manual typewriter. However, that traditional type face and the fact that it’s an all-type email give it a personal touch. It’s almost like receiving an email from a friend or relative.
I’m tempted to point out that it’s a very short email. However, I have seen successful online marketers use all-type newsletters like this that were fairly long. But generally, I think shorter type-only email newsletters are preferred.
And, if you send these kinds of newsletters, you can send them often as long as you are providing value with each short email. Follow this simple format
- Open quickly
- Deliver the value
- Say goodbye
There’s no secret to any of that. Keep the language personal and a bit breezy and you’re home free.
But here’s the brainteaser: These short text-only emails work well for online marketing, but so do those loaded with email marketing graphics. Below are a handful of the many templates available at Constant Contact and Mail Chimp. They make it easy to fill your emails with beautiful photos and graphics.
There are certainly some commercial areas that benefit more from graphics than others. But there’s no commercial area that can’t, in some way, leverage graphics to its benefit, yet not everyone uses them in their emails.
I’m pointing this out so you might consider some in-depth A/B testing. However, don’t cut your test short. Divide your list in half and send one group emails that are dense with email marketing graphics and the other half emails that are bereft of email marketing graphics. Keep this up for a couple of months so the groups get accustomed to the style of the emails they receive.
After you’ve established these routines, do a little experimenting: What happens when you send an image-rich email to the text group and vice versa? Do you get a one-time bump in the response rate?
These kinds of tests can give you a small edge that will add up to a major increase in profits or website visits over time.