5 Design Mistakes Email Marketers Still Make

As an email marketer, I regularly seek out advice for creating better campaign emails. I know there is still a lot I could improve if I had the resources (time, for one!), but I try to do the best job I can. And some of the most basic and effective of all that advice is pretty easy to implement.

Which is why it surprises me when I get an email that flouts a "rule" that I've read about for some years. So here are some mistakes marketers are still making with email. Make sure you're not one of them!

Sending Emails with Images and No Text

You know what's easy for me? To write off a few lines of copy and send it off to the designer (and probably a print designer versus an HTML email designer) with my instructions for the design. The designer can then create the design, include the copy, send me the image, and all I need to do is insert that image into my email and I'm done.

Easy. And what you get would be something like this.

I'd count on you to click on "display images", of course. Why wouldn't you do that? What do you have to do all day but sit by your computer waiting for my email? And if you have a slow internet connection, wait some time longer for that gigantic image to load.

Not Using Alt Text for Images

But what do you do if you're an apparel retailer or in some other way need pictures of your products in your email? Stop being so lazy. Instead of using one giant image for your email, break it up into many images, so that if one image fails to load, it doesn't mean your recipient can view nothing but a giant gray box.