Came a question:
“Most email service providers recommend emails with lots of graphics. Why is that and why do you prefer straight text emails?”
I could go on about my usual shtick with this.
But instead, let’s put it this way:
We are currently testing out paid ads for BerserkerMail as I type this. And during one of the calls we had, we were discussing themes and ideas for ads they could test. And one of the ideas I had to test was to:
1. Show a screenshot of an email with images all prettied up and slick in an inbox.
2. Show that exact same email, in the exact same inbox, but with images turned off – like some 30%+ (last I checked, at least) of email clients have set by default due to protect their customers from viruses, malicious code, porno, tracking, etc. Not to mention the growing number of people using emails worried about privacy who manually make sure they are turned off.
The reason for testing this?
Because my pal Shane Hunter is spearheading these tests. And one of the angles he wants to take is to demonstrate how BerserkerMail’s No Images policy protects our clients, increases their deliverability, and gives a better end-user experience. And with images turned off, an email with pictures will almost always look completely nonsensical, with even the text parts being tainted by empty squares where the pictures are supposed to be. And oftentimes even the alt text put in place that people will see in case images don’t load also look just as nonsensical.
There are some goo-roos whoo drool on the carpet doing angry pushups when we write about this.
But nobody cares what those burnouts thinks anyway.
Especially as more and more are coming around to this on their own lately.
Besides the above, as far as why I personally prefer plain looking text emails?
It is the same reason I don’t put pretty little HTML formatted tables in emails hoping mobile phone’s screens don’t force readers to have to finger scroll to read each sentence in an email (makes emails not even worth bothering to read), and instead let text wrap naturally:
I am all about controlling the user experience as much as I can.
Guys like Steve Jobs with Apple and Walt Disney with his animation knew the power of doing this, and were often ridiculed for wasting time & money on such details… only to blow right past their lazy, boring competition valuing flash & dash and completely unreliable & inconsistent metrics over substance and starting with the market first vs the marketing first. I prefer to start with them, then work backwards to the marketing. Do that and you probably will never go wrong.
I can already hear some dorklord IM goo-roo parrot the typical:
“NO! You have to test it!”
Sure, Spanky.
Tell that to the guy with a 1,600 person list with only a handful of sales each blast.
Very few email marketers have a big enough list, much less the discipline required, to get anywhere close to a legitimately useful test. My biz partner at BerserkerMail Troy Broussard – a trained scientist who was a Nuclear Engineer and former Executive Director of Technology for Encyclopedia Brittanica – spent a lot of time as one of our industry’s “go to” email automation guys. He also wrote what was considered to be the “bible” for marketers using Infusionsoft especially. And he did the tracking/testing/automating for as many as 50 million emails per month in some cases. He can (and has) go on for hours about all the dumb info that marketing goo-roos trawling social media spread about this topic to impress the make money online mopes who believe anything they are told.
All right so that’s that.
If you want to learn more about my way of doing email see the paid Email Players newsletter here:
Ben Settle
