Image Suppression Continues to Vex E-Mail Marketers

A new survey from the Email Experience Council, the e-mail marketing arm of the Direct Marketing Association, provides a measure of caution to multichannel marketers: Think twice before launching that e-mail campaign full of images. If not, risk having your images suppressed and your message rendered useless.

The Retail Email Rendering Benchmark Study, which polled 576 online retailers and marketers, found that 23 percent of retailers send e-mails that are completely unintelligible when images are blocked. Of the 77 percent whose e-mails were intelligible, there were significant variations in clarity based on their use of HTML text and alt tags. Here are some more findings from the report.

* 14 percent compose their navigation bars with HTML text rather than images;

* 3 percent use HTML call-to-action buttons rather than images in their e-mails;

* 88 percent include a “click to view” link in their preheader text;

* 63 percent include whitelisting instructions in their preheader text;

* 21 percent of the e-mails displayed meaningful snippet text;

* 42 percent said they design e-mails that are a good mix of HTML text and images; and

* 63 percent believe they use alt tags on their images adequately or extensively.