Top 5 Email Fixes

TL;DR

Fix your subject line, preview text, buttons, and alt-text. Use the one thumb rule.

Did you get that email I sent you?

Let’s face it. Email is here to stay and is still relevant for marketers. I won’t go into to the reasons (that is a whole other post), here is a sampling of reasons why. Email is done very poorly by a lot of people. Usually, it is cringe-worthy to see what gets sent out. On the bright side, there are lots of simple fixes to terrible emails. I want to share 5 of the top quick fixes you can do to make your emails a billion times better.

Subject Line

The subject line is one that kills lots of emails right out of the gate. It is either too long or just plain irrelevant. SOMETIMES I SEE EMAILS WITH SUBJECT LINES THAT ARE IN ALL CAPS. Why are you yelling?

The subject line is one of the first things people use to determine if they are going to open your email. A good subject line goes a long way. Here are some things to keep in mind:

Keep it short (less than 35 characters )
Make it relevant (Why should this email be opened?)
Give insight into the email’s content
Avoid all caps or sales language (‘YOU WIN!!!!!!’, ‘Save 34%’, etc.)

Preview Text

If you have a client that supports preview text like apple mail or gmail, then you always see some extra text under or beside the subject line.

This is an extra chance to extend or supplement your subject line. You can give a little more insight into the content of the message. However, not doing the preview text can be worse. Typically, if there is no preview text found, then an email client will just put the first lines of code in that preview text. This could be bad news if you had a header with an image in the first part of your email. The recipient of your email would see your subject line some code like “< img src=’placekitten.com/g/200/300….”

Bulletproof Buttons

I cannot tell you how many time I see emails that think they have great buttons until I show them a picture of the email with images blocked. If the button was an image, you cannot see the button. So if you had a great call to action in that button, it would have been lost. Use CSS to create your buttons. This will allow your buttons to always show up no matter the state or screen size.

Image Alt Text Property

As was the case buttons, images are a real pain if you are sending to clients that have their image blocked by default. I see folks all the time that think they have created such an amazing interactive email that is essentially one image or a bunch of sliced images. When I show them the image blocked version of the email, they realize that the only thing you can see is just a blank screen with a mess of red Xs. You can’t control if images are blocked, but you can control how you use those images. First, make sure you email is not all images. Use a good amount of text and only supplement with images. When you are using an image, make sure you are using the alt-text property. This will show up if the images are blocked. This property can also be styled. When using alt-text, make sure that you put something that will be helpful for the reader of your email, not just a description of what the picture is.

Image Source: Litmus

One Thumb Rule

Of all the fixes, this is by far the one that can give you the most bang for your buck. Any email that you send, make sure you can consume that email only from your phone using one thumb. Since 2012 mobile has been the dominant location for email opens. [1] If your readers cannot do what you want them to do with just one thumb (usually the right one) then there is a large chance that they won’t. This also applies to links in your email. Sometimes I will see emails with little baby links in the paragraph. My thumbs are too big to be clicking on these links and it usually takes me a couple of clicks. The one thumb rule ensures that your email can be consumed anywhere a person gets it, be it on the train, in class, at home, or wherever they have their phone.

This is by no mean everything that you can do to fix your emails. This is a good place to start fixing those emails and getting those open rates and click rates up. Here are some other resources for you to consider.

https://litmus.com/blog/how-to-write-the-perfect-subject-line-infographic

https://litmus.com/blog/how-to-write-the-perfect-subject-line-infographic/subject-line-infographic

https://litmus.com/blog/a-guide-to-bulletproof-buttons-in-email-design

https://litmus.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-email-image-blocking

Footnotes