4) Images: Let Pictures Tell The Story

So we’ve all heard that a picture is worth a thousand words. What does that mean for your E-Newsletter?

Your graphics can be the difference between someone paying enough attention to your email marketing to click a link or read an opening paragraph, or moving on. Always make sure that whatever you use is directly or obviously connected to your feature, story or promotion. Don’t make people have to “work” or guess what they are viewing and how it relates to the content…unless of course this is part of a well-thought out marketing plan! And simpler is typically better.

Finding good photos or illustrations online certainly isn’t hard these days. (With almost 100% broadband coverage now, video and audio are now a component of some E-Newsletters too, but more on these topics another day.) One of the top and fairly inexpensive options is iStockPhoto.com, although many other libraries exist. And don’t forget the multitude of royalty-free images available on Google, Flickr or Yahoo Images. (But you should always be sure to double check that the images you are using aren’t copyright protected.)

Following our theme of trying different options until you find one that works best for you and your E-Newsletter, maybe you could try removing all images for one issue…and see if a text-only version gets better results? How 90’s of you!

And that brings me to the final point…which is really the one I’ve tried to make with every tip. DO NOT BE AFRAID to experiment! As long as the information you are presenting is factual and relevant, every other aspect of presentation should be up for review and testing. That is really the most important take-away….Test, test and test again, and you can create the type of email newsletter that gets results for YOUR company!

NEXT TIP: Formatting