{"id":3465,"date":"2021-08-26T12:31:22","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T16:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/why-you-shouldnt-send-image-only-emails\/"},"modified":"2025-01-24T09:45:37","modified_gmt":"2025-01-24T14:45:37","slug":"why-you-shouldnt-send-image-only-emails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/why-you-shouldnt-send-image-only-emails","title":{"rendered":"Experts Say: Why You Shouldn\u2019t Send Image-Only Emails"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t
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We\u2019ve all been there: Your boss or client just asked you to set up an email that\u2019s almost entirely made out of images. \u201cI see everyone else doing it,\u201d they might say.<\/p>\n

Or your design team might argue, \u201cImages just make it easier to keep the design consistent. We can use our brands\u2019 fonts, place copy on images, and more\u2026 all without coding.\u201d<\/p>\n

And maybe this is something you believe in, too.<\/p>\n

At first glance, sending image-only (or image-heavy) emails might sound like a great idea, but those emails can come with a poor subscriber experience\u2014and can ultimately hurt your brand. A picture may say a thousand words, but sometimes, you also<\/i> need those words spelled out.<\/p>\n

Keep reading to learn from several email marketing experts on why all-image emails are so popular in the first place, why you may want to reconsider, and how to use the power of imagery while keeping your emails accessible.<\/p>\n

Why image emails are popular<\/h2>\n

Before we talk about why you shouldn\u2019t send image emails, it\u2019s important to understand why this is a popular tactic in the first place. It\u2019s still common to see image heavy emails from major brands despite the criticisms. Why? Because it\u2019s fast. Efficiency is the problem that marketers need to be solved.<\/p>\n

Tabish Bhimani<\/a>, Founder and Principal Strategist at Mastrat Digital, explains:<\/p>\n\"tabish\u201cWe send emails for ecommerce brands and realtors who work on new builds, where it’s always about being first to market.<\/p>\n

Image-only means it takes less time for us to put out emails.<\/p>\n

When it’s about first mover advantage, we know that image-only emails are quick and effective in getting emails out for real estate. The other alternative is a text-only email.<\/p>\n

We can do a lot more visually exciting stuff with image-only emails that will hold across all email platforms. By contrast, HTML emails can annoy customers when they don’t render properly.<\/p>\n

We’ve done segments where we see if someone has not opened but clicked an email (signaling that the open tracking pixel wasn’t loaded, but customer engaged). The ratio of those with images turned off is quite low, even when you take the additional engaged people and apply it to the general engagement rate.<\/p>\n

So key here is agility, adaptability, and time sensitivity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem is that many brands are not as well equipped to create effective image-only emails that align with their audience\u2019s reading needs and behaviors.<\/p>\n

10 reasons to stop doing all-image emails<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s worth repeating: We aren\u2019t denying there\u2019s a place for images in email, but you have to know how to do them well<\/i>. And from the above, Tabish is doing all the right things for all the right reasons. \u201cFor us, proof is in the pudding,\u201d he told me. But not everyone has the same skills or resources. Or the same audience.<\/p>\n

So you have to ask yourself: Will images alone serve your entire<\/i> audience? By simply sending out emails that only contain images, or have the bulk of your message contained in an image, you may be optimizing your email to only a subset of your audience. And there\u2019s more to it than that, too.<\/p>\n

Here are ten reasons why you may want to reconsider sending all-image emails.<\/p>\n

1. If your subscriber has images turned off, they won\u2019t see your email<\/h3>\n

Have you heard about email image blocking<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Due to an email client\u2019s default setting or a personal preference, images are not displayed for many subscribers. While many email clients now show images by default, images off is still very common in regulated industries where corporate filters block images by default. So if you\u2019re a B2B marketer, this is a key detail to consider when crafting your emails.<\/p>\n

Blocked images can result in emails that do not communicate anything immediately and fail to make an impact\u2014or even appear to be broken. It can be worse if you don\u2019t have any ALT text set up for your imagery because then, the email simply appears blank.<\/p>\n

For example, these two screenshots below show the same email\u2014with images on and off:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Email with images on<\/strong><\/td>\nEmail with images off<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
\"example<\/td>\n\"example<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

Nearly all of the email\u2019s content resides in the imagery, and no ALT text is set up. So any subscribers with images blocked completely missed out on the email\u2019s content.<\/p>\n

2. Not including live text can hurt your email\u2019s accessibility<\/h3>\n

There are understandable benefits to building your text into images\u2014controlling font appearance, for one\u2014but when it comes to creating accessible emails<\/a>, there\u2019s no alternative to live text.<\/p>\n

Even if blocked images are a non-issue for you based on your specific email client market share<\/a>, there\u2019s still the problem of image-only emails not being inclusive to all readers.<\/p>\n

\"Carin\u201cYou just don\u2019t know how your subscribers are experiencing your emails, and you want to give your subscribers the best experience no matter what. And that is not possible with all-image emails.\u201d<\/p>\n

– Carin Slater<\/a>, Email Marketing Specialist, Litmus<\/p>\n

(Carin also wanted me to tell you, \u201cI reserve my right to change my opinion at any time.\u201d Ha! If there\u2019s one thing we\u2019ve learned about email, it\u2019s that there\u2019s no constant in email.)<\/p>\n

Consider the visually-impaired subscriber. If they use a screen reader to read your email, but your message is hidden in an image, they won\u2019t be able to digest everything your email has to offer. If they set their device to 120 DPI to increase font size, well, they won\u2019t be able to see larger text since it\u2019s all in images.<\/p>\n

The same goes for someone who speaks a different language: They cannot translate the text in your email if it\u2019s part of the image.<\/p>\n

Something worth noting here is the increase of subscribers who use voice assistants to read their emails to them. Unlike screen readers, voice assistants do not seem to recognize ALT text and other HTML attributes<\/i><\/a>, so even if you have ALT text for your image-only email, it won\u2019t matter for this subset of your audience. The email will be completely blank to them. Another reason to use live text wherever possible.<\/p>\n

3. The lack of preheader text<\/h3>\n

The preheader text is an opportunity to give your subscribers a sneak peek at the contents of your email\u2014before they\u2019ve even opened. It supports your sender name, and subject line, and can provide another compelling reason for subscribers to open your email. However, image-only emails lack this essential part of your email. So, by sending image-only emails, you could see lower open and engagement rates. <\/span>\n

4. The size of the email can cause it to load slowly\u2014or not at all<\/h3>\n

If your subscribers have a slow internet connection or are connecting to data on-the-go, the images in your emails may load slower than normal. Even if someone has a speedy internet connection, there is a risk that images may not load quick enough.<\/p>\n\"nout\u201cIf you have slower internet or if you’re using your mobile device, loading images uses cellular data and can take an annoyingly long time. An image not loading means a marketer can lose the opportunity to get the subscriber to click on their CTA.\u201d<\/p>\n

– Nout Boctor-Smith<\/a>, Sr Manager, Lifecycle Marketing, LaunchDarkly<\/p>\n

On my desktop with a high-speed internet connection, this all-image email was loading slow enough for me to capture a screenshot. You can see part of the headline image is still loading. What you don\u2019t see? The giant hero image that\u2019s supposed to be above that as well as another text-block-as-an-image and animated GIF where that big empty space is. Because those haven’t been loaded yet.<\/p>\n

\"Example\n

The longer images take to load, the more likely your subscriber will be disengaged and delete your email. And if images are all your email has to offer, this can affect future engagement with your brand.<\/p>\n

5. Images may not scale well down to mobile screen sizes<\/h3>\n

When considering mobile email design, there\u2019s a lot to think about. Design images for mobile, and they can look overblown on desktop. Design for desktop, and they can look blurry if you\u2019re not using retina images<\/a>. And if there\u2019s text on that image? It may end up looking too tiny on the small screen.<\/p>\n\"jody\u201cOn switching to different views (desktop to mobile screen), you haven’t got as much flexibility in terms of styling like font sizes with all-image emails. Unless you have specific desktop and mobile only images. But doing that for most, if not all, of the email is not great practice and results in a big file size.\u201d<\/p>\n

– Jody Gibbons<\/a>, Email Marketing Executive, Notcutts Ltd<\/p>\n

As Jody mentions, if you create separate images for desktop and mobile, this is less of a problem. But there aren\u2019t just two screen sizes. And why do twice the work of creating images (and bloating your email\u2019s HTML) when you can just build a responsive email with live text in the first place?<\/p>\n

6. Designing for Dark Mode is much more challenging<\/h3>\n

As if it wasn’t already challenging enough, right? Dark Mode<\/a> can do weird things to your email\u2014like invert your image colors. You\u2019ll have to take more care in your email design<\/a> to make sure your images look good. Meanwhile, it takes less work to make live text work in Dark Mode.<\/p>\n

7. Your emails will land in the spam folder<\/h3>\n

\u2026Sort of. I mostly mention this one to debunk it.<\/p>\n

It used to be that spam filters didn\u2019t like image-heavy emails because they couldn\u2019t read the text on them to identify them as spam (and that was a way for spammers to hide their message).<\/p>\n

This may have been the case several years ago, but spam filters have since evolved and now pay closer attention to mailstream behavior, links in the message, and user interaction rather than doing naive word matching through supposed spam trigger words<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s not the images themselves that can hurt your deliverability\u2014but the lower engagement you may see from having less accessible emails that people can\u2019t interact with.<\/p>\n

8. Your emails won\u2019t be searchable<\/h3>\n

People tend to use their inbox as a storage medium. Occasionally, they\u2019ll remember something helpful or valuable in your emails\u2014like a special offer on a product\u2014that they need to find again later. But if you place all of your text in your images? Your content is no longer searchable.<\/p>\n

Your subscribers won\u2019t be able to find the content they\u2019re looking for as easily as they could have if you had used live text in your email.<\/p>\n

9. Making copy edits takes too long<\/h3>\n

How often have you had an email approved the first time around? According to our State of Email Workflows<\/a> report, the number of people involved in the review process has increased, and 30% of marketers feel the process is too burdensome.<\/p>\n

Having to change text on an image makes this even longer.<\/p>\n

\"courtney\u201cImage-based emails can impact production time. If there are revisions required in the copy from review, and it’s in the images, you’ve now got multiple steps to make that change vs. live text.\u201d<\/p>\n

– Courtney Fantinato<\/a>, Email Marketer & Developer<\/p>\n

And don\u2019t think that images give you greater flexibility to replace mistakes on the backend after an email\u2019s been sent. As Courtney explains, \u201cThere could be complications with that from image caching.\u201d<\/p>\n

10. Image-only emails are expensive to do well<\/h3>\n

Time is money. Having someone spend the time creating a beautiful all-image email\u2014including all the back and forth we mentioned above just to change the text on it\u2014is costly.<\/p>\n

\"steve\u201cImage-only emails can get expensive to do well. Particularly when you start looking at responsive design, accessibility, and internationalization. Whether it\u2019s worth the additional cost depends on what you do with it and who the audience is. And you may not have the in-house talent to pay that cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

– Steve Atkins, Founder, Word to the Wise<\/a>\n

Consider everything you have to do to accommodate different screen sizes, text edits, languages, and more. That time (and money) adds up.<\/p>\n

How to use the power of imagery while keeping your emails accessible<\/h2>\n

We\u2019ll say it again: You should never send an email that\u2019s made up entirely of images<\/i>.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t use images in your emails! When done right, you can create flexible and beautiful email designs that harness the power of imagery while keeping your emails accessible for everyone at the same time.<\/p>\n\"natalie\u201cAny image you do<\/i> have should have a purpose. I like a mix of text and light images in B2B, but defend that image. What value does it add to the message? Is it, for example, making the content more skimmable? Giving context? Showing an experience?\u201d<\/p>\n

– Natalie Jackson<\/a>, Director, Demand Generation, CBIZ<\/p>\n

Here are some tips to give you the best of beautiful imagery and accessibility:<\/p>\n