Just because marketers have the ability to include interactivity in an email doesn’t mean that it belongs there. Here are a few rules so of thumb to follow in email marketing.
Exercise caution with the use and placement or use of images. Images are often used in emails – especially at the top of the email. The problem with this is that, especially with mobile devices, that images are often disabled and the embedded image is too large to view on the mobile device. Some companies include an important copy in the image and their message is being lost. it is best to use smaller images alternated with text and, of course, an obvious call to action.
Stay away from multiple columns – while they are a great way to break of content on a website there is not sufficient room in an email to effectively use columns. One clean simple column of text is more effective.
Do not embed multimedia files such as audio and video in an email. These files a better suited on a website where they can help with SEO. An email is an inappropriate venue for these files.
Social media sharing is well and good but links to the sites are becoming so standardized on emails and websites that they are being placed in the footers along with other resource links. This is not benefiting anyone. If businesses are hoping to gain viral exposure through social media they need to make the action more prominent. That doesn’t mean that the links need to be included in every email but when they are included they should be highlighted.
