Email Marketing & Automation

Your Email Open Rates May Be Low Because You’re Not Utilizing Alt Tags On Images

Tonight I received an email from Panera Bread. Like so many email programs nowadays, my email application automatically blocks images. As a result, here’s what the email looked like:

Panera HTML Email with all Images and no alt tags

Not too compelling… especially for a beautiful email that looked like this when all of the images were loaded:

Panera HTML Email

I can’t imagine how many people deleted the email without reading it because… there was nothing to read if you didn’t download the images. This is a real problem with HTML emails… but it’s very simple to avoid.

Two Best Practices to Help Open Rates on HTML Emails

  • Don’t display text as images… display it as text. Sure it will not be quite as beautiful, but it will be readable – a considerable difference. Panera should have broken up the imagery and text in the email. It probably would have taken their designer a few more minutes, but they could have sold many more bagels!
  • If the designers were absolutely set on utilizing a 100% image-based HTML email, they could have utilized alternative text (alt tags) on each image to add compelling text. The percentage of readers that have programs that block the images could have at least read about the new Mediterranean Salmon Salad, Asiago Bagel Breakfast Sandwich, Black Cherry Smoothie and Morning Bagel packs from the contents of the alt tag.

Spending an extra few minutes filling out your alt tags will improve your open rates and conversion rates on an HTML email like this. It appears these emails were developed with

Fishbowl… my understanding is that they have an advanced email editor in all versions of their application that support this.

Food commands imagery… and undoubtedly some compelling text will draw more subscribers to download the images and add the email address to their safe list.

I believe many Internet Service Providers flag emails that lack content and are all images because it’s a means for spammers to send through malicious offers that can’t be detected. As a result, Panera could most likely improve its deliverability rate by using more text within the email.

Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is CMO of OpenINSIGHTS and the founder of the Martech Zone. Douglas has helped dozens of successful MarTech startups, has assisted in the due diligence of over $5 bil in Martech acquisitions and investments, and continues to assist companies in implementing and automating their sales and marketing strategies. Douglas is an internationally recognized digital transformation and MarTech expert and speaker. Douglas is also a published author of a Dummie's guide and a business leadership book.

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