Email design and copywriting: new insight

If you haven't taken the image blocking issue to heart, here's one more reason to do so...

Ken Magill reports that another major US ISP (Road Runner) has changed its email interface to block images by default.

And to give you a helping hand on that front, Linda Bustos has eight specific design tips for ensuring successful emails with images off. Although the tips are intended specifically for Gmail, many are equally applicable to other email clients and webmail services. The helpful screenshots and examples really bring the points home.

Then we have a few copywriting insights to brighten a dull day.

Jeanne Jennings brings us a set of tips on preparing for an email copywriting project and general approaches that will help produce results.

Hard to mention copywriting without talking about subject lines, which we'll come to. But first, Ray Schultz reminds us that the teaser copy in content newsletters is just as important, and has guidelines on how to write them. (Teaser copy is the one or two lines of text that encourage people to click on the link to get more / full information).

Now subject lines.

MailChimp have reviewed a mighty pile of A/B subject lines tests to conclude that there are few (if any) simple tricks.

They look in particular at the potential role of personalized subject lines. And in doing so demonstrate how careful you have to be when interpreting the results.

Does an alternative subject line work better because of what you added or what you took away?

More on design and copywriting | Tags: email design, email copywriting, subject lines, email newsletters

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