Email is not dead, but, please, kill bad emails!
According to the 2016 Student E-Expectations Survey Results, email is not dead. It’s still an important marketing channel to reach prospective students – as long as your messages don’t end up in the trash.
So, do you know how to make the most of your email marketing?
Much like the web or print media, email comes with its own set of rules. It can be a tricky medium, but the following advice will help you master it.
Use Content That Works
When creating an email, keep in mind that certain types of content work better than others. Take images for example. It’s great to have high quality photos, but large file sizes can slow down load time. They can even make you exceed the size limit for your email and prevent it from sending. A simple way to resolve this is to resize the images before adding them to your email. Images viewed on screen should have a resolution no larger than 72 pixels per inch. A good maximum file size for email images is 200 KB.
PDF files shouldn’t be used in email. If a PDF has already been created with all the information, what’s wrong with just sending that? Even though some email applications let you insert a PDF directly in an email, avoid doing so. The PDF won’t be adaptive or accessible. Don’t try sending it as an attachment either. Attachments are automatic red flags for spam filters. Recreate the content in HTML format instead, or send your readers a link to the PDF.
Keep It Short and Enticing
You don’t need to write a novel. Your readers are busy and their time is valuable. They won’t waste it reading a long email. An email should be a call to action. For example, an invitation to an event doesn’t need to include every minuscule detail. Instead, it should make your readers want to attend and prompt them to visit an event registration site. The email can provide a short list of the event’s highlights. Let the registration site give all the details.
Spending our days in an institution of higher learning may tempt us to use academic speech in email. However, our readers may not understand that language and certainly won’t spend the time trying to decipher it. If you want to know whether or not you’re heading in the right direction, use an online readability test. I like to use thewriter.com. Just copy and paste your writing. Aim for grade seven readability or lower.
Subject and Sender Are Important
The subject and sender should be given just as much consideration as the rest of your email.
A subject line should be catchy and informative. It should also be kept short for those reading email on mobile devices. “Join us for our University’s homecoming celebration!” is an okay subject line. “University Homecoming: You’re Invited!” is much better.
The quickest way to land your email in someone’s spam folder is to use trigger words in your subject line. Avoid using words such as free, amazing, urgent, etc. The spam trigger word infographic from Beeketing illustrates common words and phrases to avoid.
When choosing a sender, consider your audience. Will they recognize an email sent from a personal address such as john.doe@university.edu? Or would it be better to send the email from an organizational address such as alumni@university.edu? This depends on how personal your connection is. When in doubt, use an organization as the sender.
Email Accessibility Is an Issue
Your campus should be accessible to everyone. The same applies to email. You want as many people to be able to read and understand it as possible.
Accessibility for the Visually Impaired
- Screen readers use headings to help blind individuals navigate through content. Always use your headings in the proper order. H1, h2, h3, etc.
- Use alt tags to describe your images. This help people using screen readers to understand all of the content.
- Keep color blindness in mind. Don’t use red and green elements together in your text or images. These colors look the same to someone who is color blind.
Accessibility for the Hearing Impaired
- If you include a video, caption it.
Use Images the Right Way
Images should support information, not be the information. Many email applications will hide images for security reasons. In this situation, if your images are the sole source of information, the email will appear to have no content.
Prepare for the worst case scenario and plan for your images to be hidden. Use HTML to set specific sizes and background colors for your images. Use alt tags as well. If you do this and your images are hidden, the email will still appear to have content.
Don’t use too many images. There should never be more images than there is text.
Design for Mobile Friendliness
Around 50 percent of emails are read on mobile devices and that number will keep rising. To reach the largest audience possible, it’s important to create email that can be read on these devices.
If possible, have a designer create a responsive template for your emails. Responsive designs have the ability to adapt to fit different screen sizes. If you don’t have a template, keep your content in a single column format. Mobile devices prefer single column layouts and this will ensure your email can be read on them.
Choose images that are easy to understand even when shrunk down for small screen sizes. Avoid images that are text heavy. They become incredibly difficult to read when small. The same goes for any images with intricate details.
Text needs to be easy to read as well. Your font choice can greatly affect an email’s readability. Stick to using web-safe, san-serif fonts such as Arial, Helvetica, and Verdana. Don’t make your text too small either. A safe minimum font size is 14px or roughly 10pt.
Meet the Author: Lindsay Watson
Lindsay Watson is the Website and Online Communications Coordinator for Development and Alumni Relations at Utah Valley University. She is also a graduate of Higher Ed Experts’ professional certificate program in Social Media and Web Writing for Higher Ed