Case study: Does your email look good in the recipients in-box?

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So you've developed a stunning email and pressed send. With so many email programmes / versions out there, are you sure the email still looks good when it arrives at the other end?

I am a keen motorcycle fan especially MotoGP and have been desparately waiting for the 2010 championship to start after the winter lay-off. I recently received the email below from Moto GP and was disappointed to see that they had made a stupid error by making the whole message an image. As I had switched 'images off', all I saw was a blue triangle (see below).

In addition to not seeing any images, I also couldn't see:

• the headline (compelling or not)
• key support points
• body copy
• a call to action
• and other legal stuff such as their address, contact details, an unsubscribe option, privacy policy etc

I suspect many people would have chosen not to download the images and more importantly may have decided to unsubscribe from the mailing list which is the last thing you want a recipient to do.

Test the email before sending

I always test an email before sending. My powerful advanced email system enables me to easily test how an email will look in around 40 of the major email client systems including Outllook, AOL, Google Mail etc. I can see how compelling the email looks with and without images. I can also see how it would look when users have an horizontal or a vertical preview pane. It enables me to check if the email will still be compelling when it arrives in the recipients email box whichever email client they prefer to use.

Effective email marketing requires testing if you want to signifcantly increase open rates, click throughs and conversions.

By the way, I have shown below the email that MotoGP wanted me to see. It still is nowhere near as good as it could be.

Published 19th April, 2010

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