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The other day, I received an email from one of Kenya’s biggest banks—you know, the kind with fancy branches, billboards everywhere, and flashy ads during the prime-time news.
The subject line promised something exciting, an irresistible new offer.
Naturally, I was curious and opened the email, eager to see what it was all about.
But my excitement quickly faded.
Why?
Instead of the offer, all I saw were those little gray boxes with a message that said, “Click to download image.”
I didn’t even bother
And that’s when it hit me – this bank, with all its resources, had completely missed the mark.
Their entire message was hidden behind an image that didn’t load automatically. If I wanted to see it, I had to manually download the image—and to be honest, I wasn’t going to do that.
It got me thinking: If a big brand like this could make such a simple mistake, how often does this happen with other businesses?
The truth is, sending image-only emails can be such a bad idea.
Let me break it down for you.
Let’s be real – attention spans are shorter than ever.
If your email takes a minute to load, you’ve lost your audience. And that’s the problem with image-heavy emails.
Many email clients, like Outlook, block images by default. So, what your subscribers see are empty spaces unless they take the extra step to download them.
And to be honest – most won’t.
Have you ever sent an email, only to discover that it ended up in the dreaded spam folder?
It’s frustrating, right?
Well, image-based emails have a way of triggering spam filters. Email providers like Gmail and Yahoo are often cautious about messages that contain little text and rely heavily on images. This is because spammers frequently use images to evade text-based filters.
So, even if your email is completely legitimate, it could easily be flagged as junk.
It’s like sending out invitations to your party, and then no one shows up–not because they didn’t want to, but because they never received the invitation in the first place.
That’s exactly what happens when your emails end up in the spam folder: your carefully crafted message goes unseen, and all your hard work is wasted.
Now, let’s talk about an often-overlooked aspect of email design: accessibility.
Imagine a person with a visual impairment trying to open your image-only email. To navigate the content, they rely on screen readers.
However, screen readers cannot interpret images.
Even if you include alt text, it’s often just a brief description that doesn’t capture the full picture. It’s like trying to explain a sunset to someone who’s never seen one.
So, when you send an image-only email, you’re essentially excluding a whole group of people. It’s akin to sending a letter written in invisible ink–the recipient is left unable to engage with your content.
In today’s world, we can’t afford to be so exclusive.
We should make every effort to make our emails accessible to everyone.
One of the biggest advantages of email marketing is personalization.
We love offering tailored product recommendations or specific offers based on their behavior.
But that requires dynamic content–something that’s simple to do with text-based HTML emails but nearly impossible with static images.
So, when you lean too much on images, you’re missing out on creating a more personal connection with your audience.
And that’s what email marketing is all about, right? Building relationships, one email at a time.
Most people check their emails on mobile devices.
Therefore, your email needs to look good on every screen. Unfortunately, images don’t always adapt well to mobile devices.
What might look beautiful on a desktop can end up distorted or hard to read on a phone.
Picture this – your subscriber opens your email on their phone, only to find text that’s too small to read, or an image that requires them to pinch and zoom.
Chances are, they’ll delete the email before they even try to figure it out.
Absolutely not.
Images can enhance your message—but they shouldn’t be your message.
The goal is to ensure your emails are visible, deliverable, accessible, personalized, and mobile-friendly—and text-based HTML emails excel at achieving that.
So, as you design your next campaign, remember to use images sparingly and keep your message at the forefront.
Don’t let beautiful graphics get in the way of delivering a powerful, effective message.
After all, what’s the point of sending an email if no one actually reads it?