The State of Email 2016 - Year in Review

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2016The State of Email

@ChadSWhite @LitmusApp #LitmusLive

Email Marketing Insights on Design, Production, & Salaries

Litmus surveyed more than 900 marketers about how they design, create, approve, and send email campaigns—plus how much they were paid.

Over the next 45 minutes, we’ll share actionable tips from…

Chad White • Research Director at Litmus• Author of Email Marketing Rules• Written over 3,000 posts and

articles on email marketing• Quoted in over 100

publications, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal

The State of EmailDESIGN

Must-Subscribe Brands

Retina-Optimized Images

This became an issue when Apple introduced the iPhone 4 in 2010, which had a Retina screen with four times the pixel density of previous screens. Now high-DPI screens are everywhere.

One downside is that images become heavy. Consider compressing your images with ImageOptim, Compressor.io, JPEGmini, TinyPNG, Kraken, or Pied Piper.

ALT Text

Despite Gmail now enabling images in email by default, image blocking is still common. ALT text allows text to be displayed when an image is not.

Without ALT text:

With ALT text:

@chadswhite @LitmusApp

With Styled ALT text:

Font properties supported in clients displaying styled ALT text:• font-family• font-size• font-weight• color• font-style

#LitmusLive

Images on

Images off

Preview Text

Use preview text like a “second subject line” to support and extend your

subject line.

Responsive Design

Mobile-friendly design techniques:1. Mobile-Aware Design uses basic

coding techniques to create a single email rendering that’s suitable for a range of screen sizes, but is deferential to smartphones

Mobile-friendly design techniques:2. Responsive Design uses media

queries and other progressive enhancement techniques to control the formatting, layout, and display of email content depending on the subscriber’s screen size

All of the growth in email mobile-friendliness was the

result of growing use of mobile-aware and

responsive-aware design.@ChadSWhite @LitmusApp #LitmusLive

Responsive-Aware Email Design

The growth in mobile-aware and responsive-aware shows that marketers are focusing

on production efficiency.

Animated Gifs

Animated gifs are the most common way to add motion to an email because most email clients support them.

Animated gifs can…1. Catch the eye and add intrigue2. Entertain and add humor3. Draw attention to primary CTA4. Highlight assortments or

product options5. Demonstrate how a product works

Animated gifs can also…1. Distract subscribers2. Slow email load timesSo…1. Don’t use too many close together2. Associate them with key CTAs

The State of EmailPRODUCTION

Content Planning

Without proper planning, it’s difficult to…1. Ramp up email production volume

for peak seasons2. Plan sophisticated one-off emails3. Make seasonal updates to

templates and triggered emails@ChadSWhite @LitmusApp #LitmusLive

The vast majority of marketers are planning their email campaign calendar using…1. Google and Microsoft suites2. Basecamp3. Trello

Checklists

Avoidable failures are common and persistent, not to mention demoralizing and

frustrating, across many fields… And the reason is

increasingly evident: @ChadSWhite @LitmusApp #LitmusLive

The volume and complexity of what we know has

exceeded our individual ability to deliver its benefits correctly, safely, or reliably.

Pre-send Checklist: Do you have…1. Right send date? 2. Right list or trigger logic?3. Right sender name and subject line?4. Right rendering and functionality? 5. Right personalization and defaults?6. Right landing pages?

The State of EmailMistakesBetter known as…

Many Email Marketing Mistakes Going Undetected

Apology Emails

So while it seems that half of brands are successfully

avoiding errors, unfortunately it’s far more likely that they’re just not able to successfully

detect their mistakes.@ChadSWhite @LitmusApp #LitmusLive

The State of EmailAGENCIES

Agencies invest significantly more in every aspect of email creation, spending more time and

achieving greater efficiencies through technology.

The State of EmailSALARIES & JOBS

Put that all together, and the easiest way to identify

companies that value email marketing is to look for

complexity.

Marketers should consider those factors when evaluating jobs, and brands should ask themselves if they’re sending

the right cues to potential email marketing employees.

Before I get to your questions…

Please participate in our2017 State of Email Survey:surveymonkey.com/r/StateOfEmail2017

1. You will help power another year of research-driven insights from Litmus.

2. You’ll uncover new opportunities for improvements in your email program.

3. You’ll may win to win a ticket to TEDC or a Mystery Litmus Swag Pack!

Questions?

Thank You!