Last week, a client forwarded me an email with the note:
“A good inspiration”
I was confused.
I looked at the email and saw nothing surprising. No storytelling. No “OMG, I NEED to buy this” urge. No laugh. No aha moment.
It was…
A pretty basic email that said a sold-out bundle is back in stock.
Duh?
So, I asked the client what she liked about that email, and she told me:
“I just liked the mix of text and template.. it was the format. 🙂 My bad, I didnt explain myself.”
I SEE. Most e-commerces want to do poster-style emails that look like advertising flyers. But because my plain-text, story-driven campaigns win e.v.e.r.y. s.i.n.g.l.e. T.i.m.e.
So my client is wondering if it’s a good idea to combine the best of both worlds.
Sounds like a good idea, right?
Right?
RIGHT?!
rIGhT?!?!
…
..
.
Huh… sorry, no.
And here’s why:
“Ah, I see what you mean.
I understand. It’s appealing to have a mix of text and template because it might give you the benefit of both worlds.
But in my experience, it actually kinda does the opposite…
Let me explain:
The benefit of a template (design-heavy) email is the product demonstration, plus clickbait. Because the whole image is clickable, a lot of people will accidentally click it, landing on the website while scrolling through the email. That is typically why image-heavy emails have a higher click-through rate.
On the other hand…
The benefit of plain-text email is that it lets you lean heavily into storytelling, plus the deliverability boost when you look and feel like a personal email. Because almost all inbox providers (Gmail, Yahoo) AND mail app providers (Gmail app, Apple Mail) punish large-sized emails. I’ve noticed across multiple accounts that Apple is penalizing images heavily right now, and often the images won’t even load. This means you will inbox more when you use plain-text emails.
Now, imagine we combine the two…
People read the text version first without having to scroll through images. So, the clickbait effect is kind of gone.
But the email size is still very, very large because of the images. So, the deliverability still suffers.
(and there’s the fact that creating the template will always take more time and resources so… you aren’t saving there either)
This is especially true as we approach the BF season. Because just like how ad platforms jack up the cost, email platforms will tighten the filter during heavy promo season.
The more images you have right now, the heavier the hit.
If we want to reap the benefits of both plain-text and designed templates, it’s better to send two separate emails.
You can have the exact same content, sending out the first one as plain text… and follow up the next day with a templated version.
(Or if it’s during a short, < 3 days, flash sale, send the plain text in the morning and follow up with the template in the evening)
This way, you can potentially get the attention of both text and image readers… and use the first email to boost the second email’s deliverability while using the second as a reminder for the first.”
There you go.
You’re so lucky.
That’s my actual consulting answer to a paying client.
You got it for free… just for being on my list.
To be continued…
– WYH