If you are not so familiar about the use of alt tags in your email, then we’ll tell you what it is. Alt tags help you present your email story to your readers when they disable images or choose to read your emails in the preview pane.
If for some reason the image in your email doesn’t display properly or the readers disabled them, HTML “alt” tags are applied to display a text description of an image. Here are some of the reasons why applying alt tags in your emails is very significant:
- Several email clients such as Outlook 2003 and email services like AOL have images disabled by default or a display message prompting the reader if they like to view the images.
- A sample alt tag that would present Email marketing solutions looks like this: “< img alt=”Email marketing solutions” src=”http://www.emaillabs.com/image/01.gif” border=”0″ >”
- For several seconds, images won’t display for those recipients who were using a dial up connection or other slow connection. Applying alt tag text can at least express a sense of what is to come, while the recipient waits for the image to display.
Several Ways to Use Alt Tags:
- Ecommerce Emails: Include short but comprehensive descriptions of product photos. If the image includes banners such as “50% off”, include that as well.
- Include enough text on charts and graphs to explain the value and contents of the graph or chart. Example: “Chart: Open Rates from A/B Split Test”.
- Gmail Snippets/Preview Text: To show the key teaser info, you must apply the appropriate image in your header. The information might extend in the subject line for ecommerce emails. Add “Free Shipping” or advertise additional products. You should consider mentioning additional articles in your newsletter.
- You can use alt tags for logos, section titles, headers and other use of images in your newsletter. Put a description for the logo and image but if it’s applicable, consider adding a short teaser that describes the section of the newsletter. For example: “Optimization – Tactics for refining email marketing presentation.”
This probably adds another 5 to 10 minutes of your overall email production. As an email marketer, you should make use of alt tags correctly or else you are putting yourself at risk for low open and click-through rates that would make recipients not to take action to your emails or view the images.
