Best Practice Suggestion | Use of linked images vs. embedded images on your email invitations
We as O’vation ART, pride ourselves in making use of best practices when it comes to sending out bulk
email invitations. These practises are to ensure the highest delivery rate on your email invitation campaigns.
We all want your email invitation to look as pretty and enticing as possible. But if your email gets blocked at
a firewall or the invitee is not able to view important information on the email then your pretty designed
invitation doesn’t really do what it is suppose to.. entice the invitee to confirm his/her RSVP detail to attend
your event.
There are three ways of using images on your bulk email invitation campaigns:
1) Linked images with wording on a background colour (best practise)
2) Embedded images (images will open as email opens)
3) Single linked image (one big picture)
Why we strongly advise against embedded or single linked images:
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If you choose to send images as embedded images - the recipient will not have to download the
images - they are shown by default. The increased risk is that the mail may be picked up by antivirus filters, or end up in a spam box or junk mail. This is because embedding the graphics in the
email will end up making each email message a larger file size. It is also known that viruses are
embedded behind the images. (Our online system does not allow for embedded images at all)
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Sending one image (wording on a designed background): This is always tempting, making a pretty
layout in Photoshop and turn it into one big graphic to email out. This is bad because there are a lot
of spam filters the will reject image only email messages.
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With the ever increasing threat of spam, do not put important copy on an image because
some people’s email settings is set in such a way not to download images (HTML switched
off or those that don't support HTML email)
Sending one big image (wording on a designed background), invitees will view one big block
with a red x in it. Losing out on important information – your message and call to action!
Sending one big graphic also prohibits us from adding in links, which is needed for i.e. the
YES and NO button links.
Preferred way of designing an effective email:
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Limited images, this way the size of your email is small enough to get through spam filters.
Important content/wording should be on a background colour as to make sure everyone receives
your message.
Background colours cannot be stopped from going through, so even though the images does not
open the invitee is still able to read what the email is all about.
Images can blend from a background colour into an image as per the examples below. Do not hesitate to
contact our team for best practice input when designing your next invitation campaign.