Images are a great way to enhance your e-newsletters. They catch your eye, can add information (a picture is worth a thousand words!) and provide a break from text. If inserted correctly, they can even direct traffic to your website!  Here are three things to keep in mind when adding images to your e-newsletter.

1. Always add a link

By adding a hyperlink to your image, the reader can click on the image and be taken back to your website where, hopefully, you have more helpful information about you and your products or services.

Ideally, this link will take them someplace specific – if it is an image of your sunscreen product, have the link take them to a page with sunscreen product information and purchase details.  If it is a photo of a person, have it link to their bio, social media links or an article they have written. If you cannot think of a logical place to link it to, maybe you should re-think whether or not it should be included.

2. Always add a description

By adding descriptive text, your reader will have a clue what you were intending for them, even if they have not ‘enabled’ the images.  The descriptive text is also visible as they roll over the image.  This ‘roll over’ text, visible even when the images are enabled, is a great chance to add value to your document. 

To build on the example above, you would add descriptive text indicating “Click here to learn more about our sunscreen products” for the image of your sunscreen product that was linked to your sunscreen info on your webpage.  This would not only increase traffic to your website but also facilitate purchases! 

3. Check what your publication looks like without your images

Many email services, including the very popular Outlook program, deliver emails with images and links disabled.  This is an understandable security precaution but can undermine your graphic efforts.

The truth is, as beautiful as your e-newsletter may be, many readers will not bother to ‘enable’ the images, so make sure that your layout is visually appealing and that your information is all there, even if the images are ‘off’. 

This is especially important for those of you that use a logo instead of text as your header.  A logo is great, but make sure that you provide text as well so even if the logo is not visible, your reader will quickly and easily be able to identify who it is from.

By keeping these three points in mind as you plan your e-newsletter and the images you will use, you will ensure that your e-newsletters are both visually attractive and informative!