EmailLabs Survey Implications: Use of Preview Pane and Image Blocking Will Drive B2B Marketers to Rethink Their Email Newsletter Design Strategy.MENLO PARK Menlo Park. 1 Residential city (1990 pop. 28,040), San Mateo co., W Calif.; inc. 1874. Electronic equipment and aerospace products are manufactured in the city. Menlo College and a Stanford Univ. research institute are there. 2 Uninc. , Calif. -- 69 Percent of B2B (Business to Business) Refers to one business communicating with or selling to another. See B2B e-commerce, B2C and B2G. B2B - business to business Subscribers Frequently or Always Use a Preview Pane; 45 Percent Rarely or Never Download Images Results of a new study were issued today by EmailLabs (www.emaillabs.com), the leader in high-performance email marketing technology and a subsidiary of J.L. Halsey Corporation (OTCBB OTCBB See OTC Bulletin Board (OTCBB). :JLHY), revealing that the majority of subscribers to business-to-business email newsletters use the preview pane function of their email client See e-mail program. and nearly half do not enable blocked-images. The results of this study are expected to drive many publishers and B2B marketers to rethink re·think tr. & intr.v. re·thought , re·think·ing, re·thinks To reconsider (something) or to involve oneself in reconsideration. re the design of their email newsletters to better accommodate the significant adoption of preview panes and image blocking function. In the survey sent to EmailLabs' Intevation Report newsletter subscribers, 90 percent of email newsletter subscribers have access to a preview pane, and 69 percent say they frequently or always use it. Nearly 53 percent of respondents' email clients or ISPs automatically block images in some or all email messages and 45 percent of email readers See e-mail program. rarely or never download images within their preview pane. Furthermore, 50 percent of subscribers rarely or never place an email address See Internet address. on their email client's safe sender list. Survey data indicates that 49 percent of email readers only look at the first few lines in the preview pane to decide if they want to continue reading the message. Whether targeting respondents who use the horizontal format (75 percent) or the vertical format (25 percent), survey results suggest it is critical that marketers design emails that will maximize the preview pane's limited real estate -- which is typically set by users at 2-5 inches. If insufficient information is displayed in the preview pane -- due to blocked images, advertisements or poor design -- nearly 19 percent of respondents will simply delete the message. "This survey confirms our suspicions that a large percentage of B2B email subscribers do not download images and prefer to scan or read their emails within the preview pane and never fully open the email," said Loren McDonald, EmailLabs vice president of marketing. "Moving forward, we advise marketers to re-evaluate and, if necessary, redesign re·de·sign tr.v. re·de·signed, re·de·sign·ing, re·de·signs To make a revision in the appearance or function of. re their emails to better address how their subscribers are actually interacting with their email newsletters," he added. To help alleviate the impact preview panes and disabled images have on email performance, EmailLabs is recommending the following best practices: --Redesign the top of emails to include a 2-3 inch preview pane header area that is HTML HTML in full HyperText Markup Language Markup language derived from SGML that is used to prepare hypertext documents. Relatively easy for nonprogrammers to master, HTML is the language used for documents on the World Wide Web. and text only (no images). This "header" area should include only copy such as article teasers, key offers and "In This Issue" information that enables the subscriber to determine whether to read further and/or open the email. Publishers may want to test using HTML/Text-based ads in this area and consider charging a premium to advertisers based on the increase in impressions. --Redesign email templates so that both content blocks and advertisements can be viewed entirely within a 2-3 inch window as readers scroll To continuously move forward, backward or sideways through the text and images on screen or within a window. Scrolling implies continuous and smooth movement, a line, character or pixel at a time, as if the data were on a paper scroll being rolled behind the screen. See auto scroll. through an email. --Minimize the use of images unless necessary as in ecommerce-oriented emails that display multiple product photos. Avoid using images that are more than 2-3 inches tall. Instead use HTML fonts, colors and backgrounds when possible to liven up Verb 1. liven up - make lively; "let's liven up this room a bit" liven, enliven, invigorate, animate energize, perk up, energise, stimulate, arouse, brace - cause to be alert and energetic; "Coffee and tea stimulate me"; "This herbal infusion doesn't the email. --Publishers should consider eliminating use of skyscraper ads An advertisement on a Web site that is vertically oriented on the page and larger than the typical horizontal banner. See banner ad. and move to more HTML/text-based ads; ads with images should be limited to the horizontal banner format. --Examine preview pane area for extraneous ex·tra·ne·ous adj. 1. Not constituting a vital element or part. 2. Inessential or unrelated to the topic or matter at hand; irrelevant. See Synonyms at irrelevant. 3. or administrative information that can be relocated re·lo·cate v. re·lo·cat·ed, re·lo·cat·ing, re·lo·cates v.tr. To move to or establish in a new place: relocated the business. v.intr. elsewhere, such as an administrative footer In a document or report, common text that appears at the bottom of every page. It usually contains the page number. at the bottom of the email. Do, however, consider including text links for key actions such as "View Web Version" and "Update Profile" at the bottom of the preview pane area. Additional key findings include: --The sender's name and/or email address remains the most important factor readers look for in the preview pane when deciding whether to read further or open the email (60 percent). Subject lines, headlines and teaser teaser an animal used to sexually tease but not to impregnate the members of the opposite sex. Usually males and they may be surgically prepared to ensure that they cannot mate or are not fertile. copy follow at 54.3 percent, 53 percent and 30.3 percent, respectively. --Only 31 percent of email users report they always or frequently add the B2B newsletters they asked to receive to their safe-senders list or address books in order to potentially avoid having them routed to their bulk or junk folders See spam folder. . --Sixty percent of survey respondents read messages in either Outlook 2003 or Lotus Notes Messaging and groupware software from IBM Lotus that was introduced in 1989 for OS/2 and later expanded to Windows, Mac, Unix, NetWare, AS/400 and S/390. Notes provides e-mail, document sharing, workflow, group discussions and calendaring and scheduling. , the two clients that block images by default. The number rises to 86 percent when considering those who use all versions of Outlook, Outlook Express and Lotus Notes. "Email marketers and publishers need to be aware of these factors that are greatly affecting their email performance. While this latest study focuses on business-to-business marketers, we expect this issue to increasingly affect business-to-consumer marketers, driven by developments such as the Yahoo! Mail A free, Web-based e-mail service from Yahoo!. It includes Yahoo! Messenger, which alerts you if you have mail and also provides voice chat. See Yahoo! Messenger. preview pane currently in Beta," concluded McDonald. The EmailLabs survey was designed to better understand how B2B email newsletter subscribers are using or interacting with preview panes and image blocking functions, and the resulting effect on marketers and newsletter publishers. Conducted in September 2005, 498 EmailLabs' Intevation Report subscribers responded to the 13-question survey. Respondents were primarily marketing professionals from companies of all sizes and a broad range of industries. To download a copy of the study "Strategies for Addressing the Challenges of Preview Panes and Disabled Images," please visit: http://www.emaillabs.com/reports/preview_pane_survey.html
A[micro] Key Questions and Results:
A[micro] 1. Which of the following best describes your use of the preview
pane function for reviewing/reading B2B email newsletters?
A[micro] I always use the preview pane 52.2%
A[micro] I frequently use the preview pane 17%
A[micro] I rarely use the preview pane 8.6%
A[micro] I never use the preview pane 19.4%
A[micro] Other 2.8%
A[micro] 2. How much of an email message do you usually read in the preview
pane?
A[micro] All of it, even if I have to scroll 32.9%
A[micro] down to read the entire message
A[micro] Just the first few lines to determine whether 49.1%
A[micro] it's an email message I want to read
A[micro] As much as my preview pane allows, without 15.1%
A[micro] having to expand the pane or scroll down
A[micro] to read the entire message
A[micro] Other 3%
A[micro] 3. Do you use vertical or horizontal display option of the preview
pane?
A[micro] Horizontal 74.4%
A[micro] Vertical 25.6%
A[micro] 4. If images are blocked, how often do you allow images to load in
the preview pane and in fully-opened emails?
A[micro] I always I frequently I rarely I never
download download download download
images images images images
In preview pane 34% 21% 20% 25%
In opened emails 50% 33% 12% 6%
A[micro] 5. If your email client contains a safe senders function, how
often do you place requested B2B email newsletters on the safe senders
list?
A[micro] I always place requested B2B email 8.5%
A[micro] newsletters on the safe senders list
A[micro] I frequently place requested B2B 22.4%
A[micro] email newsletters on the safe senders list
A[micro] I rarely place requested B2B email 21.4%
A[micro] newsletters on the safe senders list
A[micro] I never place requested B2B email 28.6%
A[micro] newsletters on the safe senders list
A[micro] My email client does not have a 19.1%
A[micro] safe senders function
A[micro] 6. Which email client (i.e. Outlook, Eudora, etc.) do you use most
often at work?
A[micro] Outlook Express/Outlook 2000, 2002, 2003 79%
A[micro] Lotus Notes 8%
A[micro] Other 13%
About EmailLabs EmailLabs is a leading provider of high-performance email marketing technology solutions to agencies, publishers and marketing, sales and customer service departments of middle-market and Global 2000 companies. The EmailLabs email marketing platform is provided as an ASP (Web-based) service, and is easily customized and integrated with a company's Web site, sales force automation Automating the sales activities within an organization. A comprehensive SFA package provides such functions as contact management, note and information sharing, quick proposal and presentation generation, product configurators, calendars and to-do lists. and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) An integrated information system that is used to plan, schedule and control the presales and postsales activities in an organization. technologies. The company provides email marketing solutions to more than 400 companies, including Nokia, Agilent, PalmSource and Jupitermedia. Headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif., EmailLabs was founded in 1999 and is a subsidiary of J.L. Halsey Corporation (OTCBB:JLHY). For more information, visit www.EmailLabs.com. |
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