Return On Subscriber – Email Marketing Blog

I have been a loyal Gmail user for along time. Lately though I have been frustrated with Gmail, mainly due to the images in my HTML emails not displaying correctly. Well they have announced some changes that shed some light on the image issue.

From the Gmail Blog:

Now displaying images in messages from your contacts
Monday, July 20, 2009 5:58 PM
Posted by David de Kloet, Software Engineer

When an email references external images, Gmail usually doesn’t display them automatically. Instead we show placeholders and present you with the option to “Display images below” or “Always display images from” that sender.

We do this to help protect your privacy from spammers, who can use images and links to verify that your email address is real.

But often the messages you get with images are from friends or family and there’s no reason to worry about your privacy — you just want to see the photo of your newborn niece or the invitation design they’re sending you. So, in these cases, we’ve decided to start displaying images by default. Now, whenever someone you’ve emailed at least twice sends you a message containing images, you’ll see them right away. Note that we picked this threshold of two messages to start with, but we may tweak it if it doesn’t seem right going forward. And we only display images by default for authenticated messages (using SPF or DKIM). Gmail and other big mail providers usually authenticate their mail, but other services might not, so it’s possible you’ll get an email from one of your contacts where images aren’t displayed by default.

If you prefer to go back to the way things were, you can choose not to display images from certain senders or from anyone. To disable images from an individual sender, click “Don’t display from now on” under the “Show details” link of an email from them with images. To disable images from everybody, select “Ask before displaying external content” under “External content” on the general Settings tab.

What does this mean to Email Marketers?

Gmail will display images by defualt for emails from addresses that are in that person’s Contact’ list. It will also display images if you have sent that address at least 2 emails and that the address in question is authenticating using SPF or DKIM.

What Can I Do in My Email Marketing Program?

1. Add Whitelisting Instructions to your Emails
Various studies have noted that about 1 in 5 HTML emails contains whitelisting instructions. If you have put an emphasis on that, you’re ahead of the competetion. You need to put an emphasis on this early in the relationship.  Put this right out front early and often.

2. Use a Realistic Email Address and Be Consistent
Readers of this blog or people who have seen me present know my pet peave on this topic. You must use an email address that is both friendly and inviting of reply.  They usally have bad begginings. Here are bad “From” email addresses:
donotreply@, noreply@, webmaster@, info@, reply-8779@, etc…. Why would you want that in your contact list? Also, think about how annoying it is to change your own email address. Pick something friendly, branded, and then stick with it!

3. Invite Replies to your Campaigns
Do you invite your subscribers to reply to messages with feedback or comments? Many email users add mailed to addresses to their contact list. Aside from can-spam compliance, this can open up better communication with your subscribers. You might be surprised by how many responses you get. Try asking a question like “What would you like to see in the newsletter? Reply to this email and tell us!”

4. Make Sure you have DKIM in Place
We have provided instructions for setting up a Domain Key before on the blog.  It is SO important for your program to reach the inbox.  Return Path has a great post on DKIM today that illustrates the magnitude of this issue. Your Email Service Provider will have SPF handled, and hopefully has setup DKIM as well. If you are unsure or haven’t tested this in awhile, I would reach out to your email or IT team ASAP.

More on these topics to come….