Initial impressions
Good points: The email is nicely designed and its purpose – to inform recipients of Snagit’s new upgrade – is immediately obvious. Key information and the calls-to-action are clear and located above the fold, and anyone viewing the email in a preview pane will be able to see the main information at a glance. I like the images indicating the new features of the upgrade, and the teaser text is succinct and clear. They’ve obviously adhered to some best practice advice by including a hosted version of the email and a simple unsubscribe link.
Bad points: It’s a shame that the email isn’t personalised to the recipient. Additionally, with the exception of the computer image and the ‘upgrade now’ button, none of the images are clickable and none have any alt text allowing subscribers to see what would have been there if the images were turned off. It would also be nice if the sections didn’t run into each other and if the privacy statement and unsubscribe link were separated out at the end of the email. There’s also quite a lot of white space around the email – it would be more pleasing to have the main email message contained within a border.
Content & technical aspects
Good points: The balance of text and images is good. There isn’t reams of unnecessary information and the text is simply highlighting the main benefits of upgrading. When images are turned off – despite the lack of alt text behind the images – the look and feel stays predominantly the same and the key information isn’t lost. The inclusion of a testimonial is a nice touch, and I like the fact that they’ve included their social media links, although these should be made a bit more prominent. On the plus side, there is also a link to a demo of the new version for those so inclined to view it.
Bad points: When I opened the email in my web browser, the big computer screen image at the beginning of the message is actually a nice animated GIF. However, for B2B emails, this would be lost in the vast majority of cases as most businesses use Outlook as their main email platform, where only the first frame of the animation is displayed; a shame, as it’s a nice touch. The call-to-action links after the features list and the ‘And by popular request’ sections are easily missed so these should be made more obvious to encourage click-throughs. The message is sent from an unmonitored address, which isn’t good practice in case someone replies to the email wanting to unsubscribe. Messages should always be sent from a live address. One final point is that this email has been sent across international borders and is still telling me the US dollar price of the upgrade
rather than the price in British sterling. Minor, but definitely something to consider.
Summary
Technically-speaking the email is well-designed with the key information being above-the-fold on a standard laptop. In addition, the email is designed as 616 pixels wide, which isn’t far off the best practice design advice of designing emails within 600 pixels. In addition, despite the absence of alt text for the majority of the images, it’s not disastrous to read with images off. However with a little more careful attention (such as clear distinctions between different sections of the message, making all images clickable, better alt text descriptions, larger social media links, local currency indicated and more prominent calls-to-action), it would be much better. All in all, it’s not a bad email though.
Rating: 3/5
