Plaza Hotel & CasinO

Get ready for the Boom! This Summer start your weekend with a burst of fun at the Plaza Hotel & Casino!

We’re turning up the heat every Friday night with the vibrant Summer Friday Fireworks show, kicking off on May 24 and lighting up the sky until August 30th. It’s the ultimate way to welcome the weekend in style, and trust us, you don’t want to miss out on this epic event!

Inspired by the enchanting fireworks displays at Disneyland, our Summer Friday Fireworks promise to dazzle and delight, casting a breath-taking glow over downtown Las Vegas. Join us at the Carousel Barand rooftop pool deck for a party atmosphere like no other. Feel the energy in the air as we count down to 9:15pm, when the sky will erupt in a burst of color and light that will leave you breathless.

Jonathan Jossel, CEO of The Plaza Hotel & Casino, believes that fireworks should be enjoyed all summer long, not just on special holidays. And we couldn’t agree more! That’s why we’re pulling out all the stops to make every Friday night a celebration to remember. Whether you’re a local looking for a good time or a visitor ready to experience the excitement of downtown Vegas, the Summer Friday Fireworks is sure to deliver!

The fun doesn’t stop with the fireworks. Plaza hotel guests are in for a treat with our exclusive rooftop pool party, complete with icy-cool Frozen Firecracker cocktails and front-row seats to the show. And over at the Carousel Bar, the party vibes are in full swing with a live DJ spinning your favorite tunes and specialty until 10:00pm.

Here’s the best part: the Summer Friday Fireworks is absolutely FREE for everyone to enjoy! So, grab your friends, grab your family, and join us for a night of unforgettable fun.

Check out our social media channels @Plazalasvegas to preview past fireworks shows and get ready to be blown away. And remember, the Plaza’s fireworks are dependent on weather conditions, but rain or shine, we’ll be ready to light up the night sky.

So, what are you waiting for? Mark your calendars, set your alarms, do whatever you have to do to make sure you don’t miss out on the hottest event of the summer. We’ll see you there, ready to welcome you to the weekend Plaza style!

Score Big with March Mania Madness at the Plaza

Get ready to amp up your March Mania viewing experience! Join us at the Plaza Showroom from March 21st to 23rd for the ultimate college basketball playoffs viewing party. With games showcased on a stunning 24-foot LED Video Wall, unlimited draft beer, and a cash bar at your service, Plaza Showroom promises to be the epicenter of March Mania excitement. Plus, take advantage of exclusive savings with our special room package, allowing you to save up to 20% off room rates when you book a two-night stay during March Mania at the Plaza.

Experience March Mania Madness at Plaza Showroom

Here’s what awaits you at Plaza Showroom:

• 24-foot LED Multi-Screen Video Wall: Immerse yourself in the thrilling action of college basketball playoffs with every dunk, steal, and buzzer-beater displayed in stunning detail on our expansive LED Video Wall. The excitement of March Mania comes to life like never before as you watch multiple games unfold on our state-of-the-art screen.
• Unlimited Draft Beer and Soft Drinks: Stay refreshed and hydrated throughout the event with unlimited draft beer and soft drinks included with your entry. With your beverage needs taken care of, you can focus all your attention on cheering for your favorite team to victory.
• Two Drink Tickets: Enjoy two complimentary cocktails of your choice with every ticket purchase.
• Exciting Raffle Entries: Each ticket holder will receive a raffle entry per ticket per day purchased. From exclusive merchandise to exciting packages from our sponsors, there’s no telling what you might win as you enjoy the March Mania games with us.
• Cash Bar: Keep your energy levels high and your spirits higher with our fully stocked cash bar. Whether you’re celebrating a victory or drowning your sorrows after a tough loss, our friendly bartenders are ready to serve up your favorite beverages throughout the event.
• Sports Betting: Our March Mania Viewing Party offers a top-notch hub for sports wagering. Equipped with William Hill satellite betting stations, attendees can easily place bets in real-time, ensuring a smooth and enjoyable betting experience. This customized arrangement ensures you stay in the loop while immersing yourself in the excitement of live betting.

Other March Mania Events in Las Vegas

• March Hoops at The D: This is a free viewing party taking place in the Detroit ballrooms within the D March 20-24 and 28-31. Since this is free and open to the public, no spots are guaranteed.
• Hoops Mania at Hard Rock Cafe: This is a ticketed event taking place at Hard Rock on the Strip March 21 from 9am-9pm.
• Mega March 2024 at Circa: This is a ticketed watch party located on at the Circa. March 20-24, 28-31, and April 6-8.
• Tournament Madness at Beer Park Las Vegas: This event is taking place at the Beer Park in Paris Las Vegas March 21-22. This event will be outdoors, so planning for unpredictable weather conditions and ensuring suitable attire will be essential. If you prefer an indoor and more comfortable setting, Plaza’s party provides a climate-controlled environment for an enjoyable viewing experience.

By Sean Tinney June 12, 2024

If you have a US customer base, it’s important to know that over three quarters of them will celebrate the 4th of July. In addition to outdoor celebrations, it’s a key date for summer sales and promotions. 

Keep reading as I break down the art of a compelling, festive 4th of July email. I’ll go over the types of emails, ideas to put into practice, where to get great templates, and impactful 4th of July email subject lines.

Types of 4th of July emails

Before we dive into ideas, tips, and resources, identify which of these types of Independence Day emails best suits your audience.

Celebrations and greetings

Wishing your subscribers a safe, joyous holiday is one way to build a stronger relationship.

Sales and promotions

After Memorial Day, the 4th of July is the top warm-weather holiday where shoppers are hunting for deals.

Contests and activities

Some people find winning or earning a prize more trustworthy than they do the word FREE. Other subscribers simply love activities relevant to their strengths and interests.

On-theme product suggestions

Holiday celebrations are a very convenient way to put the spotlight on products that don’t always get the most attention.

8 cool ideas for your 4th of July email campaigns

Stand out in crowded inboxes this Independence Day with one of these eight ideas.

1. Fireworks picture contest

Nearly half of all people celebrating Independence Day include fireworks in the festivities. Encourage customers to showcase their photography skills and artistic vision by capturing mesmerizing fireworks and tagging your business in their best social media shots.

As the skies ignite with vivid colors and explosive beauty, this contest offers a unique opportunity for your brand to engage with customers and generate buzz around your products or services. 

You can have a prize for the photo that gets the most likes.

2. Red, white, and blue product collection

If you’ve got red, white, and blue products, bundle them up at a discount. It can increase sales, reduce surplus stock, and streamline fulfillment at the same time.

Best of all, your customers will instantly recognize the value. 

3. 4th of July quiz

Create an interactive email by quizzing your audience on how well they know their American history.

Here’s a nice example from RoadScholar:

4. Support a cause this Independence Day

Highlight your brand’s commitment to a specific cause or charity aligned with patriotic values. 

Offer a percentage of your sales during the 4th of July period to support that cause. Inform customers that by choosing your product or service, they are not only celebrating but also making a positive impact on their community or the nation.

5. Keep it simple and patriotic 

Holiday greetings, including the 4th of July, help humanize your business and maintain customer engagement.

Here’s an example from TradeGecko:

6. 4th of July themed products

Just highlight red, white, and blue products.

Brit+Co does just that in their 4th of July email:

7. Online scavenger hunt

Who doesn’t love a good game? 

Play to the inner child of your audience by having some fun with your 4th of July email campaign. Provide some clues in your email and send your audience to your website to find them.

Example: Add historic pictures throughout your blog. Whoever finds all the images wins a prize. 

8. Send your email before or after July 4th

Your subscribers may not be paying close attention to their inboxes on July 4th. Consider sending your holiday email before or after the holiday when they’re more likely to open it. This can give you an edge over the competition. 

Considering a post-holiday message? You might want to try a subject line like, “We’re Still Celebrating July 4th: Buy One, Get One Free Cupcakes!”

Or, if you want to get a head start, try a subject line like, “Ready for this early July 4th deal?”

4th of July email examples and tips 

Infusing your emails with patriotic elements sends a clear message to your audience. 

Here are some ideas on how to leave a lasting impression on your subscribers as you celebrate the land of the free and the home of the brave!

4th of July email subject line tips

Here are four tips for writing eye-catching subject lines for your July 4th emails:

Use time-sensitive words, like “July 4th” or “Fourth of July”.

Create a sense of FOMO — or fear of missing out — with your subject line. This is one of the most effective psychological drivers of email opens.

Referencing specific dates in your subject lines creates a sense of urgency with your subscribers, and ultimately encourages more subscribers to open your emails.

Mention how long your promotion is running. Having a week-long sale? Be sure to mention it. This tells subscribers how long they can access the deal and entices them to act fast.

4th of July email subject line examples

This Week Only: Hot July 4th Sales! 

The 4th of July continues with 60% off!

Sales That Even Uncle Sam Would Want

50% off Patriotic Tanks & Tees for July 4th!

4th of July email template

Unlock the true spirit of the 4th of July in your email campaigns with captivating and visually striking email designs.

If you’re not a designer, use an email template. You can purchase a 4th of July email template from companies such as BEE Free or Stripo. 

I recommend trying the Independence Day email templates in AWeber.

4th of July images

You don’t need to create a whole new email template. Adding holiday-inspired images like a 4th of July email banner or GIF is perfect.

Email banners

I love this 4th of July email banner example from Kindlendar. They do a great job incorporating the summer fun of an Independence Day holiday into their email banner.

Create your own email banner in do-it-yourself graphic design tools like Canva. It’s easy to use and will look like you paid a design professional.

And if AWeber is your email provider, you can actually design in Canva within your email builder. Creating a memorable 4th of July email doesn’t get much easier.

GIFs

Check out this simple yet effective use of a GIF in UBERs email. The fireworks are a nice creative touch that draws your attention to the CTA.

Looking for your own 4th of July GIFs? Here are a few that our design team created. Feel free to use them in your emails.

Try a custom 4th of July email signature

Celebrate Independence Day in your emails by adding a touch of patriotic flair to your signature. 

Include a small American flag icon or a festive red, white, and blue banner that showcases your holiday spirit.

 Boost your brand with an eye-catching 4th of July email

Sending holiday-themed emails keeps your brand relevant. With the tips and ideas we learned today, they can achieve even more. 

Are you sending any 4th of July emails to your subscribers? Tell us about it in the comments below!

Many people talk about how important it is to have a “low bounce rate.”

But bounce rate is one of the most misunderstood metrics in SEO and digital marketing.

This article will explore the complexities of bounce rate and why it’s not as straightforward as you might think.

You’ll also learn how to analyze your bounce using Google Analytics 4 exploration reports.

In order to understand what bounce rate is, we need to define what engaged sessions are according to GA4.

What Is An Engaged Session?

An engaged session in GA4 is a session which meets either of the following criteria:

Lasts at least 10 seconds.
Has key event (formerly conversions).
Has at least two screen views (or pageviews).

Simply put, if a user lands on your homepage and leaves without converting (key event), that would produce a 100 percent bounce rate for that session.

If one lands and visits a second page or signs up for your newsletter (as you defined it as a key event), that would mean the bounce rate for that session is 0%.

What Is Bounce Rate In Google Analytics?

Bounce rate is a percentage of unengaged sessions, and it is calculated with the following formula:

(total sessions/unengaged sessions)*100.

So, it’s not only visiting a second page that brings the bounce rate down but also when key events occur.

You can set up any event, either built-in or custom-defined in Google Analytics 4 (GA4), to count as a key event (formerly conversion), and in cases when it occurs during the session, it will be counted as a non-bounce visit.

Here is how to define any event as a key event:

Navigate to Admin.
Under Data display, navigate to Events.
Find the event you are interested in and toggle Mark as key event to turn it blue.

How To Change The Default Engaged Session Timer In GA4

As a marketer, you may want to adjust the default 10-second timer for engaged sessions based on your project needs.

For example, if you have a blog article, you may want to set the timer as high as 20 seconds, but if you have a product page where users typically take more time to explore details, you might increase the timer to 30 seconds to better reflect user engagement.

To change:

Navigate to Data streams and click on the stream.
In the slide popup, navigate to Configure tag settings.
In the second slide popup, click Show more at the bottom.
Click on the Adjust session timeout setting.
Change Adjust timer for engaged sessions to the value of your choice.

Here is the detailed video guide on how to adjust the timer for engaged sessions:

What Is A Good Bounce Rate?

So, it’s not as straightforward as saying, “Example.com has a bounce rate of 43 percent, and example2.com has a bounce rate of 20 percent; therefore, example2.com performs better.”

For example, if you search [what’s on at the cinema…], then land on a website and have to dig through five pages of the site to find what’s showing, the website might have a low bounce rate but will have a poor user experience.

In this case, that’s misleading if you consider a low bounce rate good.

On top of that, what use is there in measuring the bounce rate for the whole website when you have lots of different templates that are laid out and designed in different ways, and you track ‘key events,’ aka conversions, differently?

In most cases, this shows that your marketing is effective and well-targeted, and visitors are engaging with your content and wanting to know more.

Remember, bounce rate is not a ranking factor, but when users navigate deeper into your pages, it is an engagement ranking signal that Google may take into account, according to what Google’s Pandu Nayak said during hearings.

That said, it may make sense to track the number of sessions with two or more pageviews in GA4, which you may want to consider as a KPI when reporting.

How To Set Up A Custom Audience With Multiple Pageviews Per Session

If you want to know how many visitors you have who have more than two page views in a session, you can easily set it up in GA4.

To do that:

Navigate to Admin.
Under Data display, navigate to Audiences.
Click the New Audience blue button on the top right corner.
Click Create custom audience.
Set up a name for your audience.
Select scope to “Within the same session.”
Select session_start.
Click And and select “page_views” with the parameter with “Event count” greater than one.

You simply tell it to add to my audience all users who viewed more than two pages within the same session. Here is a quick video guide on how to do that.

You can set up audiences with any granularity, like sessions with exactly two or three pageviews and greater than three pageviews.

Later, you can filter your standard reports using your custom audiences.

How To Do Bounce Rate Reporting And Audit

Next time your boss or client asks you, “Why is my bounce rate so high?” – first, send them this article.

Second, conduct an in-depth bounce rate audit to understand what’s going on.

Here’s how I do it.

Bounce Rate by Date Range

Look at bounce rates on your website for a particular period. This is the most simple reporting on bounce rate.

To do that:

Navigate to Explorations on the right-side menu.
Click ‘Blank’ report.
From Metrics choose “Bounce rate.”
Set Values to a “Bounce rate.”
Under Settings (2nd column), choose visualization type “Line chart.”
Select the date period of your choice.

If you see spikes in the chart, it may indicate a change you made to the website that influenced the bounce rate.

How To Analyze Bounce Rate On A Page Level

When running a lead generation campaign on many different landing pages, evaluating which pages convert well or poorly is vital to optimize them for better performance.

Another example use case of page-level bounce reports is A/B testing.

To do that:

Navigate to Explorations on the right-side menu.
Click Blank report.
From Metrics, choose Bounce rate and Sessions.
From Dimensions, choose Landing page + query string.
Under Settings (second column), choose visualization type ‘Table.”
Set Rows to a “Landing page + query string.”
Set Values  to a “Bounce rate: and “Sessions.”
Set the filter to include pages with more than 100 sessions ( to ensure the data you’re mining is statistically significant).
Select the date period of your choice.

Tip: You don’t need to create a new blank exploration report; instead, add another tab to the same report and change only the configuration.

If we don’t filter by sessions number, you’ll be looking at bounce rates on some pages with only one or two sessions, which doesn’t tell you anything.

Once you’ve done the above, repeat the process per channel to gain an even more rounded understanding of what content/source combinations produce the most or least engaged visits.

How To Analyze Your Bounce Rates By Traffic Channel

Bounce rates can be wildly different depending on the source of traffic.

For example, it’s likely that search traffic will produce a low bounce rate while social and display traffic might produce a high bounce rate.

So you also have to consider bounce rate on a channel level as well as on a page level.

The bounce rate from social and display is almost always higher than “inbound” channels for these reasons:

When a user is on social media looking through their news feed, they are (often) not actively looking for what we are promoting.
When a user sees a banner ad on another website, they are (often) not actively looking for what we are promoting.

However, for inbound channels like organic and paid search, it’s logical that the bounce rate is lower as these users are actively searching for what you are promoting.

So, you capture their attention during the “doing” phase of their buyer’s journey (depending on the search term in question).

To dig deeper into each one:

From Metrics, choose Bounce rate and Sessions.
From Dimensions, choose Session default channel group.
Under Settings (second column), choose visualization type Table.
Set Rows to a Session default channel group.
Set Values to a Bounce rate and Sessions.
Select the date period of your choice.

A little homework: Try to plot a line graph based on the bounce rate for your organic traffic.

Now, you can dig deeper into the data and look for patterns or reasons that one page or set of pages/source or set of sources has a higher or lower bounce rate.

Compile the information in an easy-to-read format, ping it to the powers that be, and head for a congratulatory coffee.

Do You Have The Right Intent?

Sometimes, you’ll find pages that rank in search engines for terms that have more than one meaning.

For example, a recent one I discovered was a page on a website I manage that ranks first for the search term ‘Alang Alang’ (the name of a villa), but Alang Alang is also the name of a film.

The villa page had a high bounce rate, and one reason for this is that some of the visitors landing on that page were actually looking for the film, not the villa.

By doing keyword and competition research to see what results your target keywords produce, you can quickly understand if you have any pages that rank well for terms that could be intended for other topics.

When you identify such pages, you have three options:

Completely change your keyword targeting.
Remove the page from the SERPs.
Overhaul your title and meta description, so searchers know explicitly what the page is about before they click.

How To Increase Website Engagement

Now you’ve figured out what’s going wrong, you’re all set to make some changes.

All of this depends on your study’s findings, so not all of these points are relevant to every scenario, but this should be a good starting point.

Most importantly track custom events as “key events” (conversions) so things like newsletter sign-ups result in Google Analytics classifying that as a non-bounce even if the user didn’t visit a second page.

Is High Bounce Rate Bad?

Hopefully, you now understand why bounce rate isn’t simply “high” or “low”. It depends on many factors, and there is no single answer to the question, “Is high bounce rate bad?”

If you defined your ‘key events’ (conversions) and GA4 settings correctly for your goals, a high bounce ( +90% ) rate is definitely concerning because it means your visitors don’t engage enough with your webpages.

But if you have GA4 on default settings, you can never rely on data because of the reasons we discussed above.

Never assume anything. Do your research and make sure you configure your GA4 account properly to track ‘key events.’

Now, go forth and conquer your bounce rate!

More resources:

Featured Image: eamesBot/Shutterstock

“Apple Intelligence,” the company’s answer to the likes of Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot, didn’t exhibit many tricks not already seen on those other platforms, but it did excel in two areas: integration and privacy.

The technology, announced in a prerecorded presentation Monday at Apple’s annual World Wide Developers Conference, largely taps into a user’s personal information to perform its AI functions and does much of it on the devices where the data is stored to ensure privacy.

“There are already some really impressive chat tools out there that perform a vast array of tasks using world knowledge, but these tools know very little about you or your needs,” Apple Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi said in the presentation. “With iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, we are embarking on a new journey to bring you intelligence that understands you.”

He noted that Apple Intelligence can be used to understand and create language, as well as images, and take action to simplify interactions across devices and apps. It can do things like prioritize notifications and provide writing tools to rewrite, summarize, and proofread text.

“They’re deeply integrating AI into your personal data and enhancing that data using artificial intelligence to make your apps smarter, integrate features, and expand capabilities,” explained Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a technology advisory firm, in San Jose, Calif.

“It’s a unique approach,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Apple is the only one who can do it because they control the hardware, software and semiconductors in their system.”

A Personal Kind of AI

Mark N. Vena, president and principal analyst at SmartTech Research in Las Vegas, added that Apple’s vision of Apple Intelligence is based on personalized experience.

“People have been focusing on ChatGPT and other AI applications for publicly available content,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Apple’s view is that the real value of Apple Intelligence is how users will use it in a very personalized and customized way.”

“Apple Intelligence will offer a number of interesting applications that the average person will be able to leverage and see the value of,” he said.

“They’ve thrown the gauntlet down,” he declared. “They’re saying that if you really want to drive AI for the common person, it has to be personalized, it has to be customizable, it has to have meaningful applications, and it has to have a privacy component built into it.”

Private Cloud Compute

The cornerstone of Apple’s personal intelligence system is on-device processing, Federighi explained. It allows Apple Intelligence to be aware of personal data without collecting it.

Not all processing can be performed locally, however. Some tasks may need to be performed in the cloud. For those tasks, Apple has created “Private Cloud Compute,” which allows Apple devices to connect to specialized servers running on Apple silicon for enhanced processing.

“These Apple silicon servers offer the privacy and security of your iPhone from the silicon on up, draw on the security properties of the Swift programming language, and run software with transparency built in,” Federighi elaborated.

“When you make a request, Apple Intelligence analyzes whether it can be processed on device,” he continued. “If it needs greater computational capacity, it can draw on Private Cloud Compute and send only the data that’s relevant to your task to be processed on Apple silicon servers. Your data is never stored or made accessible to Apple.”

“And, just like your iPhone, independent experts can inspect the code that runs on these servers to verify this privacy promise,” he said.

“If Private Cloud Compute is true to its word, it’s a nice effort and one that differentiates Apple pretty well,” Eric Abbruzzese, a research director at ABI Research, a technology advisory company headquartered in Oyster Bay, N.Y., told TechNewsWorld.

Vena was impressed with Apple’s care in building the privacy foundation for Apple Intelligence during the presentation. “If you look at all the usage models that they demonstrated, they have to have access to emails and text messages, so it was important to convince people that privacy is at the core of the way they’re approaching AI,” he said.

However, not all AI requests go to Apple servers. OpenAI’s ChatGPT is also in the mix. Siri might determine that a query might be best answered by ChatGPT rather than personal sources. In that case, Siri would ask permission to send the query to the OpenAI chatbot.

“Apple got OpenAI to agree to not log users’ requests, and no personal data can be given to ChatGPT unless you give it permission,” Bajarin explained. “It’s a great approach and extremely secure.”

AI on Apple’s Terms

Ross Rubin, the principal analyst with Reticle Research, a consumer technology advisory firm in New York City, noted that Apple Intelligence offers the company an opportunity to leverage the power of its processors to do something besides rendering video or playing a game faster.

“It allows them to bring more of these AI models onto the device, which helps their privacy stance,” he told TechNewsWorld. “While Apple Intelligence is interacting with a lot of personal information, none of that information is going anywhere.”

“This is AI on Apple’s terms,” he said.

“No one is going to say we’ve never seen AI do this before,” he added. “It’s the way they’ve integrated it into their apps that represents a more comprehensive approach that we’ve seen thus far.”

Anshel Sag, a senior analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy, a technology analyst and advisory firm based in Austin, Texas, agreed.

“They’re not doing anything particularly novel, but their integration at the platform level is good and compelling,” he told TechNewsWorld. “And they’re telling a strong privacy and computer story, which is in line with everything expected from Apple.”

“What they announced is similar to what we’re seeing from other companies, just not at this scale,” he said. “What you’re seeing with Apple Intelligence is a tighter, cleaner integration of what everyone else has already done with a slight Apple twist to it. It’s not particularly groundbreaking.”

More Than Just a Value-Add

Abbruzzese noted that Apple has approached AI as it has approached other products.

“They’re never first to market. They try to be the best,” he said. “It’s too early to know if they’re the best, but I was struck by how cohesive the announcement was. Everything fit together nicely.”

“I haven’t felt the same way for other players,” he continued. “AI always felt like a value-add to something else. It was not as well-integrated.”

“Every AI feature Apple announced works across the ecosystem,” he added. “We haven’t seen as broad-reaching synergy as that before. Microsoft Copilot is powerful, but it doesn’t feel as well integrated into the Windows ecosystem as Apple Intelligence.”

By Sean Tinney June 19, 2024

One of the most effective emails you can send to your audience is the abandoned cart email. When sent at the right time, an abandoned cart email serves as a helpful reminder to encourage your customers to complete their purchase. Many people put together a cart but get distracted before checking out. In fact, on average, 70.2% of online carts are abandoned.

That is a lot of lost sales. 

But you can recover many of these sales with an automated abandoned cart email campaign designed to increase conversion rates. 

What is an abandoned cart email?

An abandoned cart email is a reminder sent to visitors who added items to their shopping cart but didn’t complete the purchase. This automated email prompts the visitor to finish their transaction. The best reminder emails are creative and timely, aiming to encourage the completion of the sale. 

Supportive calls to actions (CTAs) included in this email can guide the potential buyers to spend more on upgrades or related products or services. Some abandoned cart emails include special deals or free shipping, but most simply serve as a timely reminder to spark action.

Why abandoned cart emails matter

Shopify found that retargeting a customer with an abandoned cart email increases sales by more than 20% and reduces abandoned cart rates by 6.5%. When customers receive a reminder about their left-behind shopping cart, many return to complete their purchase. The best part? You can automate these reminders!

Why do people abandon online shopping carts?

Understanding why shoppers abandon their carts is crucial for creating a more effective sales funnel. According to Statista, the most common reasons for cart abandonment in the US for 2024 included:

Unexpected costs (shipping costs, taxes, or other charges)

Account setup required

Didn’t trust the site with credit card information

Delivery time was too slow 

Complicated checkout process

Inability to see the total cost upfront

To improve conversion rates, it’s important to be clear about costs throughout the process and reduce the number of steps required to complete a purchase. 

How do you determine your cart abandonment rate?

To determine if your rates improve after implementing an abandoned cart email campaign, you’ll need to calculate your cart abandonment rate. This calculation will serve as your baseline.

The cart abandonment rate is calculated by dividing the number of purchases by the number of shopping carts created during a determined amount of time. Then, subtract this value from 1 and multiply by 100 to determine your cart abandonment rate. 

This is the percentage of interest that didn’t end in a sale. Regardless of your current rate, send out reminders to reduce it as much as possible. 

What happens after cart abandonment?

Since there are many different reasons a shopper may leave the website without completing the purchase, there are also several things likely to happen after the abandonment. According to Statista, UK shoppers who abandoned their carts were most likely to:

Purchase the item from the site at a later date (31%)

Purchase the item from an online competitor (26%)

Changed their mind or weren’t looking to buy (23%)

Went to a physical store to make their purchase (8%)

Abandoned cart emails can potentially prompt a purchase from 80% of those shoppers who are still interested in buying. 

15 Abandoned cart email best practices

Writing a powerful reminder email means following best practices for abandoned cart emails. Here are crucial steps you should follow to get the most out of your reminder emails:

1 – Use attention-grabbing abandoned cart email subject lines

Getting your email opened is a huge step with a cart abandonment email since many shoppers are used to seeing them. The best email subject lines stand out from the rest of the inbox but still make it clear what the email is about. Good abandoned cart subject line examples include ”You forgot something” or “Oops, Did Something Go Wrong?”

2 – Trigger the email within 24 hours 

Statistics show that sooner is more effective than later when it comes to reminder emails. Conversion rates for neglected carts are highest when the email is sent out 30-60 minutes after inactivity. However, those rates plummeted after 24 hours when the lead had grown cold.

3 – Copy should be short & direct

Remind people what they left behind with copy that inspires them to take action. Get to the point quickly with creative and succinct copy by trimming out all the excess. Simply highlighting a key benefit or two could help them finalize their purchase.

Speaking of being direct, check out this example from Nike:

4 – Use images to highlight what they are missing

The brain processes images about 60,000 times faster than text. Images will spark instant reminders of what drew them to your items in the first place. Always include pictures or GIFs of the items they’ve left behind to help provoke a response.

Here’s a great example from Hydrow:

5 – Reinforce the product or service benefits

Retargeting with a reminder email is the perfect time to highlight the product they are considering. Offer your most influential reasons for why they should finish the checkout process on the items in their cart.

6 – Consider a discount or value

If you plan to offer a great deal, the cart abandonment email is a good time to offer it. Even a small discount, like $5 or 10%, can make it more appealing to finish the purchase. People love to find deals, which could be the perfect way to help them decide to buy.

Saatchi Art does just that, plus they add a FOMO (fear of missing out) headline:

7 – Offer social proof with reviews

Providing reviews or testimonials can help motivate your leads to take the leap and make a purchase decision. Word-of-mouth marketing is highly influential, and a genuine customer review has a similar appeal.

8 – Include a call to action (CTA) that fits your goals

The primary goal of an abandoned cart email is to prompt a return and complete the sale. Your CTA should be positioned to drive that action. Use FOMO to encourage urgency, such as “Get it before it’s gone” or “Limited availability.”

9 – Set up an automated feature

You shouldn’t have to manually send out your reminder emails. Set automated emails for cart abandonment to go out after a certain lapse of inactivity.

10 – Segment your audience

Tailor your abandoned cart emails to different audiences by segmenting them into groups based on things like purchase history, browsing behavior, and demographics. Personalization makes your abandoned cart emails more relevant and, therefore, more effective.

11 – Include dynamic content

Dynamic content in your emails displaying real-time product availability, offers and discounts, or product recommendations keeps your emails feeling fresh.

12 – Highlight limited-time offers:

Draw attention to limited-time offers to create a sense of urgency and to nudge recipients toward a purchase. One way to do this is with a countdown timer. These motivational additions to your email are a great way to get your shoppers to act quickly.

13 – Provide clear contact information

When you simply include your customer service phone number, email, and chat, it gives confidence to your potential customers that you are readily available to answer their problems or questions.

14 – Incorporate additional triggers

Use other behavioral triggers alongside your abandoned cart emails to help keep your brand top of mind. Set up triggers when customers revisit your site or add more items to that old cart. 

15 – Test different send times

We already mentioned that it’s important to send abandoned cart emails within 24 hours. But when exactly should you send your abandoned cart email? Every business is different, and that’s why we encourage you to test different send times to find out what works best for your audience.

Abandoned cart email examples

There are all kinds of abandoned cart emails you can consider when creating your own. Here are some of our favorite examples from real brands, showcasing variations of value promise, humor, imagery, and more.

1 – LEGO

Image from ReallyGoodEmails

What I love about this example:

Fun and engaging graphics

Easy purchase process with “Make it yours in a snap”

Strong positioning of CTAs

Enticing, supportive, and amusing for someone previously browsing LEGO sets

2 – NOMAD

Image from ReallyGoodEmails

What I love about this example:

Adds a touch of humor with “What Happened? Did your Wi-Fi Crash?”) 

Light-hearted but effective

Relevant CTA –  “Seal the Deal.” 

Clever reinforcement of their 30-day return policy

3 – Dote

Image from ReallyGoodEmails

What I love about this example:

Another joke reminder — “Your shopping bag has abandonment issues.”

The light-hearted theme continues with “Save these items hours of therapy and give them a loving home.” 

Clean, simplistic, clutter-free design 

4 – Dollar Shave Club

Image from ReallyGoodEmails

What I love about this example:

Reinforces brand positioning

Offers a bold promise

Highlights several benefits for signing up at the beginning of the email

Large product shot with a natural flow leading the reader to the CTA for more information.

5 – Pepper

Image from ReallyGoodEmails

What I love about this example:

Offers a small discount to spark a purchase

Features the customer’s most recent cart additions to appeal to potential buyers

6 – Peel

Image from ReallyGoodEmails

What I love about this example:

Simple and straightforward design

Creates a sense of urgency with “We’re holding the items in your cart for you, but don’t wait too long!”

Clear call to action in a standout color

7 – Gilt

Image from ReallyGoodEmails

What I love about this example:

Uses the expiring cart threat to spark immediate action

Shows alternative colors of the items in their cart to motivate a purchase

8 – Google Express

Image from ReallyGoodEmails

What I love about this example:

Simple and direct design

Clearly lists items and pricing from the abandoned cart

Positions the CTA right below the headline for prime visibility

9 – Doggyloot

What I love about this example:

Creates urgency with “Items you added to your cart are almost sold out”

Clear and prominent “RESTORE MY CART” CTA

Friendly and warm sign-off

10 – J. Crew

What I love about this example:

Direct and engaging headline

High-quality image of the abandoned product

Clear CTA with “GO TO YOUR BAG NOW”

Additional CTAs

11 – Whiskey Me

What I love about this example:

Personalized touch with the order number

Simple layout focused on action

Friendly reminder of the item’s details

12 – Huckberry

What I love about this example:

Displays the abandoned item with details.

Provides easy access to assistance from customer support.

Creates urgency by mentioning limited sales and inventory.

13 – 23andMe

Image from Really Good Emails

What I love about this example:

Emphasizes the value of the product with a personal benefit statement.

Clean and simple design, focusing on the message.

Clear and direct headline: “Don’t forget to order your kit.”

14 – Le Puzz

What I love about this example:

Friendly and welcoming headline: “Hello again!”

Bright and eye-catching design that stands out.

Creative and engaging copy: “We found a lost puzzle. Could it be yours?”

15 – Stetson

What I love about this example:

Clean and elegant design.

High-quality product image to remind customers of the item.

Free shipping offer prominently displayed to add extra incentive.

Win back more lost sales with the perfect cart abandonment email

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to target a warm lead and recover lost sales. Set up your abandoned cart email in AWeber for an easy solution with powerful results. If you need help getting started, we have a pre-built campaign.

Before this year’s Worldwide Developer Conference, which Apple conducted earlier this week, AI meant artificial intelligence to most consumers. In classic Apple-esque fashion, we now know the Cupertino-based company wants to redefine AI as “Apple Intelligence.”

Apple has consistently demonstrated its prowess in effectively communicating complex technologies to laypeople. At WWDC, the company clearly articulated how it will incorporate these latest developments in artificial intelligence into its software on a platform-wide basis.

Some consumers have been skeptical about using artificial intelligence beyond the much-hyped tasks of creating a dinner party menu, for example. For those users, and it’s not a trivial audience from a size standpoint, those use cases are not innovations that will change the world.

Now, things get a lot more interesting when an Apple Intelligence-infused Siri can search across apps, emails, and text messages to retrieve information saved somewhere you can’t remember or to check the status of a flight. For instance, Siri will cross-reference flight details from an email with real-time updates from the web, highlighting a practical application of artificial intelligence.

More Steak, Less Sizzle

Competitors had already revealed a few new features; during its developer conference last month, Google debuted a photo search functionality strikingly similar to what Apple unveiled at its keynote. Nevertheless, the show served as a helpful reminder of the iPhone maker’s significant advantage over rival tech firms when showcasing cutting-edge technology on its own gear.

Viewed through this prism, Apple Intelligence suddenly materializes in a way it hasn’t until now. In stark contrast, Sundar Pichai’s recent Google I/O presentation came across as dramatically more technical than intended for the general audience.

The big question is how much of what Apple showed will result in increased consumer spending, and we won’t get an answer until the iPhone 16 expected announcement in September. Legacy iPhone users must upgrade to an iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max to use its new AI-powered capabilities. However, AI will also be available on newer Macs and iPads that utilize Apple Silicon.

AI Boost to Soft iPhone Sales?

Given that iPhone sales decreased in the previous fiscal year and the first half of this one, any influence on those sales would be significant. However, there’s no guarantee that these enhancements will convince the typical consumer, who may not want to spend over $1,000 for the newest premium phone — either in full upfront or over three years, as most mobile plans currently permit — and may not pay attention to tech news.

More importantly, it’s still an open question whether these features function as well in real life as they did in the demos at WWDC. To Apple’s credit, the online demos given during the WWDC keynote were compelling and intuitive, an Apple trademark. Still, consumers are notoriously finicky, and this remains an open question.

Moreover, as I’ve suggested during my podcasts, Apple has all the resources necessary to swiftly replicate a Microsoft Copilot-like framework across all its device operating systems. Sequoia (the forthcoming upgrade to macOS), iOS 18, and iPadOS 18 will perfectly position Apple to amplify the benefits of its vaunted ecosystem.

It’s also notable that Apple’s ability to offer a large selection of developer tools that utilize Apple Intelligence capabilities will add a powerful AI dimension to the Apple App Store.

App Intents is an intriguing addition to Shortcuts, which enables AI agent capabilities so developers may provide their consumers with generative AI-based automation. Along with the Matter initiative, this capability will turbocharge smart home applications, which have been a morass of multiple applications and tedious setups.

Privacy, Privacy, More Privacy

As anticipated, Apple prioritized privacy as the bedrock of Apple Intelligence. The additional functions and features appear to operate on-device (iPhone 15 and Apple Silicon iPads and Macs).

On the other hand, the company unveiled “Private Cloud Compute,” which enables Apple Intelligence to be “scaled” to servers using Apple Silicon. Apple proudly talked about how Apple Intelligence gets smarter by understanding user habits and preferences, but it keeps this information private. Most of the intelligence happens right on your device.

Still, Apple will use a unique cloud system that protects your privacy even when using extra processing power for super complex tasks. That’s a big commitment, and Apple didn’t provide specific details.

Though some publications claim that OpenAI’s generative toolkit is the basis of Apple Intelligence, whether gen AI models or services underpin the system is still unclear. Since OpenAI is mentioned as a partner on the “world model” rather than as a primary “supplier” of Apple Intelligence (much to Elon Musk’s chagrin), it appears that these models may be Apple-only.

Demos indicate that ChatGPT will be available for free and most likely under the same conditions of use, with roomier integration in Apple operating systems and apps. Apple appears to be approaching this like a plug-in version, similar to GPT-4o’s introduction of a macOS application.

The company’s refreshing emphasis on privacy appears to confirm that the incremental cost of supporting these features of Apple Intelligence is more important than profitability. Apple did not mention whether Apple Intelligence fees were covered by iCloud membership income or transferred to individual devices. If this is true, it’s a new business model issue that will impact many third-party AI providers outside of Apple.

Final Thoughts

It is unclear how the Apple Intelligence architecture maintains privacy and security while enabling contextual continuity across devices. However, this goes directly to Apple’s bifurcated strategy for executing a personalized and external AI experience.

We need to know more about how Apple will manage all of this, but it’s unquestionably a strategy that will differentiate Apple from the likes of Microsoft and Google.

Apple’s substantial smartphone market share significantly bolsters its ability to execute its Apple Intelligence capability. With a vast and loyal user base, Apple can gather extensive data to refine and enhance its AI algorithms, ensuring more personalized and efficient user experiences.

The widespread adoption of iPhones provides a robust platform for seamlessly integrating AI features across devices, fostering a cohesive ecosystem. This market dominance also attracts top talent and encourages substantial investment in AI research and development, further propelling Apple’s advancements in artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence has promised magic; instead, it is frequently imperfect and primarily valuable for a small number of tasks. It’s hard to blame most consumers for being skeptical. A recent study indicates that less than 10% of Americans use ChatGPT daily.

OpenAI announced a chattier version of its chatbot earlier in the year, but it didn’t have most of the features the company discussed. In addition, Google scaled back its AI image generator and the AI-powered search results after high-profile flubs this year. Amazon showed an error-prone AI-upgraded Alexa last year that is yet to be released. Those miscues aren’t Apple’s fault, and the company is usually wary of releasing products before they’re polished.

However, Apple and other companies are under tremendous pressure to show their AI expertise to investors, employees, and business partners. Skeptics might question whether AI is really targeted at consumers or if it’s mostly a corporate self-interest play.

Putting all this aside, I tend to be an optimist, and I eagerly await how this pans out. I will be an early beta tester of everything announced at WWDC24 and will focus on assessing its usefulness, intuitiveness, and privacy protections. Stay tuned.

Images often make up the largest part of webpages.

They have their own tab on Google results and even their own algorithm. Appearing in image results should be part of a complete SEO strategy to reach users looking for images.

Your content should contain high-quality images either way, so why not optimize them too?

It’s like the search engines are giving away Oreos and milk for free. Don’t only take the Oreo – it’s way better dunked in milk.

This article will discuss each aspect of image SEO in detail and guide you on optimizing your images for better visibility in search engines.

How Search Engines Index And Understand Images

Search engines crawl webpages to discover images and extract data from images, such as metadata and file names.

Google considers factors – such as surrounding text, image file name, alt text, captions, and page content – to understand the context of images and uses image recognition technologies to understand the content of the images.

What Is Image SEO?

Image optimization is a set of techniques for increasing visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) based on our knowledge of how search engines crawl, understand, and rank images.

This involves compressing images to reduce load times, using responsive images for different screen sizes, implementing lazy loading, adding relevant alt text for a better user experience, using descriptive file names, and implementing structured data for images.

With this background, let’s dig into each optimization tip below.

1. Choose The Right Image Format

There are dozens of image formats available, but Google search supports only these formats: JPEG, PNG, WebP, BMP, GIF, and SVG.

Let’s understand the differences between these formats and how they impact your website and SEO.

PNG: Uses lossless compression, meaning no image data is lost. Thus, it produces better-quality images and supports transparency, but it comes with a larger file size and is ideal for printing.
JPEG: Uses lossy compression and causes image quality degradation, but you can adjust the quality level to find a good balance.
WebP: Developed by Google, it uses lossless or lossy and is more efficient than JPG (ranging from 25% to 80%), thus providing smaller file sizes at comparable quality levels. It is supported by all major browsers.
GIF: Uses lossless compression but is limited to 256 colors, making it less suitable for high-quality images and more suitable for simple graphics and animations.
SVG: This vector-based format is used for logos, icons, and other designs because it can be scaled to any size without increasing file size. This makes it ideal for responsive web design.
BMP: Large and uncompressed image files that maintain very high quality. Due to its size, it is not typically used for websites, as it can significantly slow down page loading times.

For me, the best option is PNG, which can then be converted into WebP format for web deployment.

Regarding GIF conversion to WebP, note that old browsers, such as Safari 15.6 (macOS Catalina) and older, don’t support animated WebP formats.

Typically, only a few users utilize outdated browser versions, so you don’t need to worry about it.

As a general rule, when you use a certain technology, it is advisable to regularly monitor the percentage of your traffic’s devices that support it via Google Analytics.

How Compression Affects Image Quality And Load Times

To understand this, let’s use a sample image in BMP format and convert it into different formats.

Look at how file size and load time on the webpage change based on my experience.

As a testing environment, we used a local Apache web server and included images on a sample HTML page.

This illustrates how effective a WebP format is. It has the lowest file size and loads five times faster than PNG and almost twice as fast as JPG files.

That is why it is recommended to use WebP. If you have done that, it means you already made great progress in optimizing for the load. (There are cases when WebP image size can be higher than the original file. Learn more about it at Google’s FAQ page.)

However, changing the image format, a.k.a. applying a compression algorithm, may cause it to lose its quality and sharpness. This means that you should choose the appropriate format based on the nature of your website.

For example, if you have a photography website where retaining high-level details in images is key to user experience, it is advised to use PNG rather than JPG or WebP.

In that case, you can display WebP format thumbnails that link to the full-quality PNG images.

We have learned about the various image formats and their respective compression methods.

You might be wondering what different image compression tools, such as ShortPixel or TinyJPG, do.

Image compression services use advanced algorithms and strip out unnecessary metadata (like EXIF data and GPS tags) to reduce file sizes beyond the basic compression inherent in standard file formats.

These services apply enhanced lossy or lossless compression techniques, selectively removing data that is less noticeable to the human eye.

For example, when the sample image above is converted from JPG to WebP using ShortPixel lossy, it results in an 8.3 KB file, while TinyJPG generates a slightly different 8.7 KB file.

Below is a list of image compression services you may consider using:

However, be aware that compression using these tools may noticeably degrade the quality of images. For example, when done in screenshots containing text, it may distort the text on the image.

Therefore, it is always recommended that optimization types be checked and chosen carefully.

What About The AVIF Format?

AVIF is a new format that is supported across all major browsers – but it is not yet supported by Google, so we didn’t include it in our initial list.

It offers an even higher level of compression using lossy compression.

The same image file, for example, is 11 KB in AVIF compared to 41 KB in WebP.

However, as you may notice from the comparison below, it degrades the quality of the image. This is evident in the flattening of irregularities that occur in an image when compressed using AVIF compression algorithms, as opposed to using WebP on the right.

However, if you are satisfied with AVIF quality and want to use it, you can do so by including it in the <picture> tag as the first <source>.

Browsers that support AVIF will render it even smaller.

Google, which still doesn’t support it as of the writing of this article, will simply ignore it and proceed to the next format specified in <picture> tag.

Here is a sample code:

<picture>
<!– AVIF format will be processed if client (i.e. browser ) supports it as a first in list–>
<source type=”image/avif”

>

<!– WebP format will be processed if client doesn’t support AVIF  –>
<source type=”image/webp”

>

<!– If WebP is also not supported, the browser will then fall back to the PNG format  –>
<source type=”image/png”

>

<!– Lastly, if none of the advanced formats are compatible, the browser will default to displaying the JPEG image. –>
<img src=”https://www.searchenginejournal.com/on-page-seo/image-optimization/image-300w.jpg”

alt=”Description of the image”>
</picture>

This progressive enhancement guarantees maximum compatibility across various browsers and devices.

We will cover the srcset and sizes attribute later in this article, explaining how to use them to optimize images for different devices and screen sizes, thus ensuring they load efficiently and are mobile-friendly.

2. Create Unique Images

Too many websites are cluttered with the same generic stock photos, so you want your photos to pop on your site and bring unique value to the users.

If you fill your website with stock imagery, you’ll look unoriginal because Google understands the content of the image. Since the same stock photo can be used on other websites, it will be treated as duplicate content.

Think about a corporate website, a consulting firm, or a business that prides itself on customer service. All these websites use virtually the same-looking stock image of a businessman smiling.

I’m sure you’ve seen one that looks like this:

While you may have your stock images perfectly optimized, it won’t have the same impact or potential SEO benefits as an original, high-quality image.

The more original pictures you have, the better the user experience will be and the better your odds of ranking on relevant searches.

Remember, large images are more likely to be featured in Google Discover.

Google recommends images be at least 1200 px wide and enabled by the  max-image-preview:large setting in robots meta tag to ensure they are surfaced as large images in Google Discover.

<meta name=”robots” content=”index, follow, max-image-preview:large” />

Here is an example of how that can help your images appear big:

However, here is a caveat. As you can see, thumbnails can also appear small even though webpages use the required setting.

Google doesn’t guarantee that it will always be surfacing big thumbnails.

The best you can do as an SEO is to include the required setting in robots meta tag and make sure images are at least 1200px in width:

3. Optimize Image File Names

When it comes to SEO, creating descriptive, keyword-rich (not stuffed) file names is absolutely crucial.

Image file names alert Google and other search engine crawlers as to the subject matter of the image.

Typically, file names that look like “IMG_722019” or something similar don’t help Google better understand the image.

Even though Google can now understand the content of the image, it doesn’t hurt to set meaningful file names and help Google understand images better.

Change the file name from the default to help the search engines understand your image and improve your SEO value.

Depending on how extensive your media library is, this involves some work, but changing the default image name is always a good idea.

4. Write SEO-Friendly Alt Text

Alt tags are text alternatives to images when a browser can’t properly render them. Similar to the title, the alt attribute describes the contents of an image file.

When the image won’t load, you’ll get an image box with the alt tag present in the top left corner. Make sure the alt tags fit with the image and make the picture relevant.

Paying attention to alt tags also benefits the overall on-page SEO strategy.

You want to ensure all other optimization areas are in place, but if the image fails to load for any reason, users will see what the image is supposed to be.

Plus, adding appropriate alt tags to the images on your website can help your website achieve better rankings in the search engines by associating keywords with images, as alt text is a ranking factor.

It provides Google with useful information about the subject matter of the image. Google uses that information to help determine the best image to return for a user’s query.

Here is an example of bad and good alt text per Google’s official documentation.

Additionally, alt text is required under the American Disabilities Act for individuals who are unable to view images themselves.

A descriptive alt text can alert users to exactly what is in the photo. For example, say you have a picture of chocolate on your website.

The alt text could read:

<img src=”chocolate-1.jpg” alt=”chocolate”/>

However, a better alternative text that describes the image would read:

<img src=”chocolate-1.jpg” alt=”dark chocolate coffee flavored bar”/>

For further SEO value, the alt text can act as the anchor text of an internal link when the image links to a different page on the site.

5. Optimize Your Page Title & Description

Google uses your page title and description as part of its image search algorithm.

All your basic on-page SEO factors, like metadata, header tags, copy on the page, structured data, etc., affect how Google ranks your images.

It’s like putting all your toppings on your burrito; it tastes way better with guacamole. So, make sure to add the guac to improve image rankings.

6. Define Your Dimensions

Image dimension attributes are important for preventing Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) issues that can interfere with your Core Web Vitals optimization. This stops the page from jumping when it loads.

Making sure that you include width and height attributes for every image and video element is key.

This tells the browser how much space to allocate for the resource and prevents the annoying content shifting that lowers your CLS score.

Check out the short video demo below on how images without the width and height attributes set can cause a page to jump up and down.

7. Make Your Images Mobile-Friendly

As you may have noticed, we briefly touched upon the  srcset and sizes attributes when discussing image formats.

In essence, these attributes enable responsive images, allowing them to scale according to the size of the user’s device or resolution and load at optimal size by saving precious bandwidth, particularly on slow network connections.

Now, let’s dive deeper into these attributes to understand how they function.

Let’s break down this sample code:

<picture>
<!– WebP format for browsers that support it –>
<source type=”image/webp”
srcset=”https://www.searchenginejournal.com/image-300w.webp 300w,
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/image-600w.webp 600w,
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/image-1200w.webp 1200w”
sizes=”(max-width: 600px) 300px,
(max-width: 900px) 600px,
1200px” >

<!– Fallback JPEG format –>
<img src=”https://www.searchenginejournal.com/on-page-seo/image-optimization/image-300w.jpg”
srcset=”https://www.searchenginejournal.com/image-300w.jpg 300w,
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/image-600w.jpg 600w,
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/image-1200w.jpg 1200w”
sizes=”(max-width: 600px) 300px,
(max-width: 900px) 600px,
1200px”
alt=”Description of the image”>
</picture>

The srcset attribute is used within the <img> tag to specify different image files and their widths.

Each file is listed with a ‘w’ descriptor indicating the width of the image in pixels. This is necessary because browsers cannot identify image sizes until they are downloaded.

That is why you must specify the width to inform the browser about the width of each version. For example: srcset=”https://www.searchenginejournal.com/image-300w.jpg 300w, https://www.searchenginejournal.com/image-600w.jpg 600w”

The sizes attribute is used by the browser, along with the srcset attribute, to pick a resource. It specifies the intended display width of the image for different viewport sizes.

For viewports up to 600 px wide, it will choose a 300 px wide image; for viewports up to 900 px, a 600 px wide image; and for larger viewports, a 1200 px wide image.

Without this attribute, the browser defaults to using the viewport’s full width to select an image from the srcset.

You can also use the “x” descriptor, which tells the browser to choose the most suitable image size based on the device’s screen resolution (like 1x, 2x, or 3x for standard, retina, and super retina screens).

<picture>
<!– WebP format –>
<source type=”image/webp” >
<!– Fallback JPEG format –>
<img src=”https://www.searchenginejournal.com/on-page-seo/image-optimization/image.jpg” alt=”Description of the image”>
</picture>

Additionally, you may use “x” descriptors for different screen resolutions (for example, retina displays) where the image size remains constant.

Meanwhile, “w” descriptors are suitable for fluid, responsive layouts where the image size varies based on the viewport size.

I can read your thoughts as you ponder how working with sizes and srcset attributes is quite challenging to automate, even if you know the layout of your webpages well.

Fortunately, Chrome recently started developing support for , which will instruct the browser to determine the size of the lazy-loaded images from the srcset attribute based on the HTML layout and CSS.

This means that the browser will consider downloading the appropriate image size according to how it would be displayed on the page, as dictated by your CSS rules, rather than assuming it takes up the whole viewport width.

Remember that this feature will work only on lazy-loaded images. This is because the layout is already rendered when lazy-loaded images start downloading, allowing the browser to accurately calculate the size they occupy on the webpage specified in CSS.

However, note that you always need to specify the width and height attributes of the largest size available.

By specifying image dimensions and utilizing CSS (width: 100%; height: auto;) to maintain the aspect ratio, the browser can accurately select and display the image from the srcset attribute when using the .

8. Lazy Loading And Preloading

Lazy loading is deferring the loading of images that are not visible in the user’s viewport (above the fold).

Instead of loading all images when the page loads, lazy loading downloads images only as they are about to come into view when users scroll.

This reduces initial load time, speeds up page performance, and can significantly improve LCP, especially on pages with many images.

Implementing lazy loading is as simple as adding loading=”lazy” attribute in your <img> tag.

<img src=”https://www.searchenginejournal.com/on-page-seo/image-optimization/image.jpg” loading=”lazy” alt=”Description”>

But never lazy-load images above the fold, as this can negatively affect the First Contentful Paint (FCP) metric.

Instead, preload them or use the fetchpriority=”high” attribute.

The advantage of preload over the “fetchpriority” attribute is that preload is supported by all browsers, while the latter isn’t supported by Firefox and Opera browsers.

Below are examples of preload and use of fetchpriority:

<img src=”https://www.searchenginejournal.com/on-page-seo/image-optimization/image.jpg” fetchpriority=”high” alt=”Description”>
<link rel=”preload” as=”image” href=”https://www.searchenginejournal.com/on-page-seo/image-optimization/image-600w.jpg” image image>

By using preload or fetchpriority, you instruct the browser to start loading the images as a priority, which is beneficial for improving Largest Contentful Paint (LCP).

9. Add Images To Your Sitemap

Whether adding your images to your sitemap or creating a new sitemap for images, you want images somewhere in your sitemaps.

Having your images in a sitemap greatly increases the chances of search engines crawling and indexing your images. Thus, results in more site traffic.

If you’re using WordPress, Yoast and RankMath offer a sitemap solution in their plugin.

If you don’t use WordPress, you may consider using software like Screaming Frog to generate a sitemap.

10. Add Structured Data

Adding structured data to your images can enhance your webpages by guiding Google and other search engines to deliver better visual results.

For example, you can include images of your products along with details like price, availability, and ratings in the product schema. This makes your products stand out in search results, attracting more attention from potential buyers.

Another use case involves adding an image schema in Article schema with multiple sizes to enhance the visibility of your articles in Google Discover and different devices in Google Search.

Google may select the best matching size when surfacing them.

Here is an example:

<script type=”application/ld+json”>
{
“@context”: “http://schema.org”,
“@type”: “Article”,
“headline”: “Article Title”,
“image”: [
“https://example.com/photos/1×1/image.jpg”,
“https://example.com/photos/4×3/image.jpg”,
“https://example.com/photos/16×9/image.jpg”
],
“datePublished”: “2024-01-10T08:00:00+08:00”,
“dateModified”: “2024-01-10T09:20:00+08:00”,
“author”: {
“@type”: “Person”,
“name”: “Author Name”
},
…
}
</script>
11. Using CDN For Daster Image Delivery

Content Delivery Network or CDN is a set of servers spread worldwide that hosts your content and delivers it to the users from a server location nearest to them geographically.

However, delivery is not the only advantage of CDNs; they also offer transformation and optimization capabilities.

By passing parameters along with image URLs, you can request different image sizes or convert images to more efficient formats like WebP.

For instance, services like Cloudflare’s Polish can automatically optimize image formats by detecting the browser’s compatibility with WebP format. It can serve PNG and JPEG images in WebP format upon request.

For example, at Search Engine Journal, we use that technique to serve WebP format with our server’s built-in CDN.

Even though images have “.jpeg” or “.png” extensions, our CDN serves WebP if browsers support it.

When validating pages with PageSpeed Insights, it is advisable to ensure that you pass the audit “Serve images in next-gen formats.”

Below are a few of the most known CDN services you may consider using:

12. Beware Of Copyright

Regardless of the image files you choose to use, make sure there’s no copyright conflict.

The Postal Service is paying $3.5 million in an image copyright lawsuit, and Skechers was sued for $2.5 million.

If Getty, Shutterstock, DepositFiles, or some other stock photo provider owns an image you use – and you don’t have a license to use it – then you’re risking an expensive lawsuit.

Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), you could be issued a notice if you have violated any copyright issues. If the owner of a piece of content sees their content on your website, they can issue a DMCA Takedown, which you must comply with.

Image Optimization Key Takeaways

So, before you begin uploading your image to your site, follow the image optimization rituals from above.

The most important thing is ensuring the image and alternative text are relevant to the page. Other key takeaways:

Choose the right file format.
Serve the right file size for faster page load speed.
Make sure your on-page SEO elements (metadata, structured data, etc.) pair with your image.
For crawlability, create an image sitemap or make sure your images are featured in your sitemap.

Optimizing images is no joke. With recent advances in search, especially when Google started prioritizing visuals in search results, your entire site will benefit from taking the steps above.

Happy optimizing!

Read More:

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal

By Jesse Kennedy June 20, 2024

Rather listen or watch? You’ve got it! 

Email design is critical to an effective email marketing strategy. While the actual information you communicate is important, design elements are just as crucial.

After all, studies show that 90% of the information transmitted to our brains is visual.

So, by incorporating email design best practices, you can leave a lasting impression on subscribers, help them remember and trust your brand, and drive more conversions.

Fortunately, you don’t need to be a professional designer to create beautiful emails!

In fact, in this article, we’ll cover all the most important email marketing design best practices that anyone can apply, regardless of skill level. 

At the end, we’ll show you a few email design tools to help you start sending gorgeous emails in no time.

Why is email marketing design important?

Email marketing design goes beyond the mere aesthetics of your messages. In fact, design plays a crucial role in how recipients perceive your brand identity.

By giving your email design the attention it deserves, you can help build trust with recipients, get them to engage more, and even drive more conversions.

So, let’s take a look at some of the key reasons you should incorporate email design best practices into your marketing strategy.

1. Create a good first impression

If you’ve put in the effort to get users to sign up for your email list, then it’s key to make a good first impression!

WIth good email design, you can capture recipient’s attention and set a positive tone for their interaction with your brand.

A professional-looking design establishes trust from the outset, ensuring recipients feel like they’re getting the value you promised when they signed up for your list.

2. Drive more conversions

By establishing trust with effective email design, recipients will also be more likely to convert into customers.

So, with the right email design, you can help guide your audience towards the action you want them to take, whether that be making a purchase or downloading a resource.

3. Improve readability and engagement

Incorporating email design best practices is also key for improving the readability of your messages. 

For example, the use of subheadings and bullet points, along with visual elements, like images, can help make your emails more engaging.

A report by Litmus found that people spent an average of just nine seconds looking at an email. So, it’s key that those who open your emails are able to understand the information quickly and easily.

Remember, the easier your emails are to read, the more recipients will be engaged. When recipients are more engaged, they’ll be more likely to convert. 

4. Build recognition with a consistent brand image

One more key reason email marketing design is important is that it can help you build a consistent brand identity.

This is crucial to developing both trust and recognition amongst your recipients.

According to an Edelman report, 59% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand they trust, regardless of the price. Likewise, 67% are more likely to advocate and stay loyal to a brand they trust.

So, to create loyal customers, it’s critical to build a recognizable and reliable brand image. By incorporating email design best practices into your marketing, you can achieve this.

11 Email marketing design best practices

Now that you have a better understanding of why design is so important, let’s look at some email marketing design best practices.

By incorporating these tips into your emails, you’ll be able to send emails that create a recognizable brand identity, build trust with recipients, and improve engagement.

1. Pick the right email design layout

The right email layout can make the difference between a subscriber who takes an action and one who unsubscribes. 

Attention spans are getting shorter, so understanding how people read your emails will help you craft more effective messages.

Knowing where their eyes are likely to go can make your email more readable. Better yet, it can help the reader navigate towards your call to action. 

So, let’s explore a few types of email design layouts to help you do that.

Z-Pattern

The Z-Pattern traces the path of your eyes when reading: left to right; top to bottom.

People will read the first line across, then down and to the left, and back across the right again. When reading in this pattern, it forms a Z-shape.

This email design layout works best when you have a lot of information to communicate. The structure will help your subscribers consume all the information in an easy and logical way.

You’ll often see this type of email follow a pattern where you start with a headline and text on the top left, with an image to the right. Then, the lower left corner will have another image, and across from that will be text. 

This works because:

1. Readers’ eyes are naturally drawn to images. By having the images diagonal from each other, you help subscribers follow an easy-to-read path.

2. It creates a cleaner layout by not having all your text on one side of the email.

Inverted Pyramid

The inverted pyramid is a format used for news stories, but it also works well for emails. This structure grabs attention and focuses on the most important parts of your message. 

It’s good for when you have one thing to tell your readers, and a specific call to action you want them to click on. 

You can use this layout for:

Driving subscribers to your website to read an article

Collecting sign-ups for an event

Encouraging subscribes to purchase a product or service

F-Pattern

Finally, the Nielsen Norman Group first identified the F-Pattern after studying how people’s eyes read a website.

Similar to the Z-Pattern, a reader consumes content from left to right, and then back to the left. However, instead of reading across the second line, they read less. This pattern continues as readers make their way down the email.

This means you should put your most important, attention-grabbing information at the top of your email. 

Then, assume your subscriber is going to skim the rest of your email. Use less text further down in the email, and balance the copy with images on the right.

This email design layout works well when you have a lot of information to communicate. 

You should structure your email with the most important information at the top, and then use bullet points and shorter content further down the email. 

Finally, close with a call to action.

2. Choose the right colors

Select colors that reflect your logo and brand. However, be sure there’s enough contrast for easy reading. Remember, clarity is key!

Text that doesn’t have enough contrast against its background is hard to read.

It’s also a best email marketing design practice to incorporate color psychology. To choose complementary colors, check out this chart about the emotional impacts of different colors.

Free color palette tools like Coolors can also help you create a professional-grade palette in minutes.

Ultimately, this will ensure your emails are better aligned with your brand identity.

3. Leave some breathing room

Densely packed emails may be hard to read. This is especially true on mobile devices, where 49.7 percent of all email opens occur.

Most people scan emails rather than reading them word by word. So, having ample white space between elements makes your emails easier to scan. Essentially, it keeps them from looking visually overwhelming. 

Leaving extra white space has an additional benefit as well: it challenges you to keep your message brief and to only include the relevant details. 

Remember, brevity and clarity are critical to effective email design.

Here’s a great example from TrueCar.

4. Use text as a design element 

Formatting your emails for skimmers and scanners also helps. The most common formatting elements are: 

Subheadings

Short paragraphs

Bullet points

Bolded phrases 

Using visual cues like these will make the most important points of your email easy to find.

Look at this example from Jon Persson of CultMethod. He bolds important elements within the body of his email, while breaking up the copy with bullet points and perfectly-placed headlines. 

Most importantly, each paragraph is short and easy to read.

5. Balance text with images

You should also consider breaking up large chunks of text with visual images. Readers prefer short blurbs of information. So, try incorporating images and lines when possible.

Images help tell the story of what you want to communicate to your subscribers

Just be sure not to overdo it! Instead, follow the 60/40 rule: images should take up no more than 40% of your email.

6. Plan for missing images

Nearly all email services give subscribers the option to hide images. In fact, some even disable images automatically, forcing the user to click a link or press a button to “turn on” images. 

For example, here is how an email with a large hero image appears in Outlook:

Since many popular email platforms block images, you should make sure your email is still readable—and your call-to-action is still clickable—when images are turned off.

Rather than using image-based buttons that hide your CTA when images are turned off, try using a “bulletproof button” instead. This technique combines a background color with a regular text link, providing the illusion of a button that users can see when images are on or off.

Most email marketing services, like AWeber, allow you to easily create bulletproof buttons within your email design layout. 

If the images you’re using are an important part of your emails, make sure you add alt text to the image. This is text that describes what the image is about. 

If you’ve ever laid out webpages or worked with WordPress, you may have added alt text to images before.

When you include alt text, subscribers can still understand what you intended to show them, even if they block images.

7. Pick the right typography

As we’ve mentioned already, making your email easy to read is critical, and your typography is a huge part of this.

So, be sure the font you use in your subheadings and body copy are comfortably readable. Common email fonts include Arial or Helvetica, but you’re not limited to these.

Additionally, ensure you’re using a large enough font size. After all, you don’t want your recipients squinting to try to read your email. For example:

This font size is a 12px, and it can be difficult for people to read

This font size is 16px, which is large enough for most of your subscribers to read without zooming in.

8. Use clear links and buttons

You’ll likely include at least one or two links and buttons in your email marketing design. However, it’s important to make sure it’s clear where all of your links lead to.

For example, instead of writing phrases like “click here”, try using more specific labels.

Something like “buy now” or “get your demo” tell the reader exactly what will happen when they click on your link or button.

For example, in this email from Capital One, their button clearly communicates that when you click it, you’ll be able to view the details of their checking account offer.

9. Attract readers’ eyes

We already mentioned that you’ll want to include some visual elements, like images, in your email design. 

However, it can also be a good idea to add in some creative elements, like a GIF, to really grab your readers’ attention.

If you do opt to include a GIF, just be sure it enhances your message and doesn’t distract from what you want to communicate.

Ultimately, though, small creative touches like this can be a great way to grab attention and engage recipients.

10. Include a call to action

If you’re taking the time to build and send an email to your list, it’s key that you direct your subscribers to take some sort of action when they read it.

Calls to action can include anything from:

Encouraging subscribers to buy your product or service

Directing recipients to download a free resource

Getting recipients to sign up for an event or webinar

Ultimately, you want to engage your subscribers so they take the action you want them to take.

So, be sure to include a CTA that clearly communicates the value it can provide recipients, and make sure it stands out.

11. Send a test email

One more critical email marketing design best practice is to test your email before sending it out to your entire list. This will help you ensure there are no formatting errors in your design.

After all, you don’t want to put in all the effort to design your email only to realize it doesn’t look right in subscribers’ email inboxes.

So, be sure to send a test email to your own inbox first. 

Once you’re positive that it looks the way you want it to, then you can send it out to your entire list.

Email design tools to create beautiful emails

You don’t need to start from scratch to create beautiful emails. In fact, there are tons of email marketing tools that make design a breeze.

So, here are several email marketing design tools to help you get started.

1. Canva

Canva is a free graphic design tool that allows you to create and edit any kind of image. 

Better yet, AWeber has a fully-integrated Canva drag-and-drop button. This means you can create your images in Canva and drag them directly into your AWeber email.

2. Email templates

Sometimes simply getting started is the hardest part of sending an email. This is where an email template can come in handy. 

When you find the right template, most of the work is done for you. All you need to do is customize it to fit your brand by adding your logo and updating the colors. Then you’re ready to go!

AWeber has hundreds of email marketing and newsletter templates ready for you to customize for your messages. These can save you hours of time every week and let you skip most of the heavy lifting of designing your own emails. 

Here are just a few of the templates available. Each template also has at least three color palettes to choose from.

3. Try an email builder

Finally, online tools like Stripo, BeeFree, and Dyspatch also have templates and drag and drop email design editors. They’re similar to what you’ll find in your email marketing provider’s account, but some email designers prefer these tools. 

You can design an email in any of these tools and then import it into your email provider. 

Engage your subscribers with email marketing design best practices

If you’re not a pro designer, building a professional-looking email may seem a bit intimidating. 

However, by incorporating the email marketing design best practices above, you can start creating beautiful emails in no time.

Remember, good email design is critical to building trust, driving conversions, and establishing your brand identity. So, it’s key that you give your design the attention it needs to be effective.

Of course, if you want a custom-designed email or newsletter, we can help with that, too! AWeber offers both custom email templates and landing page designs. 

Full custom designs are $229, or a modification of an existing template is $29. Click here to learn more about our custom design services.

In this guide, you will learn about alternative text (known as alt text): what it is, why it is important for on-page SEO, how to use it correctly, and more.

It’s often overlooked, but every image on your website should have alt text. More information is better, and translating visual information into text is important for search engine bots attempting to understand your website and users with screen readers.

Alt text is one more source of information that relates ideas and content together on your website.

This practical and to-the-point guide contains tips and advice you can immediately use to improve your website’s image SEO and accessibility.

What Is Alt Text?

Alternative text (or alt text) – also known as the alt attribute or the alt tag (which is not technically correct because it is not a tag) – is simply a piece of text that describes the image in the HTML code.

What Are The Uses Of Alt Text?

The original function of alt text was simply to describe an image that could not be loaded.

Many years ago, when the internet was much slower, alt text would help you know the content of an image that was too heavy to be loaded in your browser.

Today, images rarely fail to load – but if they do, then it is the alt text you will see in place of an image.

Alt text also helps search engine bots understand the image’s content and context.

More importantly, alt text is critical for accessibility and for people using screen readers:

Alt text helps people with disabilities (for example, using screen readers) learn about the image’s content.

Of course, like every element of SEO, it is often misused or, in some cases, even abused.

Let’s now take a closer look at why alt text is important.

Why Alt Text Is Important

The web and websites are a very visual experience. It is hard to find a website without images or graphic elements.

That’s why alt text is very important.

Alt text helps translate the image’s content into words, thus making the image accessible to a wider audience, including people with disabilities and search engine bots that are not clever enough yet to fully understand every image, its context, and its meaning.

Why Alt Text Is Important For SEO

Alt text is an important element of on-page SEO optimization.

Proper alt text optimization makes your website stand a better chance of ranking in Google image searches.

Yes, alt text is a ranking factor for Google image search.

Depending on your website’s niche and specificity, Google image search traffic may play a huge role in your website’s overall success.

For example, in the case of ecommerce websites, users very often start their search for products with a Google image search instead of typing the product name into the standard Google search.

Google and other search engines may display fewer product images (or not display them at all) if you fail to take care of their alt text optimization.

Without proper image optimization, you may lose a lot of potential traffic and customers.

Why Alt Text Is Important For Accessibility

Visibility in Google image search is very important, but there is an even more important consideration: Accessibility.

Fortunately, in recent years, more focus has been placed on accessibility (i.e., making the web accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities and/or using screen readers).

Suppose the alt text of your images actually describes their content instead of, for example, stuffing keywords. In that case, you are helping people who cannot see this image better understand it and the content of the entire web page.

Let’s say one of your web pages is an SEO audit guide that contains screenshots from various crawling tools.

Would it not be better to describe the content of each screenshot instead of placing the same alt text of “SEO audit” into every image?

Let’s take a look at a few examples.

Alt Text Examples

Finding many good and bad examples of alt text is not difficult. Let me show you a few, sticking to the above example with an SEO audit guide.

Good Alt Text Examples

So, our example SEO guide contains screenshots from tools such as Google Search Console and Screaming Frog.

Some good examples of alt text may include:

<img src=”google-search-console-coverage-report.jpg” alt=”The Coverage Report in Google Search Console showing the number of indexed and excluded pages”>
<img src=”google-search-console.jpg” alt=”Google Search Console tool from Google”>
<img src=”screaming-frog-html-pages.jpg” alt=”List of HTML pages in Screaming Frog”>
<img src=”screaming-frog” alt=”Screaming Frog crawl in progress”>

Tip: It is also a good idea to take care of the name of your file. Using descriptive file names is not a ranking factor, but I recommend this as a good SEO practice.

Bad And/Or Spammy Alt Text Examples

I’ve also seen many examples of bad alt text use, including keyword stuffing or spamming.

Here is how you can turn the above good examples into bad examples:

<img src=”google-search-console-coverage-report.jpg”alt=”seo audit free, seo audit cheap, seo audit specialist, seo audit, seo audits”>
<img src=”google-search-console.jpg” alt=”google seo ,seo google, google, seo, google search console seo”>
<img src=”screaming-frog-html-pages.jpg” alt=”seo auditor, seo audit, seo audits”>
<img src=”screaming-frog” alt=”seo audit”>

As you can see, the above examples do not provide any information on what these images actually show.

You can also find examples and even more image SEO tips on Google Search Central.

Common Alt Text Mistakes

Stuffing keywords in the alt text is not the only mistake you can make.

Here are a few examples of common alt text mistakes:

Failure to use the alt text or using empty alt text.
Using the same alt text for different images.
Using very general alt text that does not actually describe the image. For example, using the alt text of “dog” on the photo of a dog instead of describing the dog in more detail, its color, what it is doing, what breed it is, etc.
Automatically using the name of the file as the alt text – which may lead to very unfriendly alt text, such as “googlesearchconsole,” “google-search-console,” or “photo2323,” depending on the name of the file.

Alt Text Writing Tips

And finally, here are the tips on how to write correct alt text so that it actually fulfills its purpose:

Do not stuff keywords into the alt text. Doing so will not help your web page rank for these keywords.
Describe the image in detail, but still keep it relatively short. Avoid adding multiple sentences to the alt text.
Use your target keywords, but in a natural way, as part of the image’s description. If your target keyword does not fit into the image’s description, don’t use it.
Don’t use text on images. All text should be added in the form of HTML code.
Don’t write, “this is an image of.” Google and users know that this is an image. Just describe its content.
Make sure you can visualize the image’s content by just reading its alt text. That is the best exercise to make sure your alt text is OK.

How To Troubleshoot Image Alt Text

Now you know all the best practices and common mistakes of alt text. But how do you check what’s in the alt text of the images of a website?

You can analyze the alt text in the following ways:

Inspecting an element (right-click and select Inspect when hovering over an image) is a good way to check if a given image has alt text.

However, if you want to check that in bulk, I recommend one of the below two methods.

Install Web Developer Chrome extension.

Next, open the page whose images you want to audit.

Click on Web Developer and navigate to Images > Display Alt Attributes. This way, you can see the content of the alt text of all images on a given web page.

How To Find And Fix Missing Alt Text

To check the alt text of the images of the entire website, use a crawler like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb.

Crawl the site, navigate to the image report, and review the alt text of all website images, as shown in the video guide below.

You can also export only images that have missing alt text and start fixing those issues.

Alt Text May Not Seem Like A Priority, But It’s Important

Every source of information about your content has value. Whether it’s for vision-impaired users or bots, alt text helps contextualize the images on your website.

While it’s only a ranking factor for image search, everything you do to help search engines understand your website can potentially help deliver more accurate results. Demonstrating a commitment to accessibility is also a critical component of modern digital marketing.

More resources: 

Featured Image: BestForBest/Shutterstock

By Pam Neely June 21, 2024

Have you noticed a significant number of your email list subscribers are no longer interacting with your content or following your calls to action? Then it may be time to start a re-engagement email campaign!

This can be a super effective email marketing strategy for winning back inactive subscribers. 

After all, one study indicates that the average email list decay rate, which is the percentage of subscribers who become inactive, is between 22% and 30% per year.

This means that, unless you’re cleaning your email list regularly, you’re likely sending a lot of messages into the void, never to be seen again.

However, with re-engagement emails, you can start winning back some of those inactive subscribers. To be successful, though, you’ll need to keep some best practices in mind.

So, in this article, we’ll explore how to write win-back emails. We’ll also provide examples of some effective re-engagement email campaign strategies, from one-off surveys and free resources to entire email sequences.

What is a re-engagement email?

A re-engagement email, also called a “win-back email”, is a message you send to subscribers who have become inactive. 

These emails aim to rekindle the interest of people who have not made a purchase or interacted with your brand for a while.

Re-engagement email campaigns are a great strategy for sparking the interest of inactive subscribers before removing them from your mailing list. After all, emailing unresponsive subscribers with messages isn’t helping them or your business.

Before saying goodbye, however, a win-back email offers one final opportunity to reconnect and rebuild your customer relationship.

Ultimately, your goal is to re-establish a connection with those who seem to have lost interest in your products, services, or content.

Here is an example re-engagement email from the newsletter pros at Marketing Brew. While the three-week inactivity timeline is pretty tight by most industry standards, they do a great job of ensuring their list is truly engaged with their content.

This way, they keep their email list clean, and ensure most of their messages aren’t getting lost in recipients’ spam folders.

How effective are re-engagement emails?

While re-engagement email campaigns are a great way to win back subscribers, you can’t expect every inactive subscriber to become active again.

Most email win-back campaigns have a success rate of 14% up to 29% in the best-case scenario. 

Several email marketing studies have found that sending a series of emails may be more effective than sending just a single email. A re-engagement sequence of three emails appears to be the sweet spot. 

One recent study found that several different tactics will work, but no one tactic significantly outperformed the others.

Later on, we’ll discuss how each of the methods below work, as well as provide a few additional examples. We’ll also tell you how to set up an effective re-engagement email sequence.

Remember though, the method that works best for your business depends on the needs and interests of your unique audience.

How create a re-engagement email

The goal of your re-engagement email campaign is to get people interested in your emails again. 

So, every element of your email – the subject line, the content, and the call-to-action – needs to support that goal.

Re-Engagement email subject lines

For re-engagement email subject lines, the best ones specifically reference your goal: to win back your subscribers!

Here is an example of an email from Tomasz Borys at Kissmetrics:

You can also take a more personal approach, like this email from Threadless:

Both subject lines work well. However, they each grab the reader’s attention in different ways.

A simple “We miss you!” lets the subscriber know that you appreciate their readership. It also feels more conversational. 

On the flip side, “Do you still want updates from us?” is direct and inquisitive. It tells the subscriber that you care about their time and want to make sure they get something out of the relationship.

For more inspiration, consider reviewing your past emails to see what’s working for your specific audience. Look for common themes like subject line length and tone to see what tends to work best for your target audience.

You can also try using personalization, like including your subscribers’ first names in the subject line. It’s no secret that personalization helps you connect with your subscribers and stand out a little more in the inbox. 

For example, the email from Threadless could have gone one step further by saying, “We miss you, Sam!”

Since these details depend on what your audience responds to, try testing different variations and find that sweet spot.

Re-engagement email content

Most re-engagement emails’ content is short – generally just two or three paragraphs. All you need to do is to make the purpose of your email clear: “Do you still want to get emails from us?”

Then, you might consider explaining the value your emails provide. 

Remember, these are people who signed up to receive messages from you but at some point stopped reading. 

They wanted to hear from you before, so how can you get them re-interested in what you have to say? 

Ask yourself a few questions:

What did my subscribers sign up to receive originally?

Am I continuing to send them content based on their original expectations?

Did I change anything in my email strategy that might have caused them to stop engaging with my content?

What can I offer to pique their interest again?

Once you have those answers in mind, it’s time to start writing your email.

Here’s an example of a re-engagement email we sent to our inactive blog newsletter subscribers:

The format is simple, and it makes a good template for any re-engagement email:

You haven’t opened any emails from us in a while

We want to make sure you’re still interested

Click this button to stay on the list

Here’s what you can expect if you remain on the list

That’s all you have to say in a re-engagement email–just one sentence and a few bullet points. After all, the shorter your email is, the more likely people are to read it and click the button.

Getting inactive subscribers up to speed might also help get them re-interested in your content. So, consider adding a short bulleted list of your recent “greatest hits,” such as:

Products

Content

Promotions

Re-engagement email incentives

Speaking of promotions, offering an incentive, like a white paper or coupon code, might also help you re-engage subscribers. 

If you hooked them onto your list with a piece of content in the past, consider how you might be able to repeat that success during your re-engagement email campaign.

Check out this example from Paperworks, a stationary and premium paper provider:

Offering a special discount is a great way to get subscribers interested in your emails again. 

Not only are you giving your subscribers something in exchange for their time and attention, but you might even get another sale out of it as well.

Re-engagement email feedback

To help you learn more about why subscribers grew disinterested in your content, asking them for specific feedback could help fill in the gaps. For example:

Was there something you could have done better for these subscribers? 

What made them stop engaging in the first place?

Asking these questions directly can help you figure out exactly where you can improve your email marketing strategy.

Additionally, if you make a subscriber feel like their opinion is truly valued, they may want to stick around. Plus, this will give you valuable insight into their needs that you wouldn’t get anywhere else.

As you get feedback and notice common themes, you can implement their suggestions in the future.

Re-engagement email call to action

The whole point of your email is to prompt subscribers to take an action, so make sure your emails have a call to action that is bold and clear.

Generally, you’ll want to limit yourself to one call to action in order to increase your click-through rate. However, there are exceptions to this rule.

Ultimately, your CTA should make it easy for recipients to:

Stay on or opt out of your list

Learn more about a product or service

Download an incentive

For example, check out this email and CTA from Grammarly:

While having one call to action is the classic approach, some re-engagement emails examples also include an unsubscribe link. 

For instance, take a look at this email from a PEW, a non-profit organization:

Finally, some re-engagement emails even let subscribers choose to get emails less often, like the example below.

7 Re-engagement email examples

Now that you’ve got a good idea of what goes into an effective win-back email, let’s look at some re-engagement email examples.

The following ideas are great ways to get customers interested in your brand again.

1. Surveys

If your subscribers aren’t responding to what you’ve been sending, try asking them what they would like to get from you. After all, this can help you better understand your audience’s interests and preferences. 

For example, you might send a re-engagement email with the subject line “We miss you! Tell us how we can improve.” Then, for your call to action, include a link to a brief survey. Consider asking questions about:

Their favorite types of content

Products they’re interested in

How often they’d like to hear from you

Ultimately, this feedback can help guide your future email marketing campaigns, as well as show subscribers you value their opinions.

2. Coupons and discounts

If you’re in ecommerce, the classic way to win back inactive customers is to send them a juicy discount coupon. 

Consider making this a dollar off discount rather than a percent off discount. One study of win-back campaigns found that dollar off discounts activated more subscribers.

For instance, you could send an email with the subject line “We miss you! Here’s $10 off your next purchase.” 

Then, in the content of your email, be sure to include your discount code and a call to action directing subscribers to your store.

You might also think about highlighting new or popular products to entice them even more.

3. New products and services announcements

Announcements are ideal emails to send out if you haven’t mailed to your list in a few months. They’re a great opportunity to let recipients know about new products or services you’re offering.

For example, consider sending a re-engagement email with the subject line “Check out our new arrivals!” 

Then, in your email content, be sure to showcase your latest and greatest products with high-quality images, and include a CTA to your online store.

By showing off your most recent arrivals, you can recapture the interest of customers who’ve grown tired of your old line of products.

4. Free resources

Free resources are also excellent to send if you haven’t emailed your list in awhile. 

A high-value digital resource, like an ebook or a course, can be a great way to demonstrate that it’s worth their time to be on your list. 

For instance, consider using the re-engagement email subject line “Exclusive free ebook just for you!” and provide a link to the download.

You should also be sure to highlight the value recipients will gain from the resource, reinforcing the value they’ll get if they remain active subscribers.

5. Customer testimonials

You can use customer testimonials with other types of content mentioned above. For instance, share a few testimonials about a new service you have.

Think about using a subject line like “See what others are saying about our new service!” and include direct quotes from customers.

This strategy can be especially effective in combination with some of the others listed above. 

For example, including testimonials with a new service announcement or special discount can build trust and credibility while encouraging inactive subscribers to re-engage.

6. Limited time offers

Another great way to win back subscribers is by inducing a sense of urgency in your emails. 

For instance, you might offer a limited-time discount or promotion to encourage recipients to take action quickly.

Consider using a subject line like “Limited time offer! $10 off just for you,” and include a countdown timer or specific end-date.

By inducing a sense of urgency, you can get customers to take action quickly.

7. Resubscription Offers

 Re-subscription offers can be a great incentive to get subscribers interested in your product or service again.

For instance, you might use the re-engagement email subject line, “We want you back! Enjoy 30 days of free premium access.” 

Then, include a CTA to your sign-up page where customers can try out your platform again for a limited time for free.

If your product or service is delivering the value the customer desires, there’s a good chance they’ll stick around after the free trial is over.

Re-engagement email campaign sequences

All email lists are different, so what works best in one situation may not work so well in another. One message might do the trick, but you could be more effective by sending two or three emails to warm people up and get them re-activated.

Since these subscribers are already less engaged, aim to keep your campaign short. Send an email, wait a few days, and see who’s interacted with your content.

If they’ve clicked through to your content or stated they want to remain on your email list, then great! They can stay on your list and continue to get your awesome emails.

Here are two re-engagement email examples that were sent a few days apart.

This is the first one. Notice how short it is?

 And here’s the next one, sent two days later:

The sequence of emails above is concise, and also respectful. Ultimately, even if subscribers opt not to re-engage, it’s important to consider what they want.

This way, if they develop interest in your products or services at a later date, you haven’t burned any bridges.

Start winning back subscribers with a re-engagement email campaign

If you take the time to craft a re-engagement email campaign, there’s a good chance you can win back some subscribers.

However, if some recipients haven’t responded, it may be time to say goodbye. And that’s perfectly ok!

You’ve done what you can to win them back, but if they don’t want to receive your emails, it’s better to let them go. Not only will they appreciate a cleaner inbox, but it’ll also help boost your email deliverability. 

Ultimately, this will improve your email marketing in the long run.

Now, we know that sometimes it can be really hard to write your emails. That’s why we created our What to Write in Your Emails guide and course, complete with 45+ email templates. It will save you hours of work every month.

How do you plan on running a re-engagement campaign of your own? Leave a comment below to share your ideas. 

Or, if you already have an AWeber account, watch this video to see exactly how to create and send your own re-engagement emails!

Re-engagement email FAQs

When should you send a re-engagement email?

Many marketing experts recommend that you wait at least three to six months after a subscriber becomes inactive to send a re-engagement email.

However, the proper amount of time can depend on your specific audience.

For example, if your content is time-sensitive or encourages frequent interaction, one to two months may be a better timeline.

You may even consider starting a win-back email campaign during other times. 

For example, if you’re planning a major list cleanup, updating your product or service offerings, or notice declining engagement rates, you might want to consider sending re-engagement emails.

Ultimately, it’s key to think about the behavior and preferences of your unique subscribers, and align them with your business goals.

How many emails should you send in a re-engagement campaign?

As we mentioned earlier, there’s no perfect number of messages to send in a re-engagement email campaign. 

What works best for your business depends on the preferences of your specific audience.

While sending just one email may be best for some brands, other brands may want to design a sequence of two, three, or even four emails.

So, be sure to test out some different strategies with different segments of your audience. This will help you understand how you can best win back your subscribers.