How To Use Photos In Emails (Without Ending Up In Spam Folders)

Today we’re going to talk about a seriously frequently asked question: 

“If I include photos in my emails, will it go to my subscriber’s spam or junk folder instead?”

Fan-TAS-tic question. The last thing we want is your valuable email content to go unseen, unread, or worse — triggering spam filters that could affect future deliverability.

Can I use images in my emails?

YES — you can totally use images or photos in emails. It’s one of the ways I tell my clients that they can add more visual interest to their emails so that their audience remains engaged AND can see a bit of their personality shine through (kinda like the GIF above lets you know that I’m obsessed with Schitt’s Creek).

Not only CAN you use images, in many industries, I vote that you WOULD BENEFIT from using images.

Food blogger? Subscribers — or really, anyone hungry and looking for dinner plans — want to see the finished product before clicking on your blog post. Show them the lasagna, people!

Selling a product? Show them what it looks like, whether it’s a mockup or an image of a video from your sales page.

Sharing information or providing encouragement? Make it easy to get people on board by sharing beautiful images that keep them captivated and reading further down your email.

First and foremost: Only send marketing emails to people who want to be on your list

This is less image-specific and more of an always-keep-this-in-mind rule. If you’re sending ANYTHING to people who don’t want it, didn’t ask for it, or they’re no longer opening or responding to emails, that primes inboxes to start thinking you’re spammy… and we don’t want that.

Keep your list clean of cold subscribers.

How to include images in emails to boost engagement and NOT land in spam

01 | Don’t flood the email with too many images

Let your words tell most of the story, but include images along the way. For instance, here are some examples from client projects of mine that show how you can include images in nurture emails in a way that’s not too much, while still providing visual interest — and intrigue — so subscribers click through to your website.

Pinch of Yum

Alexandra Stafford of Alexandra Cooks

Erin Lowry of Broke Millennial

02 | Use alt-text with your images

You know how sometimes your email provider will give you the option at the top of a new email to “Display images”? Keep that in mind when you include photos or gifs in your emails — they may not always show up!

If a subscriber hasn’t clicked “Display images,” they should still be able to understand the full context of the email without them.

While alt-text is an important tool to make blog images more accessible, it’s also important for email images (Food Blogger Pro explains more about it here).

03 | Make sure to include links in the body copy

Piggy-backing off of the last point, say you link your images through to a post or product… but the image doesn’t get displayed in your subscribers inbox. Ruh-roh.

So, make it a habit to always include a link to your product, blog post or other source IN the body copy as well. Or as a button. Either works (or heck, do both!).

It would look something like this:

In the email snippet example above, both the image AND the text below it are linked through to her video, so readers can view to learn more.

I hope that’s both helpful and encouraging to you, since we both know that images can convey a lot more than words sometimes — so let’s use them to our advantage!

Leave a comment and let me know: Now that you know that you CAN add images to your emails, what are your three favorite movies or shows you’re going to pull gifs/images from?

P.S. Curious about how I made my own custom gifs? Click here to find out my magical (free) method!