Earlier this week, we brought together hundreds of email geeks for Litmus Live in London. We’re leaving London inspired by our amazing speakers and the countless conversation we had with our wonderful community. Here are our top three takeaways from Litmus Live London that you should put into action today.
1. Making our emails more accessible is our job.
Making emails more accessible isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s our job. Plus, making your emails more accessible actually isn’t that hard! Small changes to how you design and code your email can make a big difference to your audience.
"Doing nothing is not an option. Email accessibility is our job." @Paul_Airy #LitmusLive pic.twitter.com/5d6IGhXXcG
— Litmus (@litmusapp) August 29, 2017
2) be careful about erratic gifs, because epilepsy
3) be careful about colour having meaning, because colourblindness@Paul_Airy #litmuslive— Elliot Ross (@IAmElliot) August 29, 2017
Use border-bottom rather than text-decoration: underline to increase legibility of links, for those with dyslexia. @Paul_Airy #litmuslive
— Jaina Mistry (@jainamistry) August 29, 2017
.@Paul_Airy Good reminder to stop using bloody title tags on images. Use alt tags! #accessibility #litmuslive
— Becs Rivett-Kemm (@becskr) August 29, 2017
Not relying solely upon colour to convey meaning or hierarchy is a neat accessibility design tip 👍@Paul_Airy #LitmusLive
— Mike Ragan Wolfe (@Mike_Ragan) August 29, 2017
ALT attributes are not optional. @HTeuMeuLeu’s jarring screen reader examples are super effective at demonstrating why. #litmuslive
— Stig Morten Myre (@stigm) August 30, 2017
https://twitter.com/HTeuMeuLeu/status/902522382333640704
2. Test everything.
Do buttons perform better than text links? Is it okay to send a really long email? Is it worth spending resources on making your campaigns interactive?
While we wish there was a universal answer to those questions, there just isn’t. It all comes down to your audience and how it engages with your emails. Whether you’re a copywriter, an email designer, or responsible for your brand’s email strategy—make testing an integral part of your work, find out what works for your audience, and use those findings to educate and improve your emails over time.
The new tagline of #LitmusLive – Just Test It™
— Kathryn Grayson Nanz (@kathryngrayson) August 30, 2017
There is no magic formula to email copy writing. Test keywords & techniques to see what works for your audience…again & again. #LitmusLive pic.twitter.com/uybG8JDnl0
— Litmus (@litmusapp) August 30, 2017
Test tiny tweaks to your subject lines: change a word or two, rearrange the sentence, alter the length, or highlight the keyword #LitmusLive
— Kathryn Grayson Nanz (@kathryngrayson) August 30, 2017
Subject line effectiveness decays over time. Keep split testing regularly to keep pace with your audience. @phrasee #litmuslive
— Justine Jordan (@meladorri) August 30, 2017
3. You can only be successful if you work as a team.
Making an email program successful is a team effort—and that’s true for one-time decisions like choosing a new ESP as well the day-to-day routine of getting emails out the door. Talk to stakeholders within and outside of your team, encourage collaboration and be an advocate to help your team get access to the data they need to understand the impact of their work.
"I don't know how marketers can expect designers to be successful if they don't share performance data with them." @meladorri #litmuslive
— Chad S. White (@chadswhite) August 30, 2017
"Make sure—if you’re part of a team—that everyone is getting what they want from your ESP." @VickyRouteSix #LitmusLive pic.twitter.com/g99rEHF0bw
— Litmus (@litmusapp) August 29, 2017
https://twitter.com/Ultra_K/status/902547555640160256
It's funny to see how talking between team is :
– that much important
– that much underestimated#shareYourF**ingDataPlz#litmuslive— Thomas Leroy (@samYorel) August 29, 2017
LOOKING FOR MORE? IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO JOIN US IN SAN FRANCISCO!
Good news: The #LitmusLive season isn’t over yet! We’ll continue the email geekery in San Francisco (September 21-22). A small number of tickets is still available.
Save your seat →
Bettina Specht is the Product Marketing Lead at Beefree.