A recent study from Goodmail concerning email graphics indicates the situation is even more dire than most think, reports Ken Magill for Direct Mag. The survey drew 226 respondents about their opinion about blocked images and links in emails.

The results show that 58.5 percent said that when they receive emails with blocked images and links, they delete them, and 19.8 percent ignore them.

Think you are not affected?

Email inbox providers are increasingly blocking graphics in an attempt to protect users against computer viruses. The logic is, by blocking external objects or even attachments, the risk could be minimized.

A recent survey by Epsilon Interactive showed that two thirds of email users have received email with images turned off.

Marketers who don’t take necessary steps to address this problem are going to see their email marketing efforts slaughtered in the fourth quarter holiday season. This, of course, presumes that the marketers use HTML emails.

My Thoughts About Image Blocking

This issue is not new. If you have been using email as a marketing tool, chances are image blocking has been affecting the results since the first time you sent your email campaign.

The fact that the trend to block graphics and links among ISPs and inbox providers become more common does mean something, but still the solution could be as simple as redesigning your email template.

Even Goodmail’s Certified Email service won’t solve the problem in its entirety, since they only guarantee delivery to AOL addresses with graphics and links intact. Yahoo! has implemented Goodmail’s system, but only for transactional messages only.

[Direct Mag]