While I am not typically one to fall into the whole New Year’s resolution “thing” (yes, air quotes would have been appropriate here Britney); I actually have TWO of them this year. I won’t get into too much detail on the first one, except to say it’s fairly standard and involves a battle with myself to exercise a little self control when it comes to all things sweet and calorie-laden. The second, however, I feel is fit to share in this most public of forums.

Those of you managing email programs, it’s time you finally do something about all of the issues that we’ve been reading and talking about for oh-so-long now. How many more conferences and summits do we need to attend to know it’s time? What am I talking about? As technology advances, our emails are starting to look WORSE!

The following have an impact on your email’s performance:

- Widespread adoption of Outlook 2003 with preview pane enabled
- Web based email clients (e.g. Yahoo!) are now using preview panes
- Images not loading by default in many email clients
- People receiving email on mobile devices

What can you do about it? Well, you have to start by wiping-clean the chalkboard board of your mind - no more of the “same old same old” email look. You know what I’m talking about, the old “banner at the top of the email, with the logo on the left, and the offer on the right”. First of all, it’s boring. More importantly, when that banner doesn’t load, no one sees your logo. And, if your offer is part of the graphic, there is a good chance no one can read it. Expecting readers to download images just to get the gist of your email is asking for more effort than most people have the time to output.

I’ve been saying it for a while, but people rarely listen or are afraid to stray from the norm. You don’t NEED a logo on the top left. People should see who sent the email in the FROM field. That’s what they look at to decide if they even want to open your email. But now that Email Labs is saying it, maybe I will be more credible.

Now, I’m not saying to avoid the use of pretty pictures altogether. Just don’t make your email reliant on them to deliver the message. Use a combination of web text and colored background cells for navigational and promotional information. Once the reader is engaged and decides to check out the entire email, you can wow them with great creative that adds to the experience and strengthens your brand.

So back to resolution two … I won’t take “no” for answer when I tell my clients this is how they need to be doing email. Even if I have to do it without the extra energy from a pre-meeting sugar binge.