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A great email marketing campaign starts with comprehensive planning. Not only does your content need to be compelling, you also need an outstanding email template design. Of course, this all has to happen synchronously. As you know, an email developer needs to work with an email designer and a marketer to create a template while the marketing team prepares campaign content.
This is where placeholder text and images come into play.
Imagine: Your marketer hasn't provided you with the digital campaign content yet, but you need to get your email template signed off. You need to provide stakeholders with mockups to give them an idea of what the final campaign will look like without the content. After all, your stakeholders probably can't imagine your final campaign if you only show them lines of HTML and CSS, right?
Although this all sounds pretty simple, it's a little more complicated than you think. We'll explain what placeholder text and images are, how they're used in email production, when you shouldn't use them, and how they can cause deliverability issues.
What are placeholder text and images?
Placeholder text, also called dummy text or filler content, is used in place of the actual copy when the real text is not available. Typically, placeholder text is a series of randomly generated texts intended to mimic the properties of actual written text. In other cases, placeholder text may be actual passages intended to complement the final content of your email campaign. Check out this placeholder text generator for ideas.
Placeholder images work similarly to placeholder text. They represent images in a piece of content before the final images are ready.
What is Internet?
You're probably familiar with Lorem Ipsum, the pseudo-text that has been used in typesetting instead of real text since the 16th century. Check out the placeholder text example below:
It is important to care for and follow the patient, but this happens at a time when there is a lot of work and pain. Because to say it in the smallest detail: no one should do any work unless they get some benefit from it. Do not be angry with the pain in the rebuke, in the joy that he wants to be just a hair away from the pain, hoping that there is no discipline. Unless they are blinded by desire, they do not come out; those who abandon their duties and soften their hearts, that is, their work, are to blame.
But in order that you may see where all this born error of those who accuse pleasure and praise pain comes from, I would like to open the whole matter and explain exactly the things that this discoverer of truth and, so to speak, the architect of a happy life has said. For no one despises or hates or runs away from pleasure, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure with reason cause great pain. Moreover, there is no one who loves pain, pursues it and wants to obtain it, but because there are never such times when he seeks great pleasure through work and pain. For, to bring it to the smallest detail, which of us undertakes any strenuous physical activity except to derive some benefit from it? But who can rightly criticize someone who desires to experience pleasure that does not produce discomfort or avoids pain that does not produce pleasure?
The Lorem Ipsum passage comes from Cicero's treatise The Extremes of Good and Evil, written in 45 B.C. was written. Originally the dummy text was used for typesetting on printing presses, then the dummy text was converted from analog to digital and served as placeholder text in electronic texts. In fact, the term “lorem ipsum” is sometimes used instead of “placeholder text.”
If you want to use the Lorem Ipsum text, copy it from a generator like lipsum.com. Many graphic design programs such as Adobe Photoshop also have placeholder text functionality through plugins.
How are placeholder images and text used in emails?
Now that you know what placeholder images and text are, what role do they play in your email development and design workflow?
Here are some reasons to use email placeholder text or images:
- You create an email template but are still waiting for the marketing team to finalize the copy or design assets.
- You create a reusable template with different text and graphics. For example, let's say you're designing a monthly email newsletter. Each newsletter is unique, but you need to create a template that fits all monthly iterations. To do this, use placeholder text for the main template that you replace in each newsletter.
- You need to illustrate the dimensions of graphics or provide stakeholders a way to visualize the style, length, and text format of your email campaign.
In short, placeholder text and images should serve as replacements for the actual content of your emails. They're great for illustrating points and helping your stakeholders envision the final product.
Can placeholder text and images cause problems?
Placeholder text and images are powerful tools that help your stakeholders and email team visualize the final email campaign. However, keeping these placeholders can cause problems.
Obviously leaving dummy text and images in an email sent to subscribers is an amateur mistake, but it does happen. That's why a thorough email quality assurance process with a pre-send checklist is important. But could placeholder text impact deliverability?
Years ago, some people here at Email on Acid noticed that templates that used Lorem Ipsum text were being flagged in spam tests. They concluded that Lorem Ipsum content could cause false positives in testing and delivery problems if left in emails.
That may not be entirely true. Instead, Jonathan Torres, deliverability expert at Sinch Mailgun, clarifies that it's more about unique content (which doesn't include Lorem Ipsum).
says Jonathan You should always use unique content when conducting spam tests and creating actual emails. Mailbox providers use content scanners to look for emails that match patterns of malicious messages from scammers.
So if a malicious actor uses a specific placeholder text in a spam email, the content can cause deliverability issues because ISPs will see this as a sign of something shady. Jonathan says emails should be 100% unique – right down to your logos and icons.
“Whether it's placeholder text or images, or even a Facebook logo you got from a Google search, if you didn't create it or write it in a way that was clear, it could impact content scanners, who then lump your emails in with everyone else who uses the same generic text or images in their messages.”
~Jonathan Torres, TAM Team Manager, Sinch Mailgun
Aside from spam testing, the same applies to sending your emails. Make sure you don't include any placeholder text or images that could affect the deliverability of your email.
When is it not a good idea to use placeholder text or images?
Placeholder text and images are great for composing emails and give stakeholders an idea of the final product. However, you should not do the following when using dummy text or images:
Don't treat generic placeholder text as real text. Instead of using generic placeholder text like “Lorem Ipsum,” consider using low-fidelity protocopies that capture your intended content without being polished or grammatical. In other words, use your dummy text to provide direction for your email design. Text shouldn't be an afterthought when your team designs email campaigns. Great designs require text and design to work together.
When collecting feedback, don't use placeholder text instead of prototype copy. Typically, your email design will go through several rounds of feedback before it is approved. Give stakeholders something to read as quickly as possible – even if it's written quickly, with short hyphens that don't necessarily sound “good.” Stakeholders will feel how your content interacts with the email design.
Don't use placeholder text when sending or testing emails. According to Torres, “If someone is testing and sending from their platform and they don't have a good sender reputation, that will be recognized as bad sender content.” Anything else that has the same content could also be reported. It's definitely much more common with images, but I've seen it sometimes with Lorem Ipsum and with certain disclaimers.”
The final result
Placeholder text and images have their place: they're a great way to kick off your layout and design process, but email teams should try to include prototype or actual copy and unique images as soon as possible.
Of course we all make mistakes. That's why a pre-send email checklist helps email teams figure out what needs to be fixed before they hit the send button. Campaign Precheck by Sinch Email on Acid is an automated checklist that includes team management features for collaboration.
Ready to get started? Learn how to test your email designs before sending them with Email on Acid. Try our comprehensive email testing suite free for seven days!
Author: The Email on Acid Team
Email on Acid's content team is made up of digital marketers, content creators, and real email geeks. Connect with us on LinkedIn, follow us on Facebook, and tweet @EmailonAcid on Twitter for more great email marketing news and great convos.
Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps
