Email interactivity: A creative evolution, rather than a technical one.
However, we must not forget that this evolution has occurred more at a creative level than at a technical level. This means that it is not the technical support that has changed the most in this period, but the ability of email developers to get around the limitations of email and propose nigeria business email list alternative paths. As we always say, email developers hack more than they program . We look for ways to achieve an effect similar to the interactions that are possible on the web and how to offer consistent fallback content in those places where it is impossible for our code to be correctly interpreted.
One of the simplest effects to apply is hover , that is, the change in style or content when a user places or passes the pointer over an element.
These effects provide a very striking effect on desktop, but it is important that the content hidden by the hover is not essential for the email, since on mobile this functionality does not exist as there is no pointer and therefore this content would never be displayed.
This is the technique we used to make this tooltip :
And if we want to complicate our lives a little:
Sliders
A carousel of elements that change when you click on an element.
swipe
Menu tabs
Typical menu in which the lower content changes when clicking on the different tabs
Hamburger Menu
The menu is compressed on mobile so as not to detract from the main content.
We’re more than used to seeing these three features on most websites, but did you know that we can apply them to email? Well… sort of. They all use a technique called “ Checkbox hack ” that makes use of inputs and the CSS pseudo class checked to display different content for devices that can support interactivity and those that can’t. The fallback can display any static content we want.
So why do we hardly see any examples of interactive emails in our inbox?
This is when our excitement fades after having spent so much time understanding and developing these elements… Just because it can be done doesn't mean it should be done.
Support is not widespread and will almost always be available only on Apple devices… is it worth it to dedicate so many resources and make the machinery that runs our email so complex that the majority of our database will never see it? What's more, those who will see it… will they know how to use it? So we have three problems when it comes to implementing these innovations:
Complexity of development
The code is complex and not very flexible, which makes it very difficult for us to work for brands that offer us short development times for their daily emails. This complexity translates into long development times, so it is not only complex, it is also expensive.
Medium.
It only works on Apple devices, mainly (40% of openings, approximately). The rest will show the fallback (60%).
Usability
We have tested the slider on a small group of people and in many cases the first interaction of the user with the slider has been quite disappointing: they scroll without knowing that the slider is there, they swipe (like the one we do when we go through stories on Instagram) which in many inboxes means going to the next email, or they click on the image without really understanding where it will take them (to another slide , to an external link…). Therefore, many times integrating these interactive options is justified more by a question of branding and “being up to date” than by real business reasons (CTO, Conversion…). And even with this motivation, we do not end up seeing that the brand image is reinforced with a confused user.
I want to implement interactive emails, where do I start?
If you still want to venture into developing these solutions for your brand, you must first have the financial, human and time resources necessary for an exhaustive control of the result; and then, establish a testing system that allows you to have a real perspective on the consequences of integrating interactivity in your emails. That is, you must measure how many users in your audience are viewing the interactive content and how this affects the click, the conversion, the time your users spend on your content, etc.
At Digital Response we advise not to get carried away by the hype and templates that are used to talk about innovations in many blogs and to carefully analyze all the implications before implementing the new features. Experience tells us that interactivity is still a very green field in email, which users are not used to (those who can see it because they have an iPhone) and can negatively affect the performance of emails . But that does not prevent us from innovating in email design. The option that seems most realistic to us when it comes to creating attractive emails that are “novel” to the user’s eye is the CREATIVE USE of images, gradients and GIF animations (which are widely supported), to which we will dedicate a post with examples later on.
