Are image-only emails bad for deliverability?

Email marketer from Reddit user r/EmailMarketing shares that they generally avoid image-only emails due to concerns about deliverability and accessibility. He said they have seen better results with a balanced text/image ratio.

Email marketer from Sendinblue responds that image-only emails may land in the spam folder more often. He advises including a healthy amount of text in your email to make sure it's properly delivered to the inbox.

Email marketer from HubSpot states that designing emails for mobile requires careful consideration of image sizes. Large images can slow loading times, impacting the user experience and potentially triggering spam filters. Optimize images to improve deliverability.

Email marketer from Campaign Monitor states large images in email affect deliverability by making emails load slowly. Optimized images ensure faster loading times and improved user experience, boosting engagement and deliverability.

Marketer from Email Geeks explains that major B2C providers focus on UX and accessibility, not image-to-text ratio, and user engagement with emails. Sending B2B emails are more likely to run into filters that care about image to text ratio.

Email marketer from EmailToolTester explains that sending image-only emails is not a good idea for deliverability. Email clients can't read the images so they are more likely to flag the email as spam.

Email marketer from StackExchange user explains that although not strictly essential a good ratio of text to image is still best practice. Ensure images have alt-text to further help with spam filters.

Email marketer from Litmus answers that image-only emails often lack accessibility. Screen readers can't interpret images without alt text, making the email unusable for visually impaired recipients. Inaccessible emails can harm your sender reputation and deliverability.

Email marketer from Mailjet shares that image-only emails can negatively impact deliverability due to spam filters not being able to read the content and because they lack accessibility. They recommend using a good text-to-image ratio (aim for 60% text and 40% images).

Email marketer from ActiveCampaign states that, although important, email deliverability involves a lot more than whether you use images or not. It suggests keeping lists clean, having appropriate authentication in place and ensuring you have consent from your audience.

Expert from Email Geeks shares that some spam filters may ding for all-image emails, but it doesn't necessarily translate to deliverability problems. He also worries about accessibility if images don't display and whether the content can fail gracefully.

Expert from Email Geeks shares a link to an article dispelling the myth of image ratio being a spam filtering consideration.

Expert from Spam Resource clarifies that text-to-image ratios are not a primary factor in spam filtering decisions by mailbox providers like Gmail and Microsoft. She explains that focusing solely on this ratio is misguided, and deliverability depends on a more comprehensive assessment of sending practices.

Expert from Word to the Wise responds that while not the primary factor, image-only emails can affect deliverability. They explain that most mailbox providers focus on engagement metrics but a lack of text can make it harder for filters to understand content, leading to issues.

Expert from Email Geeks shares that poorly designed image-only emails can look bad on both desktop and mobile, requiring careful consideration of multiple sizes.

Documentation from Microsoft Postmaster advises that image-heavy emails should be carefully designed. Ensure they are not used to obfuscate the message or hide malicious links, as this can negatively impact sender reputation and deliverability to Outlook.com users.

Documentation from GlockApps details that some spam filters are known to check whether you are using a reasonable ratio of text to image. By having an imbalance it may not be clear what you're actually sending, and this helps spammers bypass filters.

Documentation from Google Workspace Admin Help explains that while Gmail doesn't specifically penalize emails for being image-heavy, it's best practice to include a good balance of text and images. Too many images can trigger spam filters because spammers often use image-based emails to hide malicious links or bypass text-based spam detection.

Documentation from Apache SpamAssassin Wiki shows that SpamAssassin includes rules that check for emails with a high image-to-text ratio. These rules increase the spam score of such emails, potentially leading to deliverability issues.