What are the negative impacts of using large images in email marketing and how to fix them?

Summary

Using large images in email marketing presents several negative impacts, as indicated by both marketing experts and technical documentation. Large images can lead to decreased open rates, lower engagement, and increased unsubscribe rates. Slow loading times, particularly problematic for mobile users with limited data, contribute to a poor subscriber experience. Bandwidth consumption increases, leading to potential cost escalations, especially with large subscriber bases. Rendering issues across various email clients may result in distorted layouts and broken images. Extremely large images can inflate spam scores and detrimentally affect email deliverability. To mitigate these issues, best practices include compressing images, utilizing appropriate file formats (JPEG for photos and PNG for graphics), and employing responsive design techniques. Tools such as TinyPNG, ImageOptim, and ShortPixel are recommended for image optimization. Implementing a Content Delivery Network (CDN) facilitates faster loading times globally. Maintaining a total email size under 100KB is crucial for optimal deliverability. Thoroughly testing emails with realistic images using tools like Litmus is essential. Choosing a reliable image hosting server is also important. Finally, avoid embedding images directly in the email; instead, host them externally and link them in the email's HTML.

Key findings

  • Engagement Impact: Large images decrease open rates, engagement, and conversions.
  • Mobile Challenges: Slow loading times due to large images significantly affect mobile users with limited data.
  • Cost Implications: Increased bandwidth usage from large images can lead to higher costs.
  • Rendering Variability: Large images can cause rendering issues and broken layouts across different email clients.
  • Deliverability Risks: Extremely large images elevate spam scores, negatively impacting email deliverability.
  • Email Size Limits: Maintaining an overall email size below 100KB is crucial for optimal deliverability and user experience.

Key considerations

  • Image Optimization: Compress images and use appropriate file formats (JPEG for photos, PNG for graphics) to reduce file size.
  • Responsive Design Implementation: Employ responsive design techniques to ensure images display correctly across all devices and screen sizes.
  • Optimization Tools Utilization: Use tools like TinyPNG, ImageOptim, and ShortPixel to automate image compression without significant quality loss.
  • CDN Implementation: Implement a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to ensure faster image loading times for recipients worldwide.
  • Email Testing: Thoroughly test emails with realistic images on various email clients and devices using tools like Litmus.
  • Image Hosting: Use reliable and reputable image hosting servers.
  • Embedded vs. Linked Images: Link to externally hosted images rather than embedding them directly in the email.

What email marketers say
14Marketer opinions

Using large images in email marketing can significantly harm performance. They increase loading times, leading to lower engagement, higher unsubscribe rates, and a poor subscriber experience, particularly for mobile users with limited data. Large images consume more bandwidth, potentially increasing costs, and can cause rendering problems in various email clients, resulting in distorted layouts. Furthermore, extremely large images can contribute to higher spam scores, negatively impacting deliverability. To mitigate these issues, it's crucial to optimize images by compressing them, using appropriate file formats (JPEG for photos, PNG for graphics), and employing responsive design techniques. Tools like TinyPNG, ImageOptim, and ShortPixel can aid in image optimization. Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) can ensure faster loading times globally. Maintaining a total email size under 100KB is recommended to avoid deliverability issues. Testing emails with realistic images using tools like Litmus is essential. Also, the number of images can affect rendering across devices, so be mindful of that as well.

Key opinions

  • Loading Times: Large images increase email loading times, leading to lower engagement and higher unsubscribe rates.
  • Mobile Experience: Large images negatively impact mobile user experience by consuming more data and causing slow loading.
  • Bandwidth Costs: Large images consume more bandwidth, potentially increasing costs, especially with large subscriber lists.
  • Rendering Issues: Large images can cause rendering problems in some email clients, leading to distorted layouts.
  • Deliverability: Extremely large images can contribute to higher spam scores and negatively impact email deliverability.
  • Email Size Limit: Maintaining a total email size under 100KB is recommended to avoid deliverability issues.
  • Multiple Images: The number of images can also affect the way your HTML email is rendered across different devices and browsers.

Key considerations

  • Image Optimization: Optimize images by compressing them and using appropriate file formats (JPEG for photos, PNG for graphics).
  • Responsive Design: Employ responsive design techniques and optimize images for different screen sizes to ensure consistent rendering.
  • Optimization Tools: Use tools like TinyPNG, ImageOptim, and ShortPixel for image optimization.
  • Content Delivery Networks: Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for hosting images to ensure faster loading times globally.
  • Email Testing: Thoroughly test emails with realistic images before sending them out, using tools like Litmus.
  • Embedded vs Hosted: Avoid embedding images directly into emails, which increases the overall email size significantly.
Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks responds that large images can cause long loading times, which can be a problem for users with limited mobile data plans.

July 2021 - Email Geeks
Marketer view

Email marketer from Mailchimp explains that large images increase email loading times, which can lead to lower engagement and higher unsubscribe rates. They recommend optimizing images by compressing them and using appropriate file formats like JPEG for photos and PNG for graphics.

January 2023 - Mailchimp
Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks explains that an embedded image is attached to the email itself, sending the full 44MB to every user and occupying space in their mailbox. A non-embedded image references a URL, sending only a few bytes and saving the image to a temporary cache.

March 2021 - Email Geeks
Marketer view

Email marketer from Sendinblue suggests that using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for hosting images ensures faster loading times for subscribers globally by distributing images across multiple servers.

October 2021 - Sendinblue
Marketer view

Email marketer from Email on Acid explains that large images can cause rendering problems in some email clients, leading to distorted layouts or broken images. They recommend using responsive design techniques and optimizing images for different screen sizes to ensure consistent rendering across all devices.

September 2021 - Email on Acid
Marketer view

Email marketer from Gmass highlights the importance of thoroughly testing your emails with realistic images before sending them out. They propose using tools like Litmus to test images properly.

September 2021 - Gmass
Marketer view

Email marketer from Moosend explains that it’s not just about the image size. The number of images can also affect the way your HTML email is rendered across different devices and browsers. The more elements the device needs to load, the bigger the chances are that something is going to break.

May 2024 - Moosend
Marketer view

Email marketer from HubSpot shares that large images negatively impact the mobile user experience, as they take longer to load and consume more data. They suggest optimizing images for mobile devices by using smaller file sizes and responsive design techniques.

July 2024 - HubSpot
Marketer view

Email marketer from StackOverflow recommends using tools like TinyPNG, ImageOptim, and ShortPixel for image optimization, as they automatically compress images without noticeable quality loss.

September 2022 - StackOverflow
Marketer view

Email marketer from ActiveCampaign highlights that large image sizes contribute to a poor subscriber experience due to slow loading times. Optimising images improves engagement and reduces frustration.

November 2022 - ActiveCampaign
Marketer view

Email marketer from NeverBounce suggests a good rule of thumb is to maintain a total email size under 100KB. Exceeding this limit can contribute to high spam scores.

March 2024 - NeverBounce
Marketer view

Email marketer from Campaign Monitor shares that using large images consumes more bandwidth, potentially increasing costs, especially if you have a large subscriber list. They suggest optimizing images to reduce file size without sacrificing quality to minimize bandwidth usage.

July 2022 - Campaign Monitor
Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks explains if you replace the 44mb image with the smaller one, then that will fix all image loading for that time forward, although the image may already be cached by the system.

August 2021 - Email Geeks
Marketer view

Email marketer from Reddit explains that extremely large images can contribute to higher spam scores and negatively impact email deliverability. Some spam filters flag emails with unusually large attachments or embedded images. Keeping the total email size down is key.

October 2024 - Reddit

What the experts say
3Expert opinions

Experts agree that large images in email marketing negatively affect performance. Including large images can kill open rates and conversions. Unreliable image hosting can slow rendering, impacting deliverability. Emails with large images are irresponsible, especially for mobile users with limited data, as slow loading leads to fewer message views and increased unsubscribes. Keeping the email size under 100kb is critical.

Key opinions

  • Open Rates & Conversions: Large images can negatively impact open rates and conversions.
  • Hosting Impact: Unreliable image hosting slows rendering and impacts deliverability.
  • Mobile Data: Large images affect mobile users with limited data plans, leading to unsubscribes.
  • Email Size Limit: Emails should ideally be under 100kb to ensure a good user experience.

Key considerations

  • Image Optimization: Optimize images to reduce file size without compromising quality.
  • Reliable Hosting: Use reliable and reputable image hosting servers.
  • Mobile Users: Be mindful of mobile users and their data limitations.
  • Email Size: Keep the overall email size as small as possible.
Expert view

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that emails should not be larger than 100kb, and large images will impact those using cell phones. Using large images would be irresponsible to your reader and affect them when they have limited data plans. The larger the email gets the slower it is to load, the less they see your messages and the greater the chances that they will unsubscribe.

April 2022 - Word to the Wise
Expert view

Expert from SpamResource explains that using reliable and reputable image hosting servers is crucial. Slow or unreliable image servers can negatively impact the rendering and loading speed of your email, potentially leading to deliverability issues.

August 2022 - SpamResource
Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks shares that including a large image would have probably killed the open rate and might have killed conversion.

March 2025 - Email Geeks

What the documentation says
4Technical articles

Technical documentation emphasizes the importance of managing image sizes in email marketing for optimal display and performance. Email clients have size limitations, and exceeding these can cause display issues. Image compression reduces file size, leading to faster loading and better user experience; tools like ImageOptim and TinyPNG are recommended. Choosing the right compression algorithm (lossy or lossless) is essential, balancing file size and quality. Responsive design techniques, such as using the `<picture>` element and `srcset` attribute, are crucial for delivering appropriately sized images based on screen size and resolution.

Key findings

  • Client Limitations: Email clients have size limitations for displaying images; exceeding them can cause display issues.
  • Compression Benefits: Image compression reduces file size, leading to faster loading and improved user experience.
  • Algorithm Choice: Choosing the appropriate compression algorithm (lossy or lossless) impacts file size and image quality.
  • Responsive Design: Responsive design techniques are crucial for delivering appropriately sized images based on screen size and resolution.

Key considerations

  • Testing: Test emails across different clients to ensure images render correctly.
  • Compression Tools: Use tools like ImageOptim or TinyPNG to compress images without significant loss of quality.
  • Algorithm Selection: Select the appropriate compression method based on the image type and desired balance between file size and quality.
  • Responsive Implementation: Implement responsive design using the `<picture>` element and `srcset` attribute.
Technical article

Documentation from Google Developers explains that compressing images reduces file size, which leads to faster loading times and improved user experience. It recommends using tools like ImageOptim or TinyPNG to compress images without significant loss of quality.

July 2023 - Google Developers
Technical article

Documentation from Litmus explains that some email clients have size limitations for displaying images, and exceeding these limits can cause display issues. They advise testing emails across different clients to ensure images render correctly and to keep the total email size below 102KB for optimal deliverability.

January 2022 - Litmus
Technical article

Documentation from Mozilla explains different image compression algorithms, such as lossy (JPEG) and lossless (PNG), and their impact on file size and image quality. It recommends choosing the appropriate compression method based on the type of image and the desired balance between file size and quality.

December 2024 - MDN Web Docs
Technical article

Documentation from W3C explains using the `<picture>` element and `srcset` attribute for delivering different image sizes based on screen size and resolution, which is crucial for responsive email design.

March 2021 - W3C