What does the Gmail message 'Images in this email are hidden' mean and how does it affect email marketing?

Email marketer from Email on Acid explains that image blocking in Gmail can lead to broken or missing content, which can damage the user experience and reduce conversions. Marketers should use responsive design principles to ensure their emails look good with or without images, optimize alt text for accessibility, and test their emails in different email clients to understand how they render with images blocked.

Email marketer from HubSpot Blog explains that designing emails that look good with or without images involves using a balanced layout with clear text, strategic use of background colors, and ensuring that key information is conveyed through text as well as images. Responsive design principles should be applied to ensure the email renders correctly on different devices and in various email clients, even with images blocked. Also use bulletproof buttons using HTML and VML.

Email marketer from Campaign Monitor Blog explains that by using background colors in HTML emails marketers can ensure important elements still stand out when images are blocked. The colours should match the brand and theme and provide a substitute for images so that users are still aware of call to actions etc. Ensure you test different color settings.

Email marketer from GMass Blog explains that to prevent Gmail from hiding images, it's crucial to maintain a good sender reputation. This involves authenticating emails, warming up the IP address, segmenting the email list, and ensuring a low spam complaint rate. A good sender reputation increases the likelihood that Gmail will display images automatically, leading to better engagement.

Email marketer from Reddit explains that they've noticed a significant drop in open rates due to Gmail's image blocking. The user recommends focusing on plain text emails or emails with very few, but highly optimized, images. They also suggest A/B testing different approaches to see what resonates best with their audience, particularly mobile users.

Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum explains that optimizing images for email involves compressing them to reduce file size, using the correct image format (JPEG for photos, PNG for graphics), and adding descriptive alt text. Optimized images load faster and provide context even when blocked, enhancing the email's usability and effectiveness. They also recommend testing images on different devices.

Email marketer from ActiveCampaign Blog explains that by having a plain text version of an email allows the recipient to easily read what it contains. If images are blocked they will still see the key text of the email so they are more likely to act on the email.

Email marketer from Mailjet Blog explains that Gmail might hide images if it suspects the email is not safe or if the sender's reputation is low. This can affect email marketing because hidden images can reduce engagement and conversion rates, as visuals are crucial for attracting attention and conveying the message effectively. Senders should focus on improving their sender reputation by authenticating their emails (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), keeping their email lists clean, and avoiding spam triggers.

Email marketer from Email Geeks explains that the screenshot is from a Google Workspace mailbox (indicated by the 'External' label) and that the setting to hide images may have been configured by the Google Workspace admin, unrelated to Gmail settings.

Email marketer from SendPulse Blog explains that when Gmail hides images, it negatively impacts open rates and click-through rates because users don't see the full design and call-to-actions. To mitigate this, marketers should use alt text for images to provide context, optimize image sizes for faster loading, and ensure the email content is engaging even without images. Building a strong sender reputation is also crucial.

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that image blocking in Gmail (and other email clients) is a privacy feature that prevents the automatic downloading of external images. This protects users from being tracked via tracking pixels and prevents the loading of potentially malicious content. Users must explicitly click to display images, giving them control over what content is loaded. This reduces a marketers ability to track opens.

Expert from Email Geeks shares that the message about hidden images has been appearing for about a month and seems to affect emails with low reputation, causing images not to display.

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that Gmail uses an image proxy, which downloads images through Google's servers. This means that when you use tracking pixels in your HTML emails to see whether someone has opened it, those pixels are 'opened' by Google's servers, not the recipient. This can lead to skewed stats and inaccurate analytics. As the recipients images are being proxied this also has the advantage for the user of removing malicious content or privacy leaking functions. He goes on to explain some further impacts with Google’s cache TTL and CDN.

Expert from Email Geeks explains that the "Images in this email are hidden" message from Gmail indicates that Gmail suspects the email might be spam but isn't confident enough to move it to the spam folder. This forces a vote to train their spam identification tools and may indicate a domain needing a reputation boost, especially with a new ESP-to-email address pairing.

Expert from Email Geeks shares that the article from reply.io is a cold outreach platform so Google has blocked images in spam for ever so is likely now finally blocking cold outreach email more aggressively, which is a good thing.

Documentation from RFC explains that SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are email authentication standards that help verify the sender's identity and prevent email spoofing. Implementing these standards can improve sender reputation and ensure that Gmail is more likely to display images, as it trusts authenticated senders more than unauthenticated ones.

Documentation from Litmus explains that Gmail uses an image proxy to cache images, which can affect open tracking. The proxy pre-fetches images, potentially inflating open rates because an email can be counted as opened even if the recipient doesn't view it. Marketers need to be aware of this discrepancy when analyzing email campaign performance and use metrics beyond open rates to gauge engagement.

Documentation from Mozilla Developer Network explains that alt text is crucial for accessibility and provides a text alternative when images cannot be displayed. Using descriptive and informative alt text ensures that users understand the image's purpose and content, even if Gmail blocks images. This is particularly important for call-to-action buttons and key visuals.

Documentation from Google Support explains that Gmail's settings allow users to control whether images are displayed automatically. By default, Gmail displays external images, except for emails identified as suspicious. Users can change these settings to always ask before displaying external images, enhancing privacy and security. This image blocking can reduce open tracking accuracy for marketers.