Let’s talk about Mailchimp Alt Text, Baby…
Mailchimp Alt text. What does it mean?
Well, when you add an image or a gif into your email or landing page, there are two different settings you NEED to adjust for each and every image in your email:
Alt text
Link so that if someone clicks the image it takes them somewhere useful
Alt text serves two functions:
Accessibility for the visually impaired
As a fall-back description of that image if it doesn’t display in your email (particularly important if you’re sending emails to people using Outlook on their desktop).
Why is alt text important for visually impaired users?
In the UK around 2 million people have visual impairment (trouble seeing even when wearing glasses/contact lenses). This is around 1/30 people. Around 60% of these are women. Certain ethnic minorities are at higher risk.
Say you have an email list of 1,000 people that means an average of 33 people on it are visually impaired, possibly more depending on the demographic of your audience. (source)
Screen readers: People who are blind or have low vision rely on screen readers to access digital content. Screen readers read aloud the alt text associated with images, providing them with a verbal description of the image's content.
Accessibility: Alt text ensures that everyone, regardless of their visual abilities, can understand and engage with the information conveyed by images.
Inclusivity: Providing alt text is a fundamental aspect of creating an inclusive online experience.
Why is alt text important for placeholder text?
Over 400 million people in the world actively use Outlook. Whilst Gmail and Apple Mail have the largest overall market share, Outlook continues to be the main email platform for businesses and older generations and is growing in usage.
Outlook desktop doesn’t automatically download any images that you have included in your email campaign, meaning that the alt text acts as a fall-back and displays where the image would otherwise be. Scroll down a bit for an example of that in action.
So in short…
YOU NEED TO INCLUDE MEANINGFUL ALT TEXT FOR EACH AND EVERY IMAGE IN YOUR EMAIL.
Can AI do your alt text for you?
Mailchimp does include an AI assistant to write your Alt text for you, BUT I wouldn’t recommend using it.
Why?
Well, if you had a e.g. a photo of your CEO standing outside 10 Downing Street talking to the PM, the AI alt text might be something like “A picture of a woman with brown hair wearing a jacket standing in front of a black door talking to man in a suit”. AI doesn’t know she’s your CEO, where she is or who she’s talking to.
AI will do the bare minimum in terms of accessibility as an accessibility tick-box exercise, but it’s not giving the whole picture, potentially vital information, or helping your brand.
Here's a classic example of AI being used and not doing a very effective job as fall-back placeholder text in an email I received from this charity. The alt text isn’t technically wrong but it could be oh-so-much-better:
So how do you do your alt text properly?
It’s not difficult, you just need to take time to do it properly. Effective alt text is concise, descriptive, and relevant to the image's context within the page.
Some good examples might be:
Your logo - “the logo for [business name]”
Photo of your CEO outside No.10 talking to Kier - “A photo of our CEO Jane Smith looking very smart in a green suit standing outside the door of 10 Downing Street talking to the PM about the latest policy changes”
Photo of a new t-shirt product - “A photo of our fabulous new t-shirt - it’s marl grey and has a hand-drawn image of a badger on the front with the words ‘I like Big Badgers and I cannot lie’”
Some bad examples might be:
Photo of your pet cat - “cat”
A complex diagram of a molecule - “molecule”
Nothing whatsoever!
The rubbish AI often comes up with
Don’t feel your alt text needs to be dry and boring
If the rest of your email is light-hearted, oozing sarcasm or written in Shakespearean English, so should your alt text.
Helpful? Any questions? Need help?
I’ve got almost 15 years’ experience working with Mailchimp and email marketing. There’s not much I haven’t seen! Get in touch.