The old idea of having to make a good impression the first time never wavers. You can still say this about marketing emails considering you have millions of others you’re competing against.
With this in mind, it’s a good idea to add a few effects in your emails to attract more visual interest. One good method many find appealing is hover effects.
If you’ve ever seen this in other emails or related content, you know how common it is. However, it gives power to the user to control an image when hovering their mouse cursor over the picture.
Here’s a pro and con using hover effects, and how to incorporate it into your email design.
Pro: Viewers See More Information on Images
The major pro to hover effects is being able to see alternative images to a product you’re selling. No doubt you’ve seen how this works, including for apparel. Being able to see shoes, pants, shirts, or coats from different angles helps consumers make better decisions on what they’re buying.
It’s just one effect you can add. One technique involves a promotion or sale discount image popping up when hovering. You can add text overlays as well.
Zoom in/out effects are also popular, which adds more visual variety to your marketing emails.
Con: The “Pop-Up” Problem
Things that pop up unexpectedly on the screen can become annoying to some people if you aren’t careful. It’s why you need to use your hover effects in a way appropriate to the associated imagery. Products you know consumers want to see at different angles won’t annoy someone if they accidentally hover over the product pictures.
Another challenge is With proper code, you can still do this and standard hover effects in your emails.
What Codes Should You Use?
You may want a basic responsive effect wrapping a link around a set number of images you’re using. This enables you to hide an alternative image by default.
Email on Acid gives a simple beginners code on their web page, which also includes code on how to show your alternate image.
They also provide code on how to create hover effects on mobile devices. It includes a method to avoid the rollover image appearing before the link appears in the browser on iOS. Many programmers use a tapzone process to make this effect work better for mobile emails.
