A great email marketing campaign starts with . Not only does your content need to dazzle, but you need a . Of course, this all needs to happen in sync. As you know, an email developer needs to work with an email designer and marketer to create a template . Even while the marketing team prepares campaign content.
This is where placeholder texts and images come in.
Imagine: Your marketer hasn’t provided you with the digital campaign content yet. But you need to get your email template signed off. You’ll need to provide stakeholders with mockups to give them an idea of what the final campaign will look like without the content. After all, your stakeholders probably can’t envision your final campaign if you just show them lines of HTML and CSS, right?
Although this all sounds pretty basic, it’s a bit more complicated than you think. We’ll explain what placeholder text and images are, how they’re used in email production, when you should avoid using them, and how they might cause deliverability issues.
What are placeholder text and images?
Placeholder text, also known as dummy text or filler content, is used in the place of actual copy when the real text isn’t available. Usually, placeholder text is a series of randomly generated text meant to mimic the characteristics of actual written text. Other times, placeholder text can be real passages meant to fill in for your email campaign’s final content. Check out this for ideas.
work much like placeholder text. They stand in for images in a piece of content before the final images are ready.
What is lorem ipsum?
You’re probably familiar with lorem ipsum, the dummy text that has been used in typesetting since the 1500s in place of real text. Check out the placeholder text example below:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?
The lorem ipsum passage comes from Cicero’s treatise, “The Extremes of Good and Evil,” written in 45 B.C. Initially used to typeset printing presses, the Oman Business Email List dummy text transitioned from analog to digital to be placeholder text in electronic texts. In fact, the term “lorem ipsum” is sometimes used instead of “placeholder text.”
If you want to use the lorem ipsum text, copy it from a generator like . Many graphic design programs, like Adobe Photoshop, also have placeholder text functionalities via plugins.
How are placeholder images and text used in email?
Now that you know what placeholder images and text are, how do they factor into your email development and design workflow?
Here are a few reasons to use email placeholder text or images:
- You’re building an email template, but you’re still waiting for copy or design assets to be finalized by the marketing team.
- You’re creating a reusable template with different text and graphics. For instance, let’s say you’re designing a monthly email newsletter. Each newsletter will be unique, but you must create a template that fits all the monthly iterations. To do so, use placeholder text for the main template you’ll replace in each newsletter.
- You need to illustrate the dimensions of UAE Cell Number graphics or create a way for stakeholders to visualize your email campaign’s style, length, and copy format.
In a nutshell, placeholder text and images should be stand-ins for actual content in your emails. They’re great for illustrating points and helping your stakeholders envision the final product.
