The Email Wars

Do any of you ever notice the massive footers that are used in some industries for emails? Now I know that heavy footers are the design rage right now, but not in emails. Often times legal departments mandate that the legal terms for financials/investing, contests and regulatory issues need to be there. But do you think that they either build trust or help the email campaigns in any way? 

When I personally see them they are a turn off. They make me lose a little bit of trust, although legal will tell you that there are there to build trust (CYA here) and make sure that no one has other expectations. But why can’t they live as as hyperlink and live on a page on the website? 

I wanted to use an example of the video game industry as eROI has done a lot of work in this space over the past years. I can tell you from the example here that they are ego plays. Everyone wants to have their brand and organization represented in the email somewhere. What value does that bring to the subscriber? None in my opinion. This footer in the video gaming industry is always the longest to approve part of email creative. Is everyone there? Do they all have enough room around them to make all the stake holders happy? These are the questions that get vetted over and over again. 

Now take a look at the creative. It is well done, has clear calls to action but it is weighted down by all this “unrelated” brand marks. 

Here is my thought, why do we need this? It does nothing to build brand or help with the campaign itself. Maybe we need to make some changes here. Are you able to fight this at your company or with your clients? Worth a shot if you could A/B test some creative and show them some results. Even if you can just do this is in a small controlled batch. 

That is my challenge to you. I am going to try it.