Email attachments are one of the certain ways to attract your recipient’s attention.

What are email attachments? They are files that are added to the email message bringing extra value to it. These may be files of different formats, sizes, and contents.

Adding an attachment is pretty straightforward, but there are limitations, especially when it comes to email campaigns. Which is why we’ve created this short guide to explain the do’s and don’ts of attachments in emails.

The element of trust: email attachments may seem suspicious

Attachments are often used by marketers when writing a professional email as a way to give more value to the message and incentivize the user to open an email. If you are trying to reach out to a specific prospect and use attachments as a sort of personalization method, it might work.

But when we are dealing with cold emailing, including anything else besides the actual text content can seem shady.  This may sound obvious, but many marketers forget that when the recipient receives a message with an attachment from an unfamiliar source, they are likely to believe it’s malware.

Cold email isn’t a bad thing per se, but attaching a file to it makes it look far more suspicious and makes it more complicated for emails to avoid spam filters. This can put your email in the spam folder or worse, labeled by the ISP or mail client, inevitably hurting your sender’s reputation and harming your future email campaigns.

Moreover, many people ask “Should you explain attachments in business emails?” The answer is a resounding “yes”, of course. Explaining the attachment makes it a bit more trustworthy. This is why you should try not to send an email message that contains an attachment only – it doesn’t look professional at all and doesn’t raise any trust.

IP or domain reputation: attachments have a negative impact

Once again, using attachments in cold emails can throw a wrench in your campaign. Bulk cold emailing using attachments is likely to result in a high number of complaints. Every domain on the web is identified by ISP before it’s processed, allowing to block pirate content or adult web pages through the labeling of domains and IPs. A high complaint rate can catch your ISP’s attention.

In our case, the IP or email address you use for cold emailing can be flagged by ISP, and your email messages will either end up in the spam folder or completely blocked.

Therefore, email attachments in cold emails can lead to the deletion of your email domain name from a list of reputable sources. Use them only in small personalized email campaigns or with your existing clients.

Attachment formats: a wrong format can lead to an email block

So you’ve decided to use an attachment for your campaign email. You need to make sure people will feel confident and interested enough to open it. First of all, your email message in itself must convince the receiver to open/download the email attachment. If that’s not a problem, be mindful of this one rule.

Never send anything besides documents or images. In most cases, the user will never download anything besides a clearly visible document or image. It’s best to keep your attachments in .txt, .jpg, .gif, and.pdf formats.

PDFs make a great addition to any nurturing email, but they can be difficult to create and edit. You can find out how to edit a PDF easily from our friends at JotForm.

If you still need to send a file in a different format, make sure you are using an acceptable email attachment format because every ESP has its limits on file formats (for example, look through at Gmail attachment limits).

Size limits: follow email attachment limits for good deliverability

Want advice on the size of email attachments? Email servers and clients have email sending limits, so make sure you follow them. Moreover, email clients may reject your email as a whole because of its size. Try to keep your email message body within 15-100kb, with files no bigger than 10mb.

If you need to send a bigger file, it’s safer and generally more acceptable to attach a link to the file on Google Drive. Besides hosting large files, Drive will check the file for malware, solving the trust issue.

The email attachment size limits described above are considered universal if you don’t want to get caught in a spam filter.

Conclusion

While email attachments are a usual sight for marketing emails, there are certain rules you have to follow to keep your email deliverability high. If you’ve already taken care of your sender reputation and always use an email checker to clean your lists before sending, the main characteristic you still have to pay attention to is the attachment size limit – the smaller the file, the higher your chances to get into the recipient’s inbox.

Try to avoid sending files to cold leads: your email can be deleted or reported if there’s no established relationship between you and the recipient.

 

Many people make costly mistakes when writing emails with attachments. It is important that you clearly notify the recepient that your email contains one or more attachments.

What we write and how we go about communicating in emails with attachments is determined by who we are relating to. This is why when an email is sent and a file is attached to the message, the manner we communicate this differs and is determined by our relationship with the person at the other end or the purpose we seek to achieve.

What is an Email Attachment?

Email attachments are files that are attached to email messages, thereby increasing the potential value or benefit of that message to the recipient. These may be files of different formats, sizes, and contents. Attachment can be in text files, documents, spreadsheets, and PDF’s form.

Email attachment depends on whom the recipient is to you, when you are sending a casual attachment, like friends and family you don’t need to put too much emphasis on the type of files you’re attaching and emailing to your recipients. However, if the email is professional or academic for example your boss, business clients, or the head of a college, you need to think a bit more about how best to present the information you are about to send.

Why Emails with Attachments are Different

In a formal setting, when an email is attached, it could be unclear how to express this to the recipient of the email, especially in cases whereby the only important thing is the attached file and there seems to be no reason or purpose to have a body for the message.

Writing the Subject for Emails with Attachments

Some people will not open an email attachment unless they have an idea of what is attached. The title you have chosen to give your email may sometimes reflect that it is an email with an attachment and shows that the body of your message will be short. For example;

Title: Report, 2016 Carnival

Title: List of names of shortlisted candidates

The titles above do not only give a clue that your email may have attached files but they also give an idea of what to expect in the attachments.

Writing the Body for Emails with Attachments

There are ways to let the recipient of your mail be aware of the files you have attached. This you may have to do directly, stating it clearly. It is important to you that the recipient of your email sees what you have sent. You may go about it by simply letting them know in the most formal way. For example;

“Please find attached to this email a copy of my Curriculum Vitae” or “Find attached to this mail a copy of the Sales Report for the year 2016″.

In cases whereby the only important matter is the attached file, and the body of the message is not quite important, you should make the recipient aware of the files and write briefly what each file is about in the body of the message. It is vital you do not leave the part where the body of the message should be written blank even if the email attachment is the only reason you are sending the email. The body of the message can be built to center around the file(s) you have sent. Your email should also have a subject matter. It could be considered rude to leave those crucial spaces empty.

Sample Emails with Attachments

SAMPLE 1:  Writing Emails with Attachments

Good morning madam,

There are certain things to note when sending an attachment with your email.

In response to the inquiry you made concerning the list of machines and equipment available for inspection in December 2016, please find attached the list that gives the information you need.

Please, let us know if you have any questions regarding the information provided in the attachment.

Thank you.

SAMPLE 2:  Writing Emails with Attachments

Dear Sir,

Please find attached to this email pictures of the products that are available in the supermarket and the discount prices. There are five (5) attached JPEG files.

Kindly let us know if there are details that require clarification. We will be glad to help.

Best regards.