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How Big Is Too Big For An Email Attachment?
Posted By: telemoxie on 12/5/2006 10:06 AM (CST) 2000 Points
I make outbound calls to targeted companies on behalf of my clients, and when sending info to follow up the call, I'll typically ask if folks prefer regular mail or email. More and more people prefer email every day.

Years ago, I would not send attachments (just links to a client's web site) - but attaching files (especially PDFs) seems to be less and less of a problem over time.

Please note: this info is not going to someone who visited a web site or requested info. They have not yet expressed interest in my client's product or service, and they are not yet a "qualified prospect". At this point, they have just politely agreed to receive info, and possibly forward it to others in their organization.

In such a case, if you were the receipient of such an email, and the email naturally had a link to my client's web site, would you prefer to also receive an attachment? If so, how large an attachment (file size) would be appropriate?

Posted by: thinkmor Accepted Answer
12/5/2006 10:16 AM (CST)
Hi Dave

Over the pond here (UK), depends on the size of organization.

Smaller and mid sized companies will be open to pdfs, in most cases, up to 1 MB but preferably less.

Larger organizations will bounce any unsolicited email with an attachment almost 100% of the time, even if an employee has signed up for email, unless the user gets your company domain on their safelist.

Most clients would probably prefer to just a link as opposed to an attachment like a pdf but if you made prior contact, then a pdf doesn't seem to be a problem.

Hope this helps.

Zahid Adil
 
Posted by: scott.rutherford Accepted Answer
12/5/2006 10:20 AM (CST)
How big is too big for an attachment? It depends. Many email systems will have a limit for the maximum attachment size (say, 10MB, but it could be set higher or lower than this). Messages with attachments exceeding the limit will typically not be delivered, though sometimes large attachments will simply be stripped (that is, your recipient will receive the email with no attachment).

The second (and perhaps more important) question is: how large can your attachment be without irritating the recipient? Particularly if your recipient is on a slow connection, larger attachments mean longer transfer times, which I would contend is usually a bad thing.

Also consider whether the person you're emailing expects you to be sending a large file attachment. If you're sending a PDF to a client and the client is waiting, an 8MB attachment might not be a problem. On the other hand, if your email is coming "out of the blue", even a 500K attachment might be viewed as annoying and unwelcome.

My personal rule of thumb these days is to try to keep attachments under 1MB each, if possible. Though as you could reasonably infer from all of the above hedging, this is something of a grey area. As I said earlier: "it depends."

Good luck,

Scott
 
Posted by: adammjw Accepted Answer
12/5/2006 10:33 AM (CST)
Dave,

I would opt for a link to a website, especially with regard to prospects and not anxious customers.
More and more companies are putting in place rigorous security measures to stop unsolicited mailings and yours could be treated as such by system administrator.
The result might also be that instead of turning people on you would turn them off as we often say "yes" and ten to forget it if this is no vital issue to us.

rgds

Adam
 
Posted by: NuCoPro Accepted Answer
12/5/2006 10:35 AM (CST)
The problem with an attachment sent to a new person is that it might cause their companies mail server to block your entire message. Compounding the problem, most of the time you won't know it happened.

Asking for a open receipt doesn't help ensure delivery, since a lot of people (including me) find that annoying and won't allow it to be sent.

What if you had a link to a "special" page on your web site that provided an overview of the different documents with links to download them? This would give you an opportunity to put some "quick hit" information in front of these prospects, and allow them to decide if they want to look at more information. It would also avoid the "spam blocking" problem.
 
Posted by: Jo Masterson Accepted Answer
12/5/2006 11:09 AM (CST)
I prefer no attachment ... just links. I find many time emails with attachments get weeded out, or people are afraid to open them.
Jo
 
Posted by: telemoxie Author Response
12/5/2006 11:13 AM (CST)
Thanks for the comments so far. Please keep them coming.

As a "prospect centered" marketing guy, I'm much more interested in knowing what you prefer to RECEIVE, than what you prefer to send.
 
Posted by: BARQ Accepted Answer
12/5/2006 11:33 AM (CST)
I can link to a website as easily and quickly as an attachment. So, I'd prefer to link vs. download unsolicited material.

BARQ
SELMARQ Brands' Best Friend
 
Posted by: selledge* Accepted Answer
12/5/2006 11:38 AM (CST)
I would not send an attachment of any kind via email. This often reduces your deliverability rate. I would look into a hosted email solution that allowed you to upload a document i.e. pdf, word doc, excel etc. onto their servers. Then I create a text link in the email so people can download the attachment. Example could be; go here to download a white paper on marketing best practices.

If someone downloads your document that activity is captured in your tracking reports.
In fact you can download a report of all persons that downloaded the document allowing you to reconnect with only interested parties.
 
Posted by: skoobie99 Accepted Answer
12/5/2006 11:38 AM (CST)
telemoxie,

I always worry about sending attachments - firewalls, IT policies, mailbox limits, etc. can all wreak havoc with what I might attach to an e-mail. Therefore, I send website links whenever possible.

Same goes for what I would like to receive in an e-mail - a website link is always preferrable to a large attachment.

An additional twist comes from those of us who travel a lot. 'Replicating' your e-mail in-box on the road can take a LONG time even with fast connections when people send you large attachments. I much prefer to receive website links when travelling.

Yet another twist comes from those of us who use Blackberries. Opening e-mail attachments with my Blackberry can usually be accomplished - though it takes time. Then properly understanding/reading an attachment displayed on a small Blackberry screen is the next challenge. I can also link to websites with my Blackberry, however this too tends to take a while and of course the websites do not display right. When using a Blackberry to read y e-mail I really have no preference; both attachments or website links are equally a pain.

Hope this helps,
John
 
Posted by: Stephen Denny Accepted Answer
12/5/2006 3:57 PM (CST)
You always run the risk of your target co's spam/virus blocker taking out any message you send if there is any attachment -- and that includes your signature, if you always attach a 'card' to your email.

Send a follow-up email with a link to your site. It's more professional.
 
Posted by: keith* Accepted Answer
12/5/2006 6:03 PM (CST)
I think that part of your question to the prospect should include the size and type of attachment.

Ask if they prefer a regular mail or an (x) meg pdf file to their inbox.

Some others touch on some good points about spam filters and blackberries.

--Keith
 
Posted by: mgoodman Accepted Answer
12/5/2006 6:33 PM (CST)
My preference would be to receive a link, and when I get to the website the option to download a PDF.

I think attachments are a little presumptuous, and many worry about viruses and/or malware in attachments. (I'm not totally paranoid about them myself, but I do think about the possibilities ...)
 
Posted by: KathySmithFilms* Accepted Answer
12/5/2006 6:48 PM (CST)
Personally, I transfer a lot of graphics back & forth and trailers. It's good to know the works are coming via attachment, because of the download time so an e mail for the set up is my reality. I also like to be able to go to a site and download from the client's account on some of the artwork. pdf files - I haven't had to use them in my work yet but the one's I open to get data are slow on my dsl.

If you need to send large files to people, have an special account, and place the file in the web space that is available to you as a result. Your correspondents can then retrieve your files using a web browser.
This is a company that sends bigger files for you:

https://www.yousendit.com/whyyousendit.php

or to have free file hosting for both cause and effect points check out these type of services:

http://www.mediafire.com/

As mentioned above, servers are configured to bounce any messages they receive that are larger than 11 million characters (that's slightly more than 10 megabytes). Any attempt to send a message to an address that is larger than that will fail. (Gov. requests 5 MB limit).

In order to maintain an adequate level of service for everyone, email is
a convenient way to transfer files between people, but some companies have to place restrictions on it because of size of servers & amount of people in the company negatively affecting everyone whose mail is sent to the systems.
 
Posted by: darcy.moen Accepted Answer
12/5/2006 7:12 PM (CST)
Attachments are rather passe. Links are much better.

Given the choice to send an attatchment, include a link, or direct traffic to a web site...I'll take the direct traffic anyday.

Links are trackable.
Attachments are 'scary' and 'mysterious'.
Attachments are prime spam filter fodder.

There are so many negatives....

Do links. You may find folks are much more interactive, and much more received.

Darcy Moen
Customer Loyalty Network
 
Posted by: shghosh Accepted Answer
12/6/2006 12:27 AM (CST)
Definitely prefer to receive a link than a pdf. However is the content of the pdf like read-n-file type? As a prospect would i be interested in filing it? Then the link shd have an email option to send pdf.
Also you havent mentioned exactly what kind of outbound telecalling you do- if its financial services- say loans, credit cards, deposits where the amount promised, installment amount and the interest rate matter, the client would like a pdf.
If its an offer communication with nice graphics and call to action- a link is the best bet.
 
Posted by: michael Accepted Answer
12/6/2006 8:15 AM (CST)
Steve,

I like to receive (and we send) an e-mail announcing a forthcoming attachment. It gives me a sense of whether or not there is still interest and shows that we're sensitive to their system. I also get the opportunity to ask them if they want PDF...though that's what they always want.

I definitely do NOT like to receive any zipped files.

Michael
 
Posted by: Jeff K. Accepted Answer
12/6/2006 9:50 AM (CST)
Typically, I do not mind receiving an email under 1MB. However, what I prefer is to receive an HTML rich email that has graphics and links that download on the fly. Here's how that works:

You as the business work with an email database company, such as www.ConstantContact.com. (There are others out there as well.) They charge you based on the size of your database and you can send out as many email campaigns a month as you want. (The cost is actually pretty minimal) Once you have your database with email address, you create an email campaign, which would include some graphics that would be located on your web site, along with links to documents on your web site. Now those documents can be as large as you want, because the reader will make the choice if they want to download them, rather than being forced to download them when they open the email. You also will receive all kinds of statistics that show open rates, click-throughs, etc. They have a 60-day free trial, so it might be worth giving it a try.

Hope this helps!

Jeff
 
Posted by: telemoxie Author Response
12/6/2006 2:38 PM (CST)
Comments have been very helpful, thanks so much.

Some of the comments suggest setting up web sites to accomodate larger files (and track interest). Since I am not involved with my client's web sites (and since each one would be maintained by a different company in a different programming language) I've wondered for some time about setting up a page myself where I could have info on each of my clients' offerings, and send emails with links to the info... and based on the above comments, I think I'll explore that idea just a bit more.

I'll leave this open another day or so in case anyone else wants to contribute.
 
Posted by: mcsten Accepted Answer
12/6/2006 6:20 PM (CST)
I would prefer to receive less than 1MB of file. Not that I don't have broadband or enough space, I just feel that it's rude when someone sends me a super-sized email when they are just prospecting. I would much prefer something small and precise and the option to visit the website and download more information online.

Sometimes large files either mean that it's a very long document or because it's graphic heavy. I'd hate to download a mega file only to find out that it's all graphics.
 
Posted by: paca001 Accepted Answer
12/7/2006 5:58 AM (CST)
I think the above have covered everything in one way or another but just to add my thoughts:
- From what you have described I prefer to receive in the body of the text 3 Benefits to me as to why I should continue reading; a link to the site and a pdf/doc (general about the company/ or more details about service w/ overview of company)
- Size of attachment (as suggested 1MB is enough for this first sending of info) However, footnote I would add is sometimes on creating a PDF although it may only be a one pager or two pages the images used make it bigger than it 'should' be. Therefore I think 1 or 2 pages is more than enough at this stage to introduce your company (for another way of quantifying size of attachment)
 
Posted by: mozzy Member Response
4/12/2007 6:40 AM (CST)
Besides all considerations on the attachment size and spam filters, I believe the most important is traceability.

If you send a file attached to an email, you'll never be able to know who actually downloaded it.

On the other side, sending an email with a link will give you a wealth of information:
- who clicked on the link and landed on the site?
- who downloaded the file from the site?
- who stayed in your site and what pages they visited?
- ...

From the moment someone clicks a link on an email (as long as it is properly "coded" so you know who the person is), you will know what he/she is looking at in your websites, for the rest of hi/her life (or until they delete the Cookie you placed on their PC).

As a demand generation marketer, every time I want to share a file, i only send an email link (even if the file is very small, say 100Kb)... The return I get is lots of information and neat statistics that help me plan for the next campaigns and track them.
 


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