Should you include images or attachments in cold emails?

Images and attachments create problems for cold email that outweigh potential benefits.

Why to avoid images:

• Many email clients block images by default
• Images signal marketing or promotional content
• Broken image placeholders look unprofessional
• Image-heavy emails often land in promotions tab or spam
• Tracking pixels (invisible images) raise privacy concerns

Why to avoid attachments:

• Security filters often block or quarantine attachments from unknown senders
• Recipients are trained not to open attachments from strangers
• Adds file size that can trigger limits
• Suggests you want something from them (review this, sign this)

Alternatives:

• Link to resources hosted on your website
• Offer to send materials if they express interest
• Describe content rather than attaching it
• Use video thumbnails linking to hosted video rather than embedded

Exceptions:

• Small, tasteful signature logos (with proper alt text)
• Personalized images if your tool supports them well
• Follow-up emails where relationship is established
• Plain text cold emails consistently outperform HTML-heavy alternatives.