Email design is more than just choosing a nice template and adding some images. It's about creating a visual experience that engages your audience, communicates your message, and drives your desired action. In this article, we'll share some tips on how you can improve your email design and make your campaigns more effective.
Before you start designing your email, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with it. Do you want to inform, persuade, educate, or entertain your subscribers? Do you want them to click a link, buy a product, sign up for a webinar, or share your content? Your goal will determine the content, layout, tone, and call to action of your email. Make sure your goal is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely (SMART).
Yes, however, an email isn’t just about YOUR goals, it’s also about your customers’ goals. How can you help them achieve those goals?
There are 2 main factors that define your email design. 1. goal of your campaign: - an educational message - sale message - awareness message 2. understand the psychology of your readers: - what type of content they read - when the best open time for them - what their reading habits are
More than half of all emails are opened on mobile devices, so you need to make sure your email design adapts to different screen sizes and resolutions. A responsive design will automatically adjust the width, height, font size, and image quality of your email based on the device your subscribers use. This will ensure your email is easy to read, navigate, and interact with. You can use email marketing tools that offer responsive templates or code your own using HTML and CSS.
When you are working with alternating column content blocks, always make sure that you test how the blocks rearrange when that two column design becomes a single column. Many of the templates that are provided with these services default to something like "left block, right block, left block right block" Which means, if you were alternating, you could end up with "image, words, words, image" which might work, but likely will not. It may be better to design for a narrow mobile first scenario than to build for a desktop/laptop display and hope mobile works out.
With over half of all emails opened on mobile devices, responsive design is non-negotiable for effective email marketing. Another is testing for accessibility in responsive designs. Ensure that the email design is not only mobile-friendly but also accessible to people with disabilities, which includes considering color contrast and text size for readability.
Images can enhance your email design by adding visual appeal, conveying emotion, and illustrating your message. However, images can also slow down your email loading time, consume data, and get blocked by some email clients. To optimize your images, you should use the right format (JPEG, PNG, or GIF), size (not too large or too small), and compression (reduce file size without losing quality). You should also add alt text (a descriptive text that replaces the image if it doesn't load) and captions (a brief explanation of the image) to your images.
Agree. Neglecting ALT text is the number 1 mistake I see across brands. Don't forget it! It's super important for accessibility.
Your message can be intriguing and inviting for every next word. However, the addition of the right images diversifies your content and keeps your reader staying longer on the page. Use the PNG format as the best quality to the size ratio. Be aware that heavy images can be blocked from opening, you can receive this message 'Message clipped, view entire message'? That's a sign your email was cut short. The fix is simple: make sure your emails are under 102K and all attachments are inside.
Optimizing your image file size is essential to ensure your subscribers see all of your content. Gmail will clip your email if your email reaches more than 102KB in size. To avoid this issue, send a test email to yourself and download the email message and inspect the file size. If it's over 102KB, you likely have an opportunity to compress your file size.
Images can significantly improve your email design by adding visual appeal, conveying emotions, and illustrating your message. Choose the right format: Use JPEG for photos, PNG for graphics with sharp lines or text, and GIF for animated images. Size appropriately: Resize images to fit the email layout without compromising quality. Compress effectively: Reduce file sizes without sacrificing image quality. Add alt text and captions: Provide descriptive alt text for accessibility and captions for context.
A good email design follows a logical hierarchy that guides your subscribers' attention from the most important to the least important elements. The hierarchy can be created by using different sizes, colors, fonts, and spacing for your headlines, subheadings, body text, and call to action. The hierarchy should also match the goal of your email and the expectations of your audience. For example, if your goal is to sell a product, you should highlight the benefits, features, and price of the product in a clear and concise way.
Make it clear from the start what the email is about and why someone should read on. Never expect your audience to scroll to find the most important information. Remember that some email systems won’t download images until the recipients selects to - so don’t keep all that important copy in imagery but use visuals to enhance the message.
Visual hierarchy often is more important than the content itself. Why it's important? Visual hierarchy navigates a reader through the message, emphasizes the main focus, and minimizes attention where needed. Here are the elements of the visual hierarchy: --> Contrast --> Balance --> Emphasis --> Movement --> White Space --> Proportion --> Repetition
The final step to improve your email design is to test and tweak it based on the feedback and results you get. You should test your email on different devices, browsers, and email clients to make sure it displays correctly and works properly. You should also test different versions of your email design (such as colors, fonts, images, and layout) to see which one performs better in terms of open rates, click-through rates, conversions, and other metrics. You should then tweak your email design accordingly and keep testing and improving it over time.
Even if you work hard and spend tons of time (or even because of this) you can't your baby just let go and hope it will work like a charm. You need to run Split testing (A/B testing). What do you test? - Compatibility (mobile vs desktop) - Subject Line Testing - Content Testing - Call-to-Action (CTA) Testing How do you do it efficiently? Use segmentation, and send different versions of email to see which one performs better. Once you have proven results make changes to optimize your campaign.
All that said, it’s function over form. Images can grab attention yet they always signal to the reader that it’s a marketing message rather than a personal 1:1 email. Experimenting with plaintext emails that feel like they’ve been written directly to the reader from a human can often times be as effective with driving engagement. So, definitely test and tweak!
Using heat maps and engagement analytics to see where subscribers are most engaged in the email. unspam.email tests where subscribers are looking and how they’re reading your emails.
Simplify your newsletter template: 1. same structure for every single issue a. number of sections b. number of links c. text length 2. drop the subject line – your newsletter name should be self-explanatory
Make sure your email newsletters aren't too extensive. People will usually read their emails on the go and on their mobile devices, so they want short and sweet content that gets to the point. Make it clear what value you are offering to them and state clearly what you want your email readers to do at the end of the email.