When it comes to marketing campaigns and the like, one of the best ways to start is through email marketing. Yes, email still exists and continues to be a popular way to spread the word about your products and services to many of your new and loyal subscribers! There are many aspects to look into in terms of creating email marketing campaigns, with one of the more important ones being your design.
Content is king, but it’s the design that can entice people to read further. But how can you begin designing an email properly? From email templates to creating your own content and design, I show you the things to remember when designing your email.
Things to Remember When Designing Your Emails
A lot of us have created email blasts before, may it be welcoming new subscribers or announcing sales and news to existing ones. The content continues to remain similar and on brand, but if there’s one thing to start changing up, it’s your email’s design, from its layout down to the media you post with it.
Where can you start? Here are the top three factors to consider:
What’s Your Layout?
Similar with our website designs, your email layout is an important factor. This determines where readers should focus on, and since it should look into both content and aesthetics, finding the balance can be quite confusing at first.
With that being said, make sure that the layout follows these tips:
- The entire email should be 600px wide rather than for people to scroll from side-to-side, which lessens the chances of them reading it. Also, the layout should be no more than three columns.
- Make sure that you watch the borders, avoid using the tricky styles and shadows which take up more space for your email layout.
- Large typography is in, so if you’re unable to convey your message through images, beautifully designed typography is best.
- Your calls-to-action should be high, with your readers acting up on your email and knowing what to do immediately, even at the start of your email!
- The most enticing emails have a story to tell, so make sure that you already have the cohesive and compelling story for readers to love.
- It’s better to use HTML text or fonts, as web-embeddable fonts won’t be able to send to recipients’ inboxes. It’s best to stick with the basic fonts until that update changes.
- It’s best to NOT have any images, as it would be blocked unless viewers would want to see them. This means images won’t be seen unless your text is enough to persuade them to want to see them. If you choose to have images, have them backed up with their alt-tags so this is displayed. Also, have images on the left with the text on the right.
- Your call-to-action is crucial in all ways, so have the clear and large CTAs, repeating it inappropriate times throughout your email. Also, ensure that people know who’s sending the message!
The Media and Content
Content is really king when it comes to telling your story, as well as your images and media. When designing your emails, what you write and send is just as part of the design process, so follow these tips:
- No one wants to read 2,000 words of babbling in one email. So stay on the target and have the message focused. Don’t have more than three topics in one email, but to have one goal per email sent. Limit the message to one to three topics rather than cramming too much information. If you have more than there topics, you can send another email later on.
- Adding images is tough because you’re never assured if your readers would allow to see it. But if they do see it (thanks to a good topic!), make sure that you optimize it, but don’t downgrade it to the point you can’t see anything! Also, avoid using background images, which gets stripped out of the email and has you left with a bare, ugly wall. Solid backgrounds only, please!
- Your buttons should look like buttons so people are able to click on them, if interested. As for the copy sections, keep it short, less than three lines. Also, never forget the link to “View in Browser” to make it easy to read.
- If you do add photos, they should paint a picture and convey the message, which has them take action. Also, subscribers love images of other people!
Your Production and Skill
Once you’ve already created the email design and content, the next thing to do is to see how effective it is! Before sending it out to your subscribers, you have to make sure that the email works. With that being said, here are tips to follow:
- Make sure that you test it on both desktop and mobile phone, ensuring that they look great in both devices.
- People won’t only want to hear from you via email! So make sure that you encourage engagement from other social media accounts, linking your organization’s accounts for them to follow and subscribe to.
- I highly recommend banners, which show off what’s in store for you in the email and your marketing campaign. Your images and banners should be the gateway to your email and its content!
- Use the right monitoring tools to help measure the success of your emails, also looking into what doesn’t work and what you can improve on.
Wrapping It Up
If you’re planning to create an email marketing campaign for your brand or company, then it’s best to think of the design, too. With the proper strategies and creativity, more of your subscribers won’t unsubscribe and will want to read your email, even sharing it with their network.
I hope that this article on the things to remember when designing an email helped you out. So don’t wait any longer and look into any of these tips now.
If you have any questions or want to share your tips and experiences with email templates, tools, web design then comment below. Your thoughts are much appreciated!
Banner Illustration by Randompopsycle
