Design Tips and Best Practices for Marketing Emails

If you knew your brand could reach more than half of the world’s population for a fraction of the cost of traditional print advertising, you’d be crazy to not take advantage. That’s where email marketing comes in. Email marketing has the power to reach over 4 billion people worldwide, so paying close attention to how your brand communicates its message via email should be a top priority. 

Follow these top three do’s and don’ts for worry-free results. 

1. Keep it simple 

While it might be tempting to go overboard trying to capture the attention of your audience, overwhelming them with text and images is not the best way to do it. This is where your call-to-action (CTA) comes in. There should be only one CTA per email. If you are cluttering your emails with more than one call-to-action, your viewers may become confused, overwhelmed, and possibly annoyed. Research shows that a single CTA receives 371% more clicks than multiple calls to action.  

Simplicity extends to the frequency of emails sent. Keep it to a minimum, no more than one or two per week. However, you can always test the market to find the ideal number for your customer base. To do this, run an A/B test. Segment your list by creating groups according to a set of criteria such as demographics or customer behavior. Send one weekly email to one group, two per week to another, and analyze the results. 

2. Personalize

Marketers know the power of personalization and this should extend to your email recipients. The subject line, greeting, or body of the email should list the first name of your customer as well as a first name from the sender. Browsing history, anniversaries, and segmentation are a few ways to grab the attention of your audience using personalization. 

Not only will personalization build trust with your subscribers and recipients, it will make them feel human. Improving your return on investment is another bonus and reason to implement personalization techniques, which LinkedIn says can improve your open rates by 2.5%. 

3. Mobile Optimization 

Considering 85% of users are opening their emails from their smartphones, optimizing your emails for mobile is essential. Keep the subject line brief, as mobile devices are limited to displaying 25-30 characters. Include a pre-header text, which is the first line in the email, to give readers a glimpse into the subject matter of the email. Keep this information concise,  as not to lose your reader. 

Including alt text ensures accessibility, and again, concise copy will help maintain the attention of the reader. Using bullet points or short paragraphs will help to captivate your audience and maintain your call to action.   

Testing your emails is perhaps the best way to gauge for mobile optimization. There are various options such as sending an email to your personal account, or sending test emails to multiple accounts to see how the email is displayed in various inboxes. Check out additional test tips here. 

Including the previous techniques in your email marketing designs are just as important as excluding the following: 

1. Don’t be tempted to use clickbait 

Besides being tacky and potentially eroding trust, including click-bait in your email marketing can send your message straight into the spam folder. This can lead to tarnishing your brand’s reputation. So, it’s best to avoid using sensational emails and craft an authentic message  instead. 

2. Don’t use image-only emails

There are several issues that arise when including images in your emails. Using image-heavy design can filter your emails out into the spam folder, since spam senders veer towards image-only emails. 

While including images is beneficial from a design perspective, be sure to keep your file size small, preferably less than 200KB, and test before sending. This will help reduce load time and keep your customers reading. 

3. Don’t forget your branding 

It is essential to keep your branding consistent across platforms, and email is no exception. While it may be tempting to try that shiny new email template, it’s better to shy away and stick to your brand’s design. 

Not only will your customers appreciate the familiar look, they will also be more inclined to read, rather than trash, your communication. 

Keep these tips in mind when designing your next email campaign and the results are sure to satisfy your customers.