Best Practices For Email Design

It is estimated that by 2022, the number of email users will rise to 4.3 billion globally. But guess what, many of the emails are ignored or even not opened. They are marked as spam, deleted, or entirely ignored. As the world is shifting to the digital world, it has become crucial for digital marketers to gauge the users to click on the desired link. Let’s look at some best practices for email design.

A well-designed email is essential to drive engagement and conversions. It results in higher ROI and fewer unsubscribers. To ensure your emails are unique and grab the attention of your prospects, we will, in this article, look into the best practices for email designs.

Optimize The Email Header 

The header is the first thing your subscribers look at when they open the email. It is crucial to make your header appealing and meaningful, or it will cost you a customer. You can make your header completely text-based or image-based content. It is preferable to merge both things to create a perfect balance.

Make sure your headline grabs attention and, at the same time, teases the reader about what’s coming ahead. Further, the image should be relevant to the message. You can also include important links in the form of buttons to encourage your reader to take action as early as possible.

Any descriptions below the headline should only summarize the gist of your offering. It helps add clarity to your content and convinces the reader to continue reading.

You Can Use The Following Elements In Your Email Header

• Brand name and logo.
• Menu or navigation bar.
• A good headline that summarizes your main offer/services/
• A CTA leading to your website.
• Incentives to keep scrolling down like a completion bar representing the ratio to email read, creative hooks provided at the end, etc.

Use The Right Email Layout

Present your email content in a well-structured layout that is legible and easy to skim. Having the right email layout helps guide readers and move them towards the call to action. The arrangement of images, information, and other elements in an email is referred to as an email layout. Its purpose is to lead the reader through the email.

You Can Try Out Different Email Layouts

1. Single column layout.
2. The inverted pyramid.
3. The zig-zag.
4. Multiple column layouts.

The choice of layout will depend on the content of the email. For instance, a single-column layout would be best for an email newsletter as readers tend to engage and read such emails. But, you can try different layouts in promotional emails to make your offer engaging and stand out in the user’s inbox.

Avoid Using All Image Emails

An all-image email might not render in some email clients making your emails inaccessible to the reader. We recommend maintaining the 60:40 image-to-text ratio as a best practice. It will make an email look visually engaging, and you can present your offer using compelling email copy.

Maintain Adequate White Space

Add adequate white space around different email elements – images, heading, paragraphs, and CTA buttons. White space helps make an email look less intimidating, inviting readers to engage with it. It also reduces eye fatigue, enhances readability, and creates a better user experience.

Use The Right Color Contrast

You don’t want to send a yellow text on white background. Color is a powerful tool to evoke emotions about your brand. Hence be mindful of the color scheme of your brand and the images used in the email. 

Also, one thing to keep in mind while color control selection is that most people have started using the ‘dark mode on their devices. Hence, you should optimize your color selection for both backgrounds. 

Adding A Touch Of Personalization

Make email personalized by using subscribers’ names, geography, or behavioral data and make your email more personal and humanized. One way to personalize is using dynamic content – content that changes based on who is receiving the email. 

For instance, an email will show different weather stats based on the reader’s geographical location. Such content also is demanded by the subscribers, and 52% of readers will choose a different brand if your email lacks personalization.

You can do this by using dynamic content, which refers to personalizing the entire content of your email catering to each reader, thus making the campaign more meaningful for them.

Add Interactivity Using AMP Widgets

Using interactive AMP emails will set off you from the usual email campaigns. Interactivity within the inbox of your user makes your campaign unique. It has app-like features well within the user’s inbox. These features allow them to interact with the content by selecting, tapping, and swiping. You can use email content ranging from questionnaires and surveys to rating charts.

This futuristic AMP technology has been gaining popularity in recent times. AMP emails with interactive elements have boosted the engagement and conversion rates at another level. 

Interestingly, 91℅ of the subscribers expect a certain level of interactivity in the emails, but only 23℅ email marketers contemplate including interactivity. So as you can see, interactivity is what makes all the difference. It is, however, important to choose the best email marketing services so that you can properly utilize the benefits attached to them.

Make The CTA Button Clear And Bigger

Make your email CTAs highly visible so that the subscribers know what actions they need to take. You can do so by using a contrasting color and providing plenty of whitespace around your click button so that your recipients can’t help but click on it. 

Apart from CTAs design and placement, it is also pertinent to look into what you write in your CTAs. Avoid using generic CTA copy like “Buy now” or “Order today.” Instead, use a more descriptive approach by writing something like “Try this sweater” or “Preorder this game.”

Design An Eye-Catching Email Footer

People tend to underestimate the power of email footers. But 82% of email marketers use the email footer to promote a brand. Receivers always look at the email footer to find out and contact your brand. The footer must contain important information like your contact details and links to other social media platforms. 

Color contrasting, bold fonts, eye-catchy images, and intriguing texts can attract the receiver interested in the email. You can also add affiliate images in your footer. The footer also should contain an unsubscribe button. But you can add interesting texts to make the user reconsider unsubscribing even if they are planning to. You can add a little humor in the footer to be remembered, as the footer will be the last thing users look at in the email. 

Conclusion

Email design trends will come, peak, and go with all digital marketing trends. However, what’s important is that you always focus on the needs of your reader, which will never go away, and keep your efforts centered on the same. Follow recent developments, practices, and trends and regularly update yourself to reflect the current environment. We hope these best practices for email design can help you.

About the Author

Aquibur Rahman is the CEO of Mailmodo, an email marketing solution that enables users to send app-like interactive emails. He has marketing experience in inbound and outbound strategies, SEO, growth, CRO, and marketing automation. He has helped many B2C and B2B brands, including early-stage tech startups to fast-track growth using agile and data-driven marketing processes. When Google released AMP emails, Aquib saw great potential in it for reinventing email marketing. This led him to start Mailmodo to help businesses get better ROI from email marketing.