ContentsEmail design – Why it matters a lot more than you think1. It’s a mobile (and responsive) world!2. The first impact3. Subject: less is more4. Make the unsubscribe button easy to see5. Brand communication Email design – Why it matters a lot more than you think A lot of marketers still ignore email design. […]
Contents
Email design – Why it matters a lot more than you think
A lot of marketers still ignore email design. As if the design is something to be bothered about on their websites and social media, only. After all, email is all about text, right?
Wrong. Design is so much more than pictures and graphic elements. It’s spatial structure. And, it makes a huge difference on the click-through rate (CTR) and email open rate.
1. It’s a mobile (and responsive) world!
Well, there’s no coming back. A huge portion of people reads accesses email through the smartphone. Chances are your email will be read on a small screen, not on the desktop. It’s fundamental you make your emails responsive and good-looking on mobile devices.
Bonus advice: given the characteristics of mobile usage, it’s important to remember most of the emails on mobile aren’t read during office hours. Keep it diverse and see what better suits your audience.
2. The first impact
Whether it’s mobile or desktop, web application or software, it’s the first impact that counts. 3/4 of your email can be well designed and attractive. It doesn’t matter unless the first quarter is. Email design plays a huge role here.
The email preview must be charming, informative and clear about what to expect once the reader opens it. Anything other than this will take a hit on your email opening rate.
3. Subject: less is more
When reporting as SPAM, almost 70% of email recipients do it based on the subject alone (via convinceandconvert).
Combine this with the growing mobile trend (with less of a screen to show a 10+word sentence). You get the picture, right? It is extremely important that you are concise and your intentions are clear, and non-spammy. On top of that, you should be interesting and stand out from the crowd.
How can you do it? Think of the email subject line as a post title. Numbers work greatly in it. Also, the classic “how”, “why” and “when” sentences. Another great strategy is to come up with a sense of urgency (by making use of campaigns that will expire, for example).
Whatever you do, please stay out of the temptation to WRITE IN CAPS LOCK! It’s not 1996 anymore and people hate to be shouted at.
Yes, you’re reading it right. We’re telling you to ease the process of unsubscribing your mailing list. To have a clear unsubscribe option that isn’t hard to find. Why?
Imagine a reader wants to stop receiving emails from you. He doesn’t have the time to read them, or he doesn’t think they’re worth it anymore. Now imagine he’s looking for an unsubscribe button in order to stop receiving the emails and you didn’t provide one.
Well, there’s a slight chance he won’t bother with it and just keep getting those emails and not even open them. But there’s a bigger, so much bigger, chance that he’ll hit the SPAM button. In that case, not only he will keep being uninterested in you, now he also alerted the servers that you might not be such a great sender after all.
Do you think it’s worth it?
5. Brand communication
The email design is key to communicate your brand. If the design of the email is aligned with your company’s design, the message will be more recognizable and trustable. Try to use the same colors, font, and design feeling altogether.
The #1 rule of branding is coherence and alignment. If your email design doesn’t help this cause, then you’re hurting your company’s strategy.