If you’ve followed along with our Email Marketing Series, you know that your customers are flooded with emails on the daily. 

The good news is that when they found you, whether it was on social media or your website, they liked you enough to opt-in to your newsletters. The bad news is that they do that a lot…

To stand out from the crowd, it is important to have brand consistency across all your channels, including your emails. While understanding the email marketing basics and writing your emails with personality are important, aesthetics are important too. 

That’s why we’re giving you three tips from our expert design team on how to design your email newsletters. 

 

1. Mind Your Manners

First and foremost, remember those email marketing manners! Make the process of unsubscribing easy to do in a single step. This shows your subscribers that your brand respects their boundaries. At the same time, make it easy for them to re-subscribe if they eventually become re-targeted and wish to engage again.

Additionally, don’t forget the pre-header text. This space allows users to see what they may gain from a brand’s email before even reading it. You can use pre-header text to reiterate the CTA and by extension, increase open rates rather than keeping the generic “Can’t view this email properly? View in web browser.” 

 

2. Use Consistent Brand Design

Next, use your brand assets in your email. From your brand font, color palette, and logo, be sure that your email templates instantly indicate who the email is coming from. 

One of the most common best practices in email design is to label your emails by putting your logo or business name at the top of the email. Here’s an example of our own email headers:

 

 

3. Make Your Emails Skimmable

Getting your subscribers to actually open your email is an achievement in and of itself, but getting them to read every word of it? Near impossible.

Use a visual hierarchy to show your readers what’s important so they can quickly scan through your email and still pull out your message. Make headings and exciting news pieces larger and more visually interesting than the body text.

In the same vein, size your CTAs by importance. Your entire email design should be informed by your goal or the CTA you want your readers to complete. The larger they are, the more important they will be to the reader. 

Make your links and buttons obvious by using a different color or style, and positioning them so they stand out from your main content. 

Your email design can also be much more simple than the graphic design you create. Formatting your text differently can also have a major impact. For example, use bulleted lists to break up text into sections that are easy to understand and more importantly, easier to scan quickly.

 

 

4. Optimize Images

Creating a well-designed email means you should pay extra attention to your images. Use images that complement your content. Whether that means taking the time to do a brand shoot instead of using stock imagery or seeking out alternatives to overly posed images from places like Shutterstock (no offense, @Shutterstock…). 

Our team likes to use free libraries like Pexels and Unsplash.

It’s also important to keep your email dimensions in mind. Ensure high-quality imagery by creating your images at least twice as larger in pixel dimensions as your banner size needs. This will allow for clean, crisp images on both desktop and mobile. 

Lastly, when it comes to images, have a plan B. Sometimes, images don’t load. Or, they break somewhere along the sending process. Things happen. 

But, you know what shows up when that happens? Alt text. Adding alt text not only saves face when your image doesn’t load, but it also makes your email more accessible to subscribers with screen readers. 

Long story short: don’t neglect your email images. 

 

Design Better Emails for Better Results

The truth is an aesthetically pleasing email keeps readers engaged. With better, user-driven email designs, you can create a stronger impression on your subscribers. 

Eye-catching images and graphics, thoughtful artistic elements, and easy-to-read design will convert more of your readers into paying customers and convince them to open your emails a lot more often. 

Without industry knowledge about new email marketing trends, design theory, and even how to analyze your email reporting, improving your email marketing campaigns can get tricky. When you work with our team of professionals at Champ, you can let us do all the hard work. Contact us today to get started on an email marketing project.

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