The average working person gets 121 emails in their inbox a day
Are you doing anything to make your brand email design stand out from the barrage of other messages your recipients get daily?
Email campaigns seem like a matter you can take lightly, but this is not the truth. You can use this guide to make sure you’re following best practices before you decide on your brand’s email design.
Every brand aims to engage readers, solidify branding, and convert. While you can certainly achieve this through other means, email marketing continues to prove that it is a potent way for companies to achieve said goals.
The pressure is building for brands to produce compelling emails, too.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, this communication channel best fits the needs of your audience. Studies have shown that consumers prefer brands to communicate with them through email. This is no time for you to slack on your branding.
Is it mobile-friendly?
Websites, images, even emails are transitioning to mobile optimization. It’s just the way things are now as experts predict mobile usage to expand to 5.5 billion users globally by the time 2022 rolls around.
People are more likely to check their inbox when on their phones, too. 70% of users check emails using a handheld device according to Google. Can you imagine that percentage growing once more people get their hands on a handheld device in 2022? Putting off mobile optimization may let you miss out on serious advantages.
Creating mobile-friendly emails starts by identifying the key players in mobile-friendly design. These factors include screen size, connectivity, device orientation, email client variations, and more. Just learning these factors gives you an advantage.
Now you know the things you should be mindful of, you can continue on keeping your content in check.
Often, brands fail to limit the number of characters used in the email. This causes a portion of the text to be lost due to spacing issues and character limits. This will lead to truncation and may hinder you from getting the results you want.
The next step is to keep usability in check. Emails look different on mobile, that’s why you should remember that you are working with very limited space. Make sure you enlarge buttons and position links accordingly.
Where is the CTA?
After crafting your message, there is the big “What Now?” for your readers.
They have read your persuasive message, but how else can you help guide them along the buyer’s journey? That’s where CTA or call to action buttons come in.
Now, let’s not get too controversial.
People always say to put the CTA or the call to action button above the fold regardless if its website or email design. Above the fold is the term for the first portion of the page you see without having to scroll. This portion is said to be advantageous for immediate visibility.
However, it is a common misconception in the community that people do not scroll and move past the first part of your page. But this isn’t true.
Above the fold is not a silver bullet that will guarantee clicks. Granted, the instant visibility from the above the fold has its advantages, but 66% of user engagement occurs below the fold. People actually spend more time below the fold. This is especially mobile users whose instinct is to scroll down.
At the end of the day, where you put your CTA will only work if you substantiate it with good content and the information your target customers need. Instead of spending all your time wondering about where to put the CTA, focus on providing content that will drive conversions as well. And remember, while you can always unsend your email, it’s still best to make sure your CTA is clear, concise, and effective before hitting “send.”
Is there a proper hierarchy?
The inverted pyramid is a news writing structure that puts the important content on the top. This saves readers time as it cuts non-essential content and practically serves readers the meat of the story. You shouldn’t stop there, though.
Make sure the important parts get highlighted accordingly with visual elements, too.
There are a couple of ways to do this besides writing and strategic placement of design elements. Image and font size signal readers to read a segment because it gives off a feeling of urgency.
Large images are called hero images. This is the biggest or the center of the entire design. Designers typically set high-impact images as the hero image to appeal to the readers and create an impression.
Remember to use heavy fonts and capitalization sparingly as they are double-edged swords. They draw attention to themselves but sacrifice readability when executed poorly.
Colors work well to create an order. You can play around with warm and cool tones or even light and dark shades to make sections of your design stand out. Spending time to polish visual hierarchy will draw the eyes of your audience to the CTA button, too.
Email design templates that follow this result to an output that is easier to scan and read.
You can get a design today
Learning how to use design elements strategically may take a lot of time for non-designers. As an alternative to DIY, brands crowdsource their custom design template instead.
Email design is one of the projects from our graphic design services list. DesignCrowd’s professional community submits diverse design bids within hours of posting. Brands use the platform as a source of competitive and engaging marketing assets.
Will my audience recognize me?
Instilling your brand identity in the design is a great way for you to market your brand.
A professional brand email helps you become a recognizable and trustworthy company.
Everything is better with design. And besides, plain emails are boring. Going with an unremarkable asset is the exact opposite of what you want when trying to slide into the saturated inbox of the audience.
To give you an easier time when designing your email, remember to stick to your brand style guidelines. This includes using appropriate fonts, color schemes, and other visuals. These components will help strengthen your message further and create consistency.
It goes without saying, but your logo should be included in the design as it is also used as your email domain’s BIMI. After all, you are sending emails to grow brand awareness, right? Logos facilitate recognition among your audience because it is a representation of who you are as a brand. If you don’t have a logo yet, check out BrandCrowd’s logo maker to get the best design today.
More and more brands are branding their emails to make it embody their brand fully. Besides, you wouldn’t want to take branding lightly now that over 68% of Millennials claim that promo emails encourage them to purchase an item.
Is this the best version?
It’s no time to sleep on brand emails. Sure, it is one of the most affordable ways to market your goods or services, but that isn’t a reason for you to take this lightly.
A/B testing helps marketers optimize their emails to the fullest extent. This is a more quantitative way to finish off the design process. Picking a metric to study depends on your campaign objectives, but here are common metrics used by marketers:
- Bounce rate
- Engagement
- Clicks
Length, offers, CTA positioning, subject lines, illustrations, images, and style are just some of the things you can check to help drive the results you want. Paying attention to what works for you and your audience will increase your campaign’s performance.
Pro tip: Take it one metric at a time. Trying to observe and evaluate more than one feature may become overwhelming and confusing. Focusing on just one factor will help you get more control of the results.
Good email marketing design is important regardless of the situation. But now that the lockdown has urged people to favor this communication channel, stepping up your game is more important than ever.
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Written by DesignCrowd on Wednesday, April 29, 2020
DesignCrowd is an online marketplace providing logo, website, print and graphic design services by providing access to freelance graphic designers and design studios around the world.