6 Email Design Tips to Boost Your Campaigns
Often times, when it comes to email, companies and brands only have one chance to make a long-lasting impression. While there are multiple ways to go about achieving this ultimate goal, from learning how to craft the perfect subject lines or mastering the art of the email copy, today we are going to focus our attention on 6 efficient design tips that are proven to improve email marketing campaigns.
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We will not only be looking at tips and tricks for leveraging the design of emails to drive results, but we will also be analyzing some best practices and examples for each particular point. Let’s get started!
1. Use the brand typography
Going with a tried and tested template might sound like a simple and efficient solution when starting out in the email marketing field. But if what you are trying to do is build relationships with subscribers, templates will not do the trick. If possible, try to integrate the fonts and colors from your brand manual into your email communication. Of course, depending on typography, that will not always be the case. Our partners from GetResponse, one of our native integrations here at DataValidation, offers a great guide on how to pick the perfect typography for your email.
Here are some examples of email campaigns that are using typography to their advantage:
Adobe Creative Cloud
Lyft
2. Embrace responsive design
In this day and age, you will want to reach subscribers on the devices that use most frequently. For both B2B and B2C brands, that trend seems to favor mobile devices more than often. So one thing that will improve overall engagement will be to start using responsive HTML templates for your emails. It might sound complicated, but in essence, the concept is very simple. Responsive emails are emails that will adapt to any resolution the viewer’s screen has. Litmus Blog has a great explainer article on this topic that you might find interesting and insightful.
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Of course, when creating a responsive email, you shouldn’t ignore any of the other design tips and tricks from this article. Here is a suggestive example of a great responsive email design:
Great Simple Studio
3. Design with dark mode in mind
Over the last couple of years, we have seen a trend towards dark modes on different devices, from iOS and Android phones to Windows-powered laptops, notebooks, and PCs. That means that even some email clients have changed the way they deal with emails, by replacing the background with something black or darker. If you do not consider that when designing your email campaigns, some of your subscribers might be unable to properly engage with your content. Litmus offers a hands-on guide to how dark modes impact emails, as well as a how-to section on designing emails with dark mode in mind.
While you might find it a bit overwhelming, be sure that subscribers will appreciate the extra effort. They will also appreciate you thinking about each use case before sending out a newsletter or email communication.
Here is an example on how to design an email for both dark mode and regular email design:
Litmus
4. Go old school with 2D images
When it comes to design, it seems like everything is cyclical. That’s why we are seeing 2D images making a comeback. From simple illustrations to complex gifs, 2D images are taking over the world of email and we will only be seeing them more often in the near future. As you might have noticed, our own headers and email images are 2D, a style that we have adopted last year, precisely because we have seen the trend taking shape. What you need to keep in mind when designing 2D images for your email campaigns is to use the colors from your brand manual and to keep things consistent, with the same style over multiple emails.
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Here are some other examples of inspiring 2D images emails:
Headspace
YouNeedABudget
5. But there’s always the choice of 3D images
We don’t want to sound like we cannot make up our minds, because that’s not the case. But creating great images for your email campaigns is not something that should fit only one description. Quite the contrary. If your brand is using 3D images in communicating with clients and prospects, then it would only make sense to use the same style in email messages, right? But if you are going to stick to 3D images, remember that simple images are always better than overwhelming ones. And try to keep things relevant and appropriate to your business. We know that 3D images can be impressive and stand out, but that’s no reason to overdo anything.
Here is a classy example of inserting a 3D image in an email that is guaranteed to make a long-lasting impression:
Designmodo
6. Try to use animations
Ok, ok, we know. Gifs and animations have been a trend for some time now. While that is true, we have barely noticed brands finding the courage to try them out. Some companies might think that email animations are solely reserved for B2C communication. That depends entirely on execution. SaaS companies can use gifs in emails to showcase how the product works, B2B brands can use animations to highlight collaboration, innovation, or dynamic partnerships. The only limit is set by the imagination of the designer working on those images.
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Here are some excellent examples of animations used in email campaigns:
Adobe
Carhartt
Netflix
