Designing for Impact: Email Design Best Practices

Email design significantly influences audience engagement, brand perception, and campaign success. But what makes for an effective design that captivates subscribers?

Today, we'll cover how elements like color schemes, copy, layouts, and responsive design should align with your brand identity while optimizing for readability across devices. 

What Is Email Design?

Email design involves strategically creating and designing an email that resonates with your brand's target audience, particularly your current customers and subscribers. That said, it should be on-brand, visually pleasing, and attention-grabbing.

Let's dive into seven email design best practices that will benefit your campaign.

7 Email Design Best Practices

Ensure your design is on-brand.

Based on Reboot's report, using a signature color for your emails helps increase brand recognition by 80%. Make sure the fonts, logos, colors, images, and CTA buttons match your brand's visual identity. That means these elements should be consistent with your social media and website to let your subscribers develop more brand awareness.

Use personalized email content.

SmarterHQ's survey revealed that 72% of online consumers engage with personalized content that matches their needs or interests. One way to interact with subscribers is through dynamic content. Unlike static content that remains the same for all users, dynamic content adapts and changes based on various factors, including user behavior, preferences, and other real-time data like weather conditions or stock availability.

The more you learn about your customers, the more customized, targeted, and relevant your email campaigns can be.

Write a concise and clear copy.

In writing your email copy, keep it short for better readability. People should easily understand what you're trying to convey with the first sentence. Using one or two fonts when writing your email is also pivotal in keeping the copy readable and cohesive.

Choose an appropriate layout.

Avoid using poorly structured emails since it makes it difficult for subscribers to read and understand your copy. Hence, you should pick a layout that allows you to highlight which content you want to include in your email.

On the contrary, a single-column email can be easier to read and more responsive across different devices. If you use a complex layout, test it across different devices to prevent potential responsiveness issues.

Optimize your email designs.

Today, people use their phones to check their emails when not on their laptops, so you must design responsive emails regardless of the device. To make your email design responsive, keep the copy short and clear so people can read it while on the go.

You can also place the CTAs and links within thumb reach. If your email copy is long, you can repeat the primary CTA at the end to save your reader's scrolling time.

Use prominent CTA buttons.

Use white space and distinct colors around your CTA buttons so readers can easily see and click on them. Depending on your copy's length, you can use the CTA in the header and repeat it at the end of the email.

Incorporate optimal footers.

In designing your emails, you should consider these three footer elements: support, social media, and unsubscribe links. If readers can't easily find your unsubscribe links, they'll most likely send your email to their spam folders, so make the unsubscribe links visible.

You can also link your social media pages on the footer to give readers access to more of your exclusive content. Link the most frequently used platform by your organization.

Lastly, providing a support button is also pivotal because it shows your brand focuses on customer support, encouraging subscribers to reach out when they're having problems.

Takeaways

Email design is critical in engaging audiences, shaping brand perception, and driving conversions. A well-crafted design reflects your visual identity and enhances readability and user experience across various devices.

A stellar design can transform generic emails into impactful brand touchpoints by highlighting calls to action and integrating branding, personalization, and responsiveness. It is essential to balance timeless principles like clarity and brevity, stay current on design trends, and experiment with new strategies.

When combined with a subscriber-focused approach, thoughtful design becomes a powerful tool for effectively communicating messages and resonating with audiences on a deeper level, ultimately delivering meaningful results.

Sources:

HubSpot. (2022, August 11). A step-by-step guide to excellent email design.

Mailmodo. (2021, November 8). Email design best practices for 2022.

Reboot Online. (2020, February 18). What is the importance of colour for brand recognition?

Wunderkind. (2021, September 15). SmarterHQ and Wunderkind partner to empower DTC brands to acquire and retain customers over email.

GetResponse. (2021, June 17). 10 tips to improve your email deliverability.

Mailmodo. (2021, August 30). Top 12 reasons for email going to spam.

Mailmodo. (2021, September 13). The complete guide to email footers.