In the age of the image, creating an email marketing campaign that doesn't look authentic could be a make-or-break decision for your brand. But let's take it from the top.
Visual content comprises of various visual formats, whether it's a video, an image, or a GIF.
The statistic above clearly shows that visual content is more digestible and more memorable at the same time.
All of the above means that visuals are a crucial factor in your email marketing campaign - and when we're talking about visuals, we cannot exclude the aesthetic of your email.
Why Email Marketing?
When discussing digital marketing, the competition is always fierce. Social media platforms are fantastic for brands but come with complex algorithms that often fail them. On the other hand, their ROI is not always easy to calculate. One can never be sure if the purchase came from a social media ad, the page itself, or a completely different trigger.
The Email Marketing ROI Benefit
This is where email marketing comes into play:
With $40 for every dollar spent, this versatile tool has become one of the go-to's for digital marketers worldwide. Email marketing is like a knock on the prospect's door - especially when its visual content is tailor-made and specific to each recipient.
This is why custom fields and hyper-personalization features are among the most sought-after tools in email marketing platforms like Mailchimp, Moosend, and other SendInBlue alternatives.
The Extensive User Platform Benefit
Another huge benefit of email marketing, unlike other digital marketing fields, is that everyone has an email. As a matter of fact, there are “nearly 4.26 billion email users worldwide”. (Source: 99Firms)
This means that your brand will target its ideal audience better with triggered emails that make sense to them instead of featured ads on social media.
All of the above point to the fact that email marketing is a substantial element of digital marketing. But poor email design, non-responsive email templates, and poorly personalized images work will not work.
Email Design: The Main Characteristics
When talking about email design, we instantly think about headers, footers, and flashing GIFs with offers customers will love. But it's more than that.
The Definition of Email Design
Email design refers to creating visuals that will lead users from point A to point B with actionable insights and a clear goal.
Good email design can help your email newsletters stand out from your competitors and help your message feel clearer. On the other hand, your email design could be a product of triggers that make your emails look and feel like a natural continuation of the users' actions.
Apart from bringing more sales and revenue, email design can do the following as well:
- Increase brand awareness
- Improve conversion
- Boost the brand's identity
- Strengthen the brand's message and the portrayal of its core values
But to achieve those, you'll need to start with the right kind of email design.
Types of Email Design
There are various types of email design that one brand could use. Let's see the main ones:
- Plain text emails
- Emails with interactive elements
- HTML emails
All those have different functions and can be used in various settings. Let's get more specific now.
Plain Text Emails
This is the oldest form of email marketing. Sure, plain text emails are no design behemoths, but they're tried and true. Typically, they look like this:
Text-only emails are trusted because they'll always reach their goal and the recipient's inbox. There are no elements to break and no interactive visual content, meaning they'll have better reach and deliverability.
Why Should You Use Plain Text Design?
Generally speaking, conveying a serious message through a plain-text email is easier, and various email clients trust this version enough to send it straight to the recipient's inbox.
Email clients will think this email is non-promotional.
Text-only emails give the look and feel of a personal conversation, creating the right environment for users to interact with your brand. After all, it's one thing to email Téa from Moosend - like the example above showcases - and another to email Moosend as a brand.
Plain text emails are great for saying something that's a little less "flashy" and a little more "serious", like an order confirmation or a transaction.
HTML Emails
HTML emails are the opposite of plain text, as they're the standard "interactive" emails. HTML emails include responsive email templates, attractive CTAs, headers and footers that make sense to your recipient and portray your branded colors and tone.
Unlike plain text emails, HTML emails can attract your audience's attention in an actionable and easy way. However, knowing how to properly design an HTML email design campaign can be challenging for small teams of marketers.
This is why many email marketing and marketing automation platforms carry responsive email templates that require zero knowledge of code and will eventually work beautifully for various email clients.
Emails With Interactive Elements
Interactive elements like GIFs, videos, cinemagraphs, or quizzes are fantastic for marketing actions that don't require a more conversational tone. Engaging content can benefit brand awareness campaigns, sales, or email newsletters.
The Interactive To-Do List
Check this one out, for example:
This is an interactive to-do checklist for Thanksgiving, with some links leading to holiday-specific brand products. This email is fun - the "Hoard leftovers" line had me cackling like crazy - and it promotes products without exactly promoting them.
The Video One
Another fantastic example is the following one:
Dollar Shave Club soared to fame when it created one of the most memorable landing pages with a video trailer that various brands still try to copy somehow.
As you can see here, the copy is toned down, but the video's fun element is still there. And with good reason:
Videos in email marketing are too beneficial for your email design. If you cannot embed a video in the email, you can use the thumbnail and a play button like Dollar Shave Club has done above.
The Interactive GIF One
Another interactive workaround is a GIF or a cinemagraph. Those two are similar but not the same.
GIFs are a collection of frames that change rapidly and give the impression of a mini-video. In my opinion, they're the next best thing.
An important thing to remember is to include the basics of your information in the first frame, as you don't want to miss out on revenue because your GIF didn't load correctly.
The Cinemagraph One
Cinemagraphs could be characterized as the little sibling of GIFs. A cinemagraph is an animation on an otherwise static image:
And it aims to give a unique look and feel that will have email openers hooked on your email design and visuals. Cinemagraphs give your emails a unique look of movement while being as discreet as a plain image.
As with videos, you can use GIFs and cinemagraphs for various purposes, in sales emails or simple product updates.
Gifs and Cinemagraphs: Their Purpose
GIFs and cinemagraphs can cut content down into bite-sized pieces. They can also point to a specific element in your email design, have the user pay close attention, and make your emails a little more interesting:
However, you need to keep in mind that:
- GIFs need to have all of the information on the first frame, and cinemagraphs could not display correctly due to connection issues
- You could end up sacrificing GIF and cinemagraph quality to maintain a normal file size
- It would be best if you were mindful of your specs
The Structure
After pinpointing your design, your structure comes next. A solid email structure is what could give you extra points when it comes to conversion.
Start off with understanding your target audience. Even if your intention isn't a direct purchase, conversion is a marathon and not a sprint. A single-column layout with branded elements will allow users to read your content on the go.
The Use of Headers
Use headers and create bite-sized pieces of your content so that your users will access just the right thing at the right time.
Single-column formats are easily scannable and mobile-friendly and can appeal to even the most underused customer segments, which you’ll see if you manage your data correctly and run A/B tests. After all, being responsive is more important than creating a beautiful desktop image.
Expert Copy
Writers create copy with a specific goal in mind, making it differ from action to action.
This, for example, is an onboarding email. Its copy will be vastly different from a Black Friday Offer email:
However, there is a striking similarity here, as the copy is short, sweet, and above all, actionable. The aim is to move your audience gently from one stage of the funnel to the next, ending up in conversion.
Optimize Your CTA Button
Of course, conversion comes through value. So, immediately include a strong value proposition and use words that organically lead to your CTA button.
Create copy that will point straight to what you need your audience to do. For example, if you aim to get your blog noticed, use a verb like "Read on", or ask a question in your body copy and answer like a customer in your CTA button.
The above example showcases another email design element that can boost your visual aspect: It leads the eye to the CTA button.
The Email Design Trends to Look Out For
As we discussed above, GIFs and videos are the two core design trends that come to mind when discussing email design trends. However, simply adding videos and GIFs won't work. Let me show you why:
As you can see here, your tone of voice and branded content can help users associate your brand with a specific aesthetic. It boosts engagement and trust and makes your brand memorable.
For GIFs
Make sure to create branded GIFs that point to a specific action through color in email design:
You cannot go wrong with red for Christmas, and you can attract a lot of traditional buyers with pink. Try to design your GIFs with the right color combination in mind.
Also, the design of your GIF should be reminiscent of the emotions you need to elicit and the content marketing strategy you have:
A calm coffee shop for a brand that wants its store to be associated with minimalism, clarity, and drinking coffee as an act of self-care cannot go wrong with green. Starbucks’ online store portrays the same:
This leads us to the physical Starbucks locations:
This GIF is created with one simple thing in mind: The brand and how it wants its users to think of it.
For Videos
This is a little complex. So, let's circle back to our Dollar Shave Club video:
All of the branded colors are here, with the browns and earthy tones and the fun and cheeky aspect of the brand; one could even say that this video is a type of tutorial on how a single-blade razor should be used.
Make sure that your videos are engaging enough to attract users despite your email design and content rather than because of it. Your in-email marketing videos should follow your overall video marketing objectives.
Hyper-Personalization
Despite personalization being a given in 2022, hyper-personalization still seems perplexing to more than most marketers:
Email personalization may not be a design trend per se, but it needs to be the standard for every email marketer out there. Personalize everything, ideally beyond a first name.
Use automation triggers and send tailor-made content just at the right time. You see, users expect an email that will feel like a natural continuation of their previous actions.
Super-Pro Personalization Tricks
You can never go wrong with custom fields and dynamic content. Use your data and create micro-segments. That way, users will receive the content they're meant to see, and you'll save time and effort.
After all, creating two campaigns with different content for the same objective is time-consuming. So, if you're selling globally, create one campaign, use custom fields, and show the right product to the right audience.
The Data You Can Use
You can use demographic and psychographic data for that one. So, take various parameters into account. Their location is just as important as their special interests, after all.
Micro-segments and hyper-personalization, paired with dynamic content, will allow you to simultaneously show skiing attire to your European customers in December and swimsuits to your Australian customers. Couple that with targeting your audience's more "outdoorsy" segment, and your revenue will skyrocket.
Final Tips
Reaching the end of this post, I couldn't leave without some final tips that will make sense for your email design.
Always Be On Brand
Email design that resembles your brand and your mission statement creates a unanimous image. It also allows users to understand who you are, no matter where they stumble upon your brand.
Of course, your brand's tone needs to be adjusted to each platform and its audience. It's absolutely possible to create an email and a LinkedIn message to target two different segments, but make sure you appeal to each one in a way that showcases both your brand and is natural to the platform you're using.
Always Be Responsive
My second tip would be to ensure your email design is responsive enough. It's always advisable to use email templates that will show correctly on a mobile device. And always remember that elements that work properly boost trust.
Always Be Inclusive
And last but not least, your alt-text is something you should never forget. Accessibility is a huge asset for all brands. Not to mention that everyone should have equal access to your emails.
Alt texts help not only showcase what the element was about in the event of broken design or interrupted internet connection. They mainly help users with visual problems and screenreader users understand and interact with your brand.
The Takeaway
Email design is one of the most critical elements of your visual identity and marketing plan. It allows users to understand what your brand stands for and what their actions should be down the line.
On the other hand, it helps brands nurture and educate while boosting their revenue and all the email marketing metrics that matter.
