BEST PRACTICES FOR SUPERIOR EMAIL DESIGNS & RESULTS
75.4% of US email users said a poorly designed email negatively affected their perception of a brand. (Source: eMarketer)
79% of marketers consider “email content and design” to be critical to email effectiveness. (Source: Pardot)
When marketers are asked to list the most important digital marketing techniques today, email marketing is always in the top three and budgeted accordingly. Although email isn’t the newest marketing communication channel, 72% of US consumers say that email marketing is the number one way they’d prefer to receive permission-based business promotions. Consumers prefer email marketing because they trust brands to respect their preferences and because they are in control to manage preferences and unsubscribes.
But how should emails look and function? How should we communicate to people receiving them? And what is the future of email marketing?
HubSpot, a leading marketing automation and email platform provider, recommends the following tips for creating optimal email designs:
- Effective visuals – 65% prefer emails that contain mostly images vs. 35% who prefer mostly text
- Personalized emails – improve clickthrough rates by 14% and conversion rates by 10%
- HTML emails – 88% prefer to receive HTML emails vs. plain text emails
- Triggered email – messages get 119% higher clickthrough rates than ‘business as usual” messages, e.g. “Thanks for downloading our Cloud Enhancements White Paper”
- Call-to-action – buttons that are clear and prominently placed are imperative for driving desired behaviors, e.g. having recipients click through to a special landing page on your website
- Intuitive layouts – no one wants to struggle to figure out a message or what it is you want them to do next…because confusion is created over too many choices
- Clear communications that pop – use headings effectively and make sure your email copy is clean, clear and engaging
Yet let’s take a moment to dive even deeper. What happens when our emails are designed for newsletters, lead nurturing campaigns, webinars, and other types of targeted communications? Does the style and message strategy change for each of those? The answer is yes.
Newsletters historically have diminished interest over time so strategies for those are designed to incorporate more visuals and to engage the users more, tying emails to interactive materials on the website. For webinars, however, while more people are registering for webinars, they often open to view the recording after the event. This means webinar follow-up emails are more crucial and must understand how best to then communicate to this audience. And nurturing emails are always tricky. Many advocate using plain text emails entirely for nurturing programs, especially for ongoing sales communications. Content for each type of communication varies and the strategic approach selected for each is crucial.
These are many of the basics but what are the emerging email marketing trends that are disrupting the landscape? How should marketers adapt?
One clear trend is the increased use of smartphones in the U.S., with roughly 40-60% of consumers reading their email on smartphones. Marketers must understand these trends to make their emails responsive for that mobile device. Many marketers now advocate simpler email designs to work across multiple devices, e.g. desktop, smartphones, tablets, etc. Another trend is being driven through better data and personalization, leading towards better segmentation and more one-to-one marketing. Layer in trends for animated gifs, increased video and dynamic customization and you can quickly see why some attuned businesses are leapfrogging others in this arena.
Key takeaway: Good email designs can create positive impressions and interactions with recipients and lead to better overall results. However, bad email designs can have the opposite effect. Learn the basics and industry trends for superior designs, communications and performance. It’s an important communications channel that’s not going away anytime soon.
A free offer: simply email [email protected] if your team would like to sit down with ours for a free discussion of your email campaigns and to explore together ways for improving it. We’re experts in email design and content, built to maximize performance and positive impressions with your audience(s). We also help to establish cost-effective templates, which can be effectively used year-round.