7 Email Design Tips and Best Practices That GET Results!

Email design is a vital part of your email marketing strategy that can either help you increase conversions or hinder them. The correct email marketing campaign will impact your customer's perception of your company, so it's important to know what strategies work best for your business to reap the benefits. Here are seven email design tips to consider when designing emails for better engagement and higher conversions.

How Critical Are Best Practices in Email Design for Email Marketing?

Many would argue that having guidelines to follow is not necessary when designing emails, but the truth is these guidelines can improve response rates and conversions if you know what to focus on.

An email design for email marketers is one of the critical factors of a successful email marketing campaign. In addition, it's a very cost-effective strategy to build brand awareness and to get your email subscribers to engage with your brand.

A poorly designed email message can lead to low open rates and high unsubscribes. In contrast, a well-designed email will have the opposite effect on your customers' perception of your company. Here are some tips for designing emails that get results:

1. Analyze the Structure of a Successful Email

Here's an excellent example of an email that follows best practices.

1. Headline/Subject - a well-written headline/subject line that is concise and relevant to the email message, which can help build trust with the readership.
2. Email copy - email copy is an essential part of your email. Excellent email copy will keep your audience engaged and get them to take action. If you’re looking for an easy way to create persuasive copy, I suggest checking out Jasper.ai. It’s an artificial intelligence copywriting tool that makes writing emails and other content fast and easy.
3. CTA - with a call to action (CTA), you're giving customers a specific action to take, such as Buy Now or Schedule a Call.
4. Scarcity - adding scarcity to your email can make your audience take action because the offer is only available for a limited time.
5. Photo - email campaigns with images and graphics make them more appealing to subscribers, but be sure to include high-quality photos that promote trustworthiness and transparency.
6. Button CTA - call to action buttons should be clear and visible, and you should use a contrasting color that pops out from the rest of your email.
7. Social buttons - encourage your email subscribers to join you on social media platforms. This is a great way to get them engaged with your brand in other ways.
8. Unsubscribe link - all marketing emails should have an unsubscribe link that makes it easy for your subscriber to opt-out.
   Remember, designing your emails with these best practices will help your business get the most out of email marketing.

Your subject line can make a big difference in the success of your email campaigns. You should constantly be testing different email subject lines to increase your open rates. As mentioned above, Jasper.ai is an excellent tool to assist with this… It can create many different subject line variations within seconds.

2. Make Email Design Responsive for Mobile Devices

Since most people view emails on their mobile devices, you need to make your emails mobile responsive.

Designing emails that are not optimized for a mobile device can hurt open rates and reduce conversions because people may have trouble navigating the email on their phones. Here's how designing an email correctly will create better engagement:

• Easier to read - designing an email for mobile devices will make the email easier to read and will increase your engagement rates.
• Click-through rate - designing responsive and optimized emails for a mobile device will also increase click-through rates, which is beneficial to your business since it means more people might be willing to engage with your brand on their phones.
• Conversion rate - designing emails with a better user experience for mobile subscribers will lead to higher CTRs and conversions. People are more likely to click on links when they can easily view them.

Invest in email marketing software that has an easy-to-use email builder for designing effective emails. For example, an email design software like Pulse Technology has an email builder that allows you to create highly effective mobile-responsive emails that are easy to navigate on any device.

3. Use Clear and Concise Email Subject Lines That Spark Curiosity

Subject lines are the first thing someone sees when opening their email, so designing emails with subject lines that spark curiosity can help increase open rates because people are more likely to click on the email.

A subject line that is too long or too short can also hurt open rates, so designing emails with subject lines that are just right is crucial. For example:

• Too long - designing emails with subject lines that are too long may come across as spammy and unprofessional.
• Too short - designing emails without a clear or concise subject line will make it more difficult for subscribers to know what the email is about, so they might skip over it instead of opening it.

Our research shows that subject lines around 50 characters usually perform best. However, you should test and measure this to see what works best for your brand.

4. Write an Engaging, Personalized Message in the Body of the Email

A personalized message can lead subscribers to engage more because they are reminded of the unique connection you have built up between each other over time. Never send an only-image email; otherwise, it will trigger the spam filters.

When designing emails, try including elements such as:

• Specific details - when creating emails, include particular information about what customers will get or where they need to go for them to take advantage of discounts or deals (for example, 50% off all dresses at store X!)
• Emotional language - using expressive language such as you deserve it may make people feel like there's no harm in clicking on this link and seeing what the email has in store for them.

Emails with engaging copy within the body of the message and using your company's voice and tone is an easy way to increase CTRs.

5. Use a CTA to Encourage Readers to Take Action

A CTA (call-to-action) can help drive conversions because it's a request for your subscribers to do something: click a link or button, reply to the email, or schedule a meeting with you.

The most common action that CTAs ask users to take is clicking on links within emails, which means designing emails around such an element may increase CTRs and conversions. It’s usually best to have the same CTA multiple times through your email copy, as described in more detail below.

You can add more than just hyperlinks - you can also use buttons that pop and have a clear CTA.

Using clear language like get your coupon will encourage readers to take immediate action while optimizing your emails for email subject lines will ensure you're getting the best of both worlds: high open rates and conversions.

6. Maintain a Consistent Brand Image

Maintaining a consistent brand image across all of your emails can help increase conversions because it allows people to recognize your company as the one they want to be receiving emails and newsletters from.

When designing emails, try including elements such as:

• A logo - having an easily recognizable visual logo will remind readers what company they're engaging with, but designing this in an easily visible way on mobile devices is crucial. I suggest using your logo in your email signature for emails coming from a person, and you can use your logo in the top header for company newsletters sent from your brand (company email).
• Color schemes - using color schemes that match your brand's overall identity will help users quickly recognize and connect to emails.
• Fonts - designing emails around a specific font (or fonts) might seem like an unnecessary detail, but it can make your email more memorable and aesthetically pleasing. Use web fonts to make designing your message more accessible and more efficient.

7. Use One CTA Multiple Times in Your Email

Have you ever noticed how many times a company will repeat the same CTA in their email? This is because repeating a CTA numerous times drives higher click-through rates.

Of course, you can mix up the wording of the CTA, but the link will take your email subscribers to the same place. This reduces confusion and will have a significant impact on your conversions.

Suppose you’re currently using different CTAs in the same email; I suggest testing this strategy out and only using one CTA per email but repeating that CTA multiple times and seeing how this will impact your conversion rates.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the key to an effective email design is understanding how people read and interact with emails. When you use these seven email design tips in your email marketing strategy, you'll notice a significant improvement in both open rates and sales conversions over time. Contact us today to learn how Pulse can serve as your tool for designing awesome emails that get results!