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The Importance of Design in Email

Make it pop, make it blitz, make it shine! Email design is more than just visuals—it’s the driving force behind engagement, conversions, and the success of your campaigns. Without captivating creative that compels action, you’re leaving thousands of dollars on the table with every send. Use this email marketing design guide to change the outcome of every send. 

Design is so much more than making an email look good. It has depths and layers to it that change how email performs within an email. Design performance is measured through engagement, or the CTR. If you don’t have this in place, then your revenue doesn’t drive up, causing you to lose momentum with your business. 

Get to know design better and you’ll see that it:

* Creates the emotional connection with your audience
* Builds first layer personalization with your brand
* Draws someone to a point of purchase
* Inspires and motivates someone to be a part of your brand
* Embraces audience members for both nurturing and loyalty. 

If you really get to know design, you’ll learn it’s not all just the aesthetics on the outside. It’s also about the strategy behind the design. If it’s set up properly, it can do a lot of the heavy lifting in your marketing program. Eye-catching layouts to seamless user experiences allow your design to shape audience interaction and revenue. 

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Your Guide to The Perfect Email Design

Want to get your designs to the next stage? Follow these 10 tips to masterful design.

1. CTAs come first. The placement of your CTAs (calls to action) make a difference in results. Keep them above the header and in each section of your design, allowing the response you want from your audience to stand out. More important, make each CTA a color that pops and slightly (or abruptly) goes against the look and feel of your email so audiences know what to do.

2. First impressions are everything. Make sure your above the fold (first area that the audience sees) pops out and impresses the audience. The design you start with and the message you send should drive both engagement and revenue as the most important area of your design. This is the introduction to your brand, your story, and the actions you want to see from your audience.

3. Care about the structure. Every design has a different shape and it carries the perfect look to the perfect email. Structural elements include modules, layering, and overall layout of the email. When you begin to design, think cohesively across the entire email. Also think about the in-between areas and modules that drive from one section to another to create a complete experience.

4. Combine context with content. The concepts you have should combine with the design you are looking for. An engagement based email or a promo should have different layouts and designs to support the ultimate experience for the audience. For instance, if you are utilizing UGC, make it align with the UGC you have on other sites and then add flair. The more you intertwine brand messaging, audience interest, and other needs, the more your audience will know what to engage with.

5. Pop and blend. Coloration changes the engagement your audience has. Make sure you let your key areas for action pop out while other colors blend together for a seamless experience. Colors are not only essential to create a blend or stand out experience. They also work psychologically to nurture, drive to action, or excite the audience. Understand which works to create a masterful moment in the Inbox.

6. Length should be just right. Too long of an email clips in Inbox providers and too short won’t let your email stand out against others. Each section in your email should be 600px with no more than 3 - 4 sections in an email. If you are going for a heavier, action oriented email, make it even shorter with a drive to action.

7. Where does your audience look? Knowing key areas or moments in the email that engage your audience is just as important as the story. Let the coloration as well as different modules in your email stand out to draw every eye to the right space. For instance, the center and top, the second scroll, bottom of the email, etc are known to draw the eye to specific points. As you design, find ways to make the colors and look “read” so it tells someone where their focus should be.

8. Engage at every stage. To have a full lifecycle program, segmentation and design should work together. Engage your audience by their familiarity with your brand and intention to buy.  For instance, if your working with a new lead, they don’t have familiarity. That means coloration should nurture, the story should build familiarity, and the type of design should be designed to engage with an informational focus.

9. Balance your messaging. Even if you are sending a promo, a design that has several buy nows without enough of a story will backfire. Emails are about building communication and a relationship. Make sure you keep your audience connected to your brand for best results.

10. Tell the story. Stories are first in email. From the structural layout, module setups and coloration, it’s the story that will keep your audience engaged and connected. Design for the story and the best practices will all fall in place.
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Creativity, sprinkled with best practices is the key to winning the heart of your audience. Using an approach that combines brand identify with creative practices will allow your audience engagement level to commit to the next level of your brand.