As technology has evolved and social media has been the focus in internet marketing and advertising campaigns, it may seem that email marketing has been forgotten. It has not. Research done by McKinsey & Company found that emails are 40 times more effective at attracting new clients than Twitter and Facebook. It is expected that by the end of 2016, there will be a staggering 4.3 billion email accounts.
E-mail marketing only fails when it is not done correctly. An infographic published on the litmus.com blog captured the limitations of e-mail marketing when it is not done correctly;
- 47% of emails sent to mobile devices are designed for a desktop, making them hard to read. 80% of mobile device users simply hit delete.
- Research established that people look at their phones at least 150 times every day, so well done e-mail marketing is very effective.
The solution of responsive e-mail marketing
There is a solution to emails getting deleted and it is adapting responsive email. Responsive design is simply the use of various techniques to enable optimum viewing across different platforms or devices. Responsive design makes it possible to alter font size, layouts, scale images and change other design aspects to make it easy to view.
Using e-mail marketing templates
Using free, preloaded templates may save you time and money, but it will compromise your unique identity and ability to stand out among competitors. It is well worth it to invest in having professional design e-mail marketing templates for you that are captivating and unique, and which will make you stand out.
Tips for formatting e-mail marketing templates
Having quality content as well as good formatting will compel users to open your email and read it. With increased content consumption, there will also be an increase in click-throughs and forwards.
The following tips will help you come up with attractive e-mail marketing templates;
- Use newspaper layout rules so that readers can quickly scan through the content and read it. Rather than having blocks of text, keep paragraphs short and use lists with bullets and numbers.
- Avoid template edges. It looks very unpresentable and gives the impression of one who doesn’t know what they are doing. Content that runs into border lines is also difficult to read and is visually distracting.
- Don’t use color haphazardly, but intentionally and creatively. Choose a color palette to go with your brand and stick to it. Use it to create clear distinctions of specific parts such as the headlines and subheadlines. Acne Studio NYC Spring Sale campaign are two examples of good use of color in an email template.
- Add ALT (alternate) tags to images. These are bits of HTML that are attached to an image to describe it. Where an image is turned off, the ALT text is displayed instead.This is important for email blasts that use an image header.
- Add HTML titles to links and images or give each one an HTML title. This makes it easy for users to scan through email filters and bots which can keep your emails from landing in spam filters.
- Test a ‘right click to download’ directive before you include it. Test and see what the email looks like without images. Check if important content is left out and if subscribers would still be able to identify what they can see with your brand. Put information right at the top of the template HTML so that even if images are turned off, the template still displays properly and your brand can be identified.
- Know the right ratio of text to images. Have more text than images and you will reduce the chance of being relegated to spam filters. A ratio of 70:30 is ideal. Consider using gif animations and striking photography for your content.
- Be consistent with your design and format so that users are able to recognize it. Only periodic updates are necessary. Brand recognition is important to attain the goal of high open rates. See how Apple keeps it simple and constant. Burberry also got it right on.
- Different computers have fonts that are slightly different, so use standard fonts found on every computer.This would be Times, Arial, Courier, Verdana and Georgia. Use a minimum of 16pt., but you can go up to 18pt or 20pt.
- Your contact information should always be included. All of it, including your mailing address and contact information should be clearly visible on every email that goes out, including those aimed at selling. It also makes it easy for users to reach you.
In final thought… you don’t have to be an expert in designing to create beautiful email newsletter templates, it is practice that makes perfect. Achieving synergy between content formatting and design is what makes a great start towards that direction.
