Email Format & Design

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There is an endless tussle between plain text emails and HTML emails. If you ask us, HTML wins hands down in email marketing.

HTML offers color, graphics, buttons, scope for branding and tracking capabilities. All these elements are indispensable in an email marketing campaign.

Sure, plain text is easy to create, will render well irrespective of the email client and looks personal. And since there is no design element, all you have to worry about is writing excellent copy that converts.

In HTML, there are plenty of design and format elements you need to take care of. Let’s get down and dirty with the details.

Keep It Simple
Keep your email design simple and clean with a header, content and a call to action button. Even a footer is optional. The simpler the design, the better the email will render across email clients.

Use plenty of white space, short sentences and short paragraphs so that the email is easy to scan.

Borrow From Your Website
Use the same branding colors and company logo in your email as you do on your website for quick and easy recognition and uniformity. But don’t overdesign. Your email should be way simpler than your website. An overdesigned email will most likely distract the reader from your message.

Put Your Most Important Things on Top
Put your most important content on top. Only the first few lines will be seen in the preview pane.

Companies typically put the company logo in the top left corner. The company logo will help with recognition.

A short, pithy headline in the banner which explains your offer can serve you well. The headline should be interesting enough for the recipient to open the mail.

With or Without Image
Using images is a double-edged sword.

When Using an Image:

• It is a visual treat.
• It is often blocked in many email clients.
• It does not render well on mobile phones.
• Declare height and width parameters for images. Email clients like Outlook needs this for images to render properly.
• A placeholder text will appear if images are blocked. Review the alt text to make sure it makes sense and is interesting. If the text is interesting enough, the reader may be tempted to enable images.  
• Make sure your email is complete even if the image is blocked.

When Using No Image:

• Even if there’s no image you can still use a header. You can also bold, underline and stylize your fonts.
• It renders better on different email clients and mobile phones.
• There’s lower risk of being sent to the spam folder.
• So are you are better off without an image? That’s for you to decide.

Choose an Appropriate Call to Action Button
Give your reader a place to go after he reads your message. Use a prominent and large call to action button to show him the way. Keep these points in mind when you design your button.

• Leave plenty of blank space around the button so it stands out and is not lost in the clutter.
• Keep the button as large as possible so it is not easily missed.
• Use colors such as red, orange, blue or green for your button so it draws attention.
• Choose the color based on what contrasts well against your background and overall design.
• Use minimum text and a large font size for the text in your button.
• Put effort to frame the text. The words matter. For instance, “Try it for free” is more alluring than “Free Trial”.
• Stick to a single call to action button. Too many buttons and you will slow down the conversion.

Technical Things to Keep in Mind

• Use tables in HTML.
• Use inline CSS.
• Encode special characters if any.
• Keep your width within 600 pixels. Several email clients like Gmail have limited width. 
• Use web safe fonts like Arial, Times New Roman or Helvetica.
• Avoid JavaScript. This is a sure-shot way to send your email to the spam folder.
• Have a plain-text version of your email since some people prefer that.
• Give your reader an option to view the email in a web browser.
• Message file size should not exceed 100 KB.

Try New Things
A new feature or embellishment can help draw people’s attention. But use new elements sparingly. People lose interest in new things fast and your response rates could suffer.

Try the following at different points in time:

• Animated company logo or accompanying image.
• Put your lead bait in a visual format like a screenshot of a customer video.
• Horizontal scrolling.
• Put a blue arrow pointing to your call to action button.
• Double column format.

Use a Free Template
Using a professionally designed template can free up a lot of your time. SEO Resources’s customers have access to free email templates. There are plenty of other sources as well.

There Is No Substitute for Testing
Things to check:

• Test in different email clients.
• Test in different smartphones and tablets as these devices are commonly used to read email.
• See how the email appears when images are blocked. Make sure the email makes sense.
• Check how special characters render.