Email Marketing Design

Email Marketing is used to send a single message to several people sometimes thousands of people. It is permission-based and your readers must choose to receive your newsletter and they should understand why they are receiving it. Most email service providers like Gmail or Yahoo! Limit the amount of emails you can send at one time. This means a third party email service provider will sometimes be necessary.

Email Marketing Plan

This is the first and a very important part of getting the most out of an email marketing plan. Before any of the designing, writing and campaigns can be initiated you need to know who your audience is. This will determine the content of the emails you send. Keep in mind why your audience signed up for your email. Create a list of items to include and provide a reward for those who are receiving the emails.

Creating and Gathering Content

Remember to treat your readers like they are important and receiving exclusive information and privilege. Your email should also resonate with your companies brand and have a tone that matches. Make sure to keep it short and sweet and make sure to compare with examples that already exist. You should also have a plan and schedule for sending emails.

Designing Your Email

The advantage of sending an HTML email is the fact that if a users email settings break your design they will still be able to read the plain text version. Whether you choose to design using html or the traditional way there are a few rules of thumb to follow.

• You will need to catch your readers’ attention within a small margin of space. Make sure to position all of the important content, call-to-action and key information where it can be seen first.
• Make sure links look like links. They should be differentiated in a way that alerts users to the fact that they are looking at a link.
• Minimizing the use of images will work in your favor with emails.
• In addition minimize copy and text. You can easily overwhelm your readers with too much text.
• Having an easily accessible way for readers to unsubscribe will be useful in the long run. It will also reduce the number of complaints about your company.
• Personalize subject lines and email content. It will increase the number of clicks.
• Reduce the use of spam words if possible. Otherwise it might get flagged and blocked.
• Make sure to test your email against a number of different email accounts.