10 Email Design and Content Best Practices
Use Photos & Imagery
Add context and interest through photography or illustration. Use imagery to appeal to the subscriber’s emotions and communicate functionality. Including visuals in your emails can break up the monotony of text, too. Note: Beware of stock photography that doesn’t align directly with the message and the subscriber.
Call To Action is Extremely Important
Distinguish your call to action through color, placement, and text treatment. Readers will quickly understand the purpose of your email. More importantly, this will make it easier to act on it.
White Space + Lists = Easy Reading
Consumers have a tendency to scan emails for important points that pertain specifically to them. Divide your email into bulleted text and short paragraphs for better readability.
Share Your Story!
Email can make for a compelling narrative. Think about how you’d like customers to understand your core values. What is your brand’s story? When drafting it, consider narratives that peek behind the scenes, address social activism, or reveal product origins.
Keep It Simple
Try to focus each email on one message. When you do have to include multiple viewpoints, think of ways to streamline the presentation. You may need to send an additional message. Bring teams together to collaborate, if necessary
Cut The Fat
After you write and design your email, reread the copy for readability. You’ll often find you can trim it down by up to half and not lose any impact. Customers move from one experience to the next at a rapid pace, so be sure they can see and understand your key message and call to action at a glance
Successful Subject Lines
Short and medium-length subject lines have higher open rates than long ones, which ultimately affects conversion rates (the percentage of people who take action on your email). Subject lines are often truncated depending on device or service provider, so limit them to 50 characters or fewer.
Preheader Perfection
The preheader is the text that follows the subject line in an email preview. It can be as important as the subject line itself. Make it a call to action or use it as a short summary of the email content. Just make sure it supports the subject line. Limit this preheader to about 100 characters.
Personalize
You’ve got the customer data. You know your audience well. Now you can personalize anything, from simply including first names to complex messages individualized for each subscriber. Personalization doesn’t have to be complicated, either way. Start simple with what you have today and build from there
Segment
Group subscribers into segments like product preference, position in the customer lifecycle, and lifetime value. You may establish segments for message types based on the intersection of your customer’s needs and your brand’s. Defining your segments in creative briefs and reporting will help your organization align around shared objectives.
Tips provided by SalesForce