The email marketing industry changes constantly. No doubt, it’s important to keep up with the latest trends and tactics so your messages look pretty on every screen. However, it can be hard to determine what’s an email design maybe, and what’s a must.
Here to help are our in-house experts. They’re veteran coders and designers who experiment and test the design process every day to create better, click-worthy emails for our clients. Check out what they have to say about designing your messages.
What is preheader text and why start using it?
The pre-header text, sometimes referred to as the super subject line, is the text visible after the subject line in most email client’s and device’s inboxes seen prior to a user opening your email. It’s pulled from the first text found in your email and depending on the device and the length of your subject line, it can be highly visible. Many marketers make the mistake of not including pre-header text. You will commonly see “View in Browser” messaging taking its place.
As inboxes continue to grow crowded, getting an open is even more valuable now than in the past. Utilize the pre-header text as additional space to expand on the message in your subject line and entice the user to open. The combination between a recognizable and trusted FROM name, a compelling subject line, and the added information from the pre-header text can impact the open rates of your campaigns.
What is a bullet-proof button and why should I use them in my emails?
A bullet-proof button is a Call-To-Action, (CTA), that renders even when images are suppressed. It’s typically a button designed and coded using only HTML and text, no images. Basically, you can’t kill it! With a large amount of recipients still suppressing images, you don’t want to run the risk of losing the main CTA in your email. A recent study by Litmus shows 43 percent of Gmail users still block images after Gmail stopped suppressing them by default.
There are several inline styles you can utilize to style your button, including border radius and drop-shadow to give the impression of being an image while functioning as HTML. Looking for an example? Look no further than our very own WhatCounts Weekly newsletter.
I have a mobile-friendly email design since about 75 percent of my subscribers open email on their phones. Anything else I can do to support these readers?
If the majority of your readers are opening your emails on a mobile device, mobile-friendly design isn’t going to cut it. Use media queries to make your template responsive, meaning no matter what device your message is viewed on, the layout, images and text change to look phenomenal on that device.
What’s the significance of using media queries?
Media queries are the backbone of responsive design. They enable your email to call different style declarations from your stylesheets based on the current window of width of the viewing device. Media queries allow for clients to move beyond the desktop to focus on mobile. Dive deeper by reading the groundbreaking article published by Ethan Marcotte about responsive design.
What’s better – keeping it more visual with less words and linking off to things to read, versus providing all the information in the email?
The real question to ask yourself is how do you measure the engagement of your subscribers: by opening an email or taking a call to action by a click on a link?
Providing all the information in the email doesn’t really measure the engagement of your subscriber base. Providing links to things to read can be tracked and measured to show not only how engaged your subscribers are, but what interests them the most.