The 6 Things You Need to Know About Email Design

1. Strong subject line

The very first thing that your readers will see is the email subject line. This is the point where you either keep or lose your audience. You have such a small window of time to grab their attention, so it’s important to craft something strong enough to pique their interest. A good way to generate interest in the content of your email is to provide some sort of value to the information within. A little teaser for what’s to come will establish that you have something to offer your audience.

2. Be concise

It’s hard enough to get your reader’s attention, so your emails shouldn’t be long enough that they lose interest in the middle of it. While the subject line needs to be strong enough to have them open the email, the actual body of the email should only take them a minute or two to read. Give them the information they need in a concise, easy to read format to show the user that you value their time and might even improve your subscriber retention.

3. Personalize every email

Personalization is a huge factor in marketing right now, and your email campaigns are no different. Add your subscriber’s name to give it a professional, tailored look. Small touches like this can further develop and foster this relationship with your customer, which can instil a sense of loyalty. If your audience feels like you know who they are and what they want, they are much more likely to continue to do business with you. 

4. Responsive design

Using responsive design is a great way to make your emails more readable and enhance the user experience. When you receive an email that hasn’t been optimized for various screens, it forces you to zoom out to see the content. No one wants to read an email like this, and you shouldn’t let that happen to your audience. A responsive email design will format your content to fit the screen that it’s being viewed on, whether they use a laptop, desktop, tablet or phone.

5. Call-to-action

A call-to-action is where you get to convert your email recipients. Whether you are enticing paying customers, taking readers to your website or asking them to follow you on social media, this is the endgame of your email campaigns. Your CTAs should have inherent value, giving your audience a reason to click through. You could even personalize your emails further by tailoring your CTAs towards specific recipients.

6. Unsubscribe button

As difficult as it may be, there are good reasons for providing an unsubscribe button. While your emails might be highly effective, customers will change over time. The "why" doesn't matter; they just don’t need your content anymore. Allowing them to opt-out will let them leave on good terms, putting your company in a good light. Simplifying their lives with the unsubscribe option is just good customer service, and if you don’t include one, you are only hurting yourself. While they may be leaving right now, they might come back in the future or refer to other customers.