Email Design Best Practices

If you’re starting a new email marketing program, or looking for an edge to take your email campaigns to the next level, consider these ideas for designing emails that get your compelling offer noticed.

Subject Lines:

Many readers determine if they are going to open an email based exclusively on the subject line.

•Keep it Short – 6 words or less (between 40-60 characters) is ideal. When your email arrives you
generally have about a second to catch the reader’s attention. After that they will delete the email or
ignore it.

•Specify a benefit that the subscriber can expect by reading your email.

•Inform and intrigue the reader. Provide actionable information that accurately represents the message’s major content.

Alt Tags:

Design your email templates with image-blocking in mind.

• Make sure email content makes sense without images.

• Well-written, relevant ALT tags help describe page content before images are loaded.

• Not every image needs an ALT tag. Too many ALT tags can create clutter. For secondary images not needing an ALT tag, you can use a period or ellipsis.

Use of Pre-headers for Mobile Apps:

A preheader is a small section that appears at the top of your email, above your message content.

• One of the first things in the pre-header should be a link to the mobile version.

• The mobile version doesn’t have to be a text version. Instead, create a highly stripped-down html version of your email content specifically for mobile users.

Placement of Content:

Eye tracking studies show the upper left quadrant of the preview pane is the first spot we look.

• Place your highest value content “above the fold”…you only have about 350 pixels X 350 pixels that will show in the preview pane.

• Place a summary of the email at the top—most recipients of your email will NOT scroll down even if they open your email.

Content is Scanned, Not Read:

Email content is reviewed in seconds, not minutes.

• First, the recipient will review the “From” line, then “Subject” line.

• If you’ve peaked their interest, you’ll have around 5-7 seconds in the preview pane to make your case.

• Use relative scaling and treatment of fonts to create a hierarchy of messages, and lead readers’ eyes where you want them to go.

Link Your Call-to-action More Than Once:

Make sure you have more than one way for subscribers to take desired action.

• People look for different things. Some look for text links—others look for buttons.
• Place your links apart from one another.

For information on how DMC Advertising can help you get up to speed on integrating Email Marketing into your communications mix, please click: www.dmcadvertising.com