Tips for great email template design

1. Size matters!

Sorry, can't help it... it does! Why? Well, because your design needs to look good in the preview pane. You know, that nasty and tiny screen in Outlook, where you see a small preview of your mail. A staggering 50% (yes, FIFTY percent) uses the preview pane. So you need to trigger your audience to read more (or come into action). Use a width of no more than 650 pixels and put your most important message in the upper left corner.

2. Consistency pays off

Ensure unity between the mailing and the landing page. I did not say that you should make an exact copy! Form follows function remember. So think about the inclusion of navigation bars and other fixed elements in your communication that are important to give your subscribers some direction.

Some examples:
• Matching colours in email and on the web;
• Make sure that links in your email are similar to those used on the website;
• Have pictures or other landmarks return.

3. Avoid confusion

Best is to open with something that has a link with the subject. Don't make me have to look for it. Because the subjectline made me open the email in the first place (or second place).

4. Call 2 action

What do you want me to do? I need guidance from you oh great marketer! Want me to click? Make it possible! The more links the better. You know what: make everything clickable. Who cares. Images, headers, prices... you name it.

5. Default fonts

Use default fonts only. When using exotic fonts, chances are they are not installed on the pc of the recipient. If that is the case: Outlook will replace everything with classics such as Times New Roman or other old time favorites.

6. Images

Do your templates mainly consist of images? Looks great when designing it, but spam-filters love them as well: love to block them that is. And Outlook loves to block images too. So if your most import parts of your email (navigation, call to action) are images: replace them with text, or lots of people won't see them.

PS
Use an alt text. That is a piece of text that is shown when an image is blocked (you see it too when you hover over an image with your mouse pointer).

7. Background colors

Do not assume background colors to be displayed correctly. Outlook blocks them and so does Hotmail (to name just a few). You can use them, but at your own risk, because most people won't see them. If you do, use a background color that makes reading easy! So if you are thinking yellow text on white background, think again!

8. Forms and other exotic pieces of code

HTML for email is going at least five years back in time (HTML wise). And yes, Microsoft is to blame (but we knew that already, they are always to blame ;-). Forms will not display correcly in most cases. You can make a screenshot of the form and use that one instead. Same goes for pulldowns, radio buttons and all other javascript, java and flash. And yes, that goes for video as well, despite what everyone says!

In a nutshell:

9. Text and HTML

Send your messages multi-part. A lot of phones will display the text version, and there are still companies that do not allow HTML email past their firewalls. Seriously!

10. Test, test, test

Did I say test already? Test everything, test landingpages, test forms, test your design, test colors, test content, test images, test the color of your links. Test everything. Improving your click through rate with one percent pays off! Especially with 100,000 recipients or more.