5 Top Tips for getting cut-through with your Email Design

E-DMs and Email newsletters are a powerful way to communicate with your customers and keep them informed. However, with the deluge of email in inboxes, it’s important to bear some basic principles in mind when designing your email communications. These tips will help to maximise the visibility of your email communications and ensure that your customers receive your important messages.

1. Focus “above the fold”

Many people see their emails in their preview pane before they open them. They are more likely to open your email if you have compelling content sitting above the fold of the email, i.e. visible in the preview pane. A default setting of many email programmes is that images are blocked until you choose to download them, so it is important that you have copy above the fold that conveys all of your key points, not just images.

2. Write for the email medium

When writing your email copy, keep it as concise as possible, using bullet points and headings to break up blocks of text and linking out to web pages for more information. People read emails like they do web pages – by scanning – so you need to make it easy to pick out key words.

3. Balance images and copy

While images can make your email more attractive and appealing, over-using them can also send your email straight into your customer’s spam folder. When designing your email look and feel create a layout that can be constructed using at least 50% copy to balance out the use of any images you include.

In most cases you will have access to information about your customer, such as their name or who their Account Manager is. Why not use this? Personalisation creates a feeling that you know your customer and can increase your read rates and click-through rates substantially if used well.

4. Consider Outlook 2007 constraints

Microsoft Outlook 2007 is now the email software used by the majority of corporates. It cannot display background images, nor can it play animated gifs, so it is best to avoid a design that relies on these.

5. Don’t forget the footer

It is good practice to include a footer at the bottom of your email which uses a slightly different font or design to the body of your message so it is easily recognisable. This is the best place to include your opt-out link (required by law), your privacy policy and your contact details.

Need more help?

Talk to your Project Manager if you have any questions about a particular email design. We are happy to work with you during the design process to review and provide feedback.

We also run in-house workshops for our clients on best-practice email design. Please contact your Ubiquity account manager to enquire about these.