A great email design is born from three basic principles; creativity, relevance and strategy.
Creativity is the most obvious of the three, but possibly the hardest to implement. Each email campaign needs to throw away the old palette and start with fresh, new paint and colors. It is a common mistake for email marketers to try and keep brand identity intact with the creative part of their campaigns. Unlike traditional marketing mediums you will be advertising to the same customers week after week. Failure to create new and interesting custom creative may damage your email marketing irreparably. Once customers have unsubscribed, it is nearly impossible to get them back on your email list.
Headers and footers should be used to carry brand identity through your emails. Much like magazine cover design began to do in the 80’s, you can use your header and footer to continue the theme of your custom email. Have your creative overlap the navigation and the header for a nice 3D effect.
Think outside of the box, literally and figuratively. Since email designs require tables to keep formatting and images in place, too often email designers get stuck literally thinking inside of the box. Designs become trapped within their own table constraints unnecessarily. Give your creative the feeling of being unrestrained by taking away borders and rules. Make it come to life by overlapping the constraints of the table and jumping out onto the background.
Relevance is, in my opinion, the most important of the three. It also should be the easiest, since most businesses already have a good idea of why their customers come to them. Most businesses solve a problem. An Internet Marketing company makes marketing affordable so that a corporation doesn’t need to hire a staff of professionals to achieve the same goals at a much higher cost.
Communicating exactly what your contacts are interested in is important. Make sure the content will be of value to your audience. If the message is the same, and the content is not relevant in each email, subscribers will be turned off. Get to the point and create some interest with your headline, you only have a second to make an impact and keep yourself out of the trash.
Strategy starts with identifying your objectives. Usually, the objectives of email campaigns will be to create awareness, generate leads, nurture leads, and/or foster customer loyalty. You should have a clear marketing strategy for your email campaigns or they may flounder. Keep your goals in mind when planning any type of marketing.
Make sure your emails educate, entertain, or inspire your audience. Don’t lose sight of the path to your goal, use strategy to coax customers towards it.
