Are you a digital marketer looking to take your craft to the next level and upgrade your email know how? You’re in the right place. Kick back and strap in for some killer email marketing design insights that will transform the way that customers respond to your emails. And you don’t even need to be a graphic designer (although that would be a plus), there is plenty of email marketing software out there which provides customisable templates for you - so you don’t have any excuse!

Just in case you didn’t know, email marketing is one of the ultimate strategies you can utilise in terms of ROI. According to HubSpot, on average for every $1 that’s spent on email marketing you get a return of $42. If that didn’t persuade you, here are some more quickfire email marketing stats and facts that might change your mind:

• Across all industries, the average email open rate is 19.8%, the click-through rate is 11.3%, and the bounce rate is 9.4%. (Constant Contact, 2021)
• 99% of email users check their inbox every day, with some checking 20 times a day. Of those people, 58% of consumers check their email first thing in the morning. (OptinMonster, 2020)
• Active email accounts surpassed 5.6 billion in 2019. (Statista, 2019)
• The global e-mail marketing market was valued at $7.5 billion in 2020 and is projected to increase to $17.9 billion by 2027. (Statista, 2021)

We’re sure the copy in your emails is already amazing, but that isn’t always enough to make customers click through to a home or landing page. You need to make sure that your designs are on point so that they complement your carefully constructed copy. The two need to synergise to create a truly enjoyable (and readable) customer experience.

Typography

The message, product, service, or idea you are trying to communicate through your emails can fall easily out of the reader’s mind due to a poorly chosen type. Whether choosing Klaviyo integrated fonts, or a font from the Adobe Suite, make sure that your font is readable (especially on mobile view). A point size of 24pt should be the minimum for body text, and as far as titles and headings - have fun with it! Type can be used as a visual element of your email design and not just a wat to give information.

One of the most popular fonts used in design and advertising is Helvetica. Some designers love it, some hate it. While it is loved for its versatility and modern appearance, making it suitable for most designs, it’s come under criticism for the standardisation of designs. But we’ll let you make your own mind up about it.

Size optimisation

Exporting a crisp high-res email from Illustrator, Photoshop or Figma may look great on your screen, but how fast will it load into customers’ inboxes? It’s something that often slips under the radar for most designers, but if your design is as optimised as possible, the more likely you’ll get those vital click-throughs to the site. Keeping any images in an email under 1MB is an ideal size!

Images

Talking of images… relevant images are a great way to grab the readers’ attention and encourage them to read on. You could take this a step further and design some custom illustration that you know will pop with your audience. Customisation adds a personal touch and an element of authenticity which won’t go unnoticed by your readers. According to Campaign Monitor, 55% of B2C content creators say that creating visual content is now the main priority, and for good reason: Visuals work. Communications that include images produce 650% higher engagement than text-only posts. Why not try adding an image to your CTA? The right image could provoke the right emotional response needed to tip someone over the edge and make a purchase.

You shouldn’t limit yourself to static images though, why not try using GIFs too? GIFs add life to your email content, plus they’re easy to make AND there’s plenty of free tools and software out there to help you create your own.

GIFS:

• Cheaper than animation
• Easier and quicker for the mind to process than text
• Yield incredible results
• Cater to shorter attention spans

Light and Dark mode

A feature that has only been introduced to phones in the past few years, light and dark mode can drastically change how customers view an email. Especially when building an email in Klaviyo, make sure all assets (logos, CTAs) are clear and readable in both modes, because you never know what mode a customer will have their phone in.

Further to this, it’s even more important to make sure that the email is compatible with mobile, also known as having a responsive design (meaning it will adapt to mobile, desktop or laptop). According to Statista, the majority of global webpage traffic is via mobile - 52.2%. This is a clear indication of just how much people use their phones to surf the web, so naturally, you can expect them to be checking in on their email every now and again on it too.

Colour

Use colour to your advantage in your messaging. Using too much colour may be slightly distracting and detract from the message you are trying to convey in your email, not enough and you run the risk of your email looking boring and unappealing. Generally speaking, the fewer colours, the cleaner your email is going to look. Consider colours that your brand uses elsewhere for your emails. Or do you go down the route of using colours as signifiers to accompany your messaging? Think about what the colours mean and what responses they elicit.  

Layout

How long do you think people read marketing emails for? In 2021 it was around 10 seconds, according to Statista (which is quite bleak considering the time and effort that goes into constructing them). So, you’ve got 10 seconds to make an impression and get your message across - and also try and get them to stay and read more.

• Organise - People look for instant gratification - make sure that important content is prioritised from top to bottom.
• Make room - White space gives the content of your emails space to breathe, it makes your content easier to take in and more readable.
• Align your content - A central alignment can work really well for emails with minimal content. If you have more written content, a left alignment will make it more readable.
• Define sections - If your emails have multiple sections, make it easy to differentiate between one and the other. As mentioned earlier, you have 10 seconds to make an impression as users are likely to just skim through. Clear definition of your sections is needed, using headings and borders.

If you want to learn more about how we can help you with email marketing, you can book a call with one of our lovely team to walk you through it. Here’s a link to Joe, Dom, or Freddie's calendar to book!