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Got Email Design on Your Mind?

See Quick Tips for Eye-Catching, Trust-Building Communications

By Teresia Sjödin
Global Communication Designer, L-Soft

Email continues to be the world's most widely used and effective marketing channel. Why? One big reason is that if you're doing email marketing right, you're communicating only with people who have signed up for your messages and actually want to hear from you.

Start by building trust through confirmed (aka "double") opt-in with a simple one-click unsubscribe mechanism. This sets the tone for positive long-term, engaging relationships and offers possibilities to grow and improve your products, services and content by getting your audience's thoughts.

Before designing your email messages, be sure you're clear about:

Who, What, How and Why?

Who are your email message recipients?
What is the focus of your message content?
How will this message content help your recipients?
Why should your recipients click through to your content?

Once you've answered those questions, let's get designing with eight quick email design tips for a strong start.

1. Boost Brand Recognition

Tailor your messages by using your logo, fonts and colors so people can quickly identify you as the sender. Check your organization's brand guidelines and graphic assets so that your branding is consistent in every email you send.

2. Make Your Content an Easy Read

Balance space and font size. Remember, the space between lines is just as important as typeface and size. Choose one font for the header and a different one for the main text and CTAs.

3. Catch Your Audience's Eyes

Take advantage of the power of visuals. Be sure the image selection approach that you choose fits your overall graphic profile and helps you create the right feel for your brand and your audiences. Stick with the jpg and png formats and add ALT text to each image. The gif format is an excellent choice for animated images that can grab attention, but for static images you will want to stick to jpg or png.

4. Inspire Recipients to Take Action

Include a prominent call to action (CTA) to show people where to click and act. Craft introductory text to set up your CTA and use persuasive verbs that align with your messaging and audiences. You can hyperlink text and images or provide a CTA button.

5. Encourage Social Media Sharing

Make sure it's easy for your subscribers to share your article. Place your "share" icons in either the header or footer of your email.

6. Make the Most of Mobile

Create a mobile-friendly experience for your audiences with optimization. Make sure your content and links are easy to read with your index finger. Check how your email design displays on all major brand devices before hitting the send button.

7. Don't Underestimate the Footer

Remember, the email message footer is another important element in your email design. In addition to the standard elements required by law or your organization, you can get a little creative and build brand awareness there.

8. Use a Trusted Email Marketing Solution

LISTSERV® Maestro is designed for maximum flexibility and results. Available as software or a cloud service, LISTSERV Maestro offers a library of responsive newsletter and announcement templates, all of which can be used as-is or customized for your needs without HTML coding.