Module Slides
Download file 27 MB
12 years delivering excellence
Join a global community
Globally recognised
Toolkits, content & more
The email design is not just the look and feel of an email but how it works and flows for the reader, otherwise known as the user experience. Before jumping into how best to design your email, we need to answer the question, why is email design so important?
The following are some of the main reasons why an effective and appealing design is important to implement throughout your email campaigns.
So more on email design. The first step in creating a compelling email design is to include who you are and the color of the email.
It is best practice to include your company's logo at the top of your email and also use your brand's color pallet for calls to action, headers and so on. This will allow a reader to easily recognize your emails and become more familiar with your brand. In the above example from the digital marketing institute, the head of the email includes company's logo so all readers can easily recognize the email.
And the email also makes use of the color blue which is part of the company's color pallet. The logo and color are used in all of their emails as well as their website, which leads to a consistent experience for the user.
Another key component for designing effective emails is the layout. The layout controls the flow of the email and makes it easier on the reader's eye to look at.
The next key component in designing emails is the fonts you use. The fonts used in your email should be consistent throughout, use the same font style, font size, and font color for all sections that are similar.
Also, don't use a very small font size as many readers will be viewing on mobile devices and this will make it impossible to read.
Your company may have a brand style guide which you must follow. In that case, you must keep that consistent in your emails as well.
Here are two examples, one from Macey’s and one from Virgin.
The one on the left is a very busy email with a lot happening. You can see that there are various fonts, font sizes, colors, imagery, and a very confused call to action.
At first, you'd think this a Father’s Day sale, but then why is the first link to women's clothing? It doesn't make sense and the reader will quickly become disillusioned as to why they're reading this email. Contrast that with the virgin email, which is a very clean and simple layout with a very clear call to action, giving people quite literally 10% off their next purchase.
It is clearly a welcome email. Consider this the next time you're designing an email and understand what may seem too busy to one could do with a little cleaning up.
Back to TopPlease note that the module slides are designed to work in collaboration with the module transcript document. It is recommended that you use both resources simultaneously.
Inbound marketing manager @ Poppulo
The following pieces of content from the Digital Marketing Institute's Membership Library have been chosen to offer additional material that you might find interesting or insightful. While relevant to this module, you will not be assessed on this content.
You can find more information and content like this on the Digital Marketing Institute's Membership Library
ABOUT THIS DIGITAL MARKETING MODULE
This module begins with the fundamentals of email marketing and how the concepts of segmentation, personalization, timing, engagement, and the legislation and regulations surrounding data protection underpin an effective email marketing strategy. The module introduces key email marketing tools and techniques and explores subscriber list and email design best practices. It covers how to create, test, and optimize an email campaign that maximizes email open and click rates and provides an overview of the value provided by marketing automation tools.