Ensure Perfect Rendering of Your Emails with Design Best Practices

If you are a savvy email marketer, you must be aware of all the DIY template builders that are available on the Internet these days. It has made email template production a breeze without any technical difficulties. However, there are times when you need to design customized emails from scratch. In such instances, you must consider all the email design best practices so that your emails look good across all email clients and devices.

To help you out and make things easy for you, here are some of the indispensable email design tips.

1. A well-organized email layout

Lay down your email in such a way that it is free from any distractions and easy to navigate through.

Ideally, the email template dimensions should be:

• Width of the email: 600-800 px
• Height of the email: Upto 3500 px
• Headline height: Upto 300 px

Try to cover all the important information in the first fold or top 350 px. Design your email in the inverted pyramid design pattern like Invision has.

It is a good idea to use grid-based layers that would impart a minimalistic look to your email.

2. Accessible email

Email accessibility is of paramount importance as many of your subscribers with visual impairment or other disabilities are using screen readers and other assistant technologies to check their emails.

I have put together some of the most important email accessibility tips below:

• Avoid a center-aligned copy in your emails as dyslexic patients would find it difficult to read it.
• Always include the HTML language attribute so that screen readers can detect the language in which the email is written.
• Do not set titles on links, otherwise screen readers will be confused about the flow of the email.
• Use semantic tags like <p>, <h2>, and <h3> so that screen readers can easily understand the reading order.
• Keep the contrast ratio at least 4.5:1, as suggested by Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. Simply put, make sure that your text is easily readable in the background.
• The CTA button must be 44×44 px so that it is easily clickable or tappable on every device.

3. Dark Mode compatibility

Designing a Dark Mode compatible email has become a best practice rather than a trend. Many of your subscribers are accessing emails in Dark Mode settings. Therefore, you must choose the colors and imagery in such a way that it renders well in both the settings, Dark Mode as well as light theme.

4. Short and succinct email copy

Sending an email with an unending scroll can be frustrating for your subscribers. It’s not the right way to convey your message. You must try to keep the email copy as short and sweet as possible. Rather than including a long wall of text, try to include relevant visuals that would make your emails more impactful for the reader.

Make use of bullet points, separators, and white spaces to make the copy easily readable. Of course, your email must be personalized, engaging, and targeted to the reader.

5. Visual email marketing

Rich media elements like GIFs and videos come into play when you have too much to say in your emails. In addition, you can also use interactive elements like menus, accordions, and carousels to add to the visual oomph of the emails.

The points to remember while leveraging visual email marketing are:

• Do not send an only-image email.
• Maintain the text to image ratio at 80:20.
• Add a suitable alt-text to every visual element.
• Keep an eye on the loading speed of the emails in case you are using animations or embedded video.
• The flashing rate of GIFs should not be between 2 Hz to 55 Hz otherwise it will worsen the condition of photosensitive epilepsy.
• While using interactive elements and gamification functionality in emails, provide a suitable fallback for the non-supporting email clients.

6. Responsive emails

If you check your email analytics, you will find that most of the subscribers are using mobile email clients to access their emails. To cater to these users, your emails must be mobile responsive and render well across all the handheld devices.

Design emails with a single column layout. The ideal font size for the title is 22 px or more. The copy line width must be up to 6 words and the font size must be 12 to 14 px. As far as line spacing is concerned, 1.5 times the font size would work the best for both desktop and mobile phones.

1. Email footer

Many marketers just skip this section. However, your email footer is important to convey all the legally important information. It is recommended that you design a footer template and use it for all your emails. This will also ensure a consistent experience for the email recipients.

Some email footer tips are:

• Follow the visual hierarchy in the email footer.
• Have enough white space around different clusters of information for better readability.
• Keep the footer separate from the email body by using a different background color.
• Include all the vital contact information along with the links to your social media platforms.
• According to anti-spam guidelines, include an unsubscribe link, your physical address, and other contact details in the email footer.
• To build brand credibility and reduce spam complaints, you can also inform the recipients why they are receiving your email.

 2. Email testing

Litmus and Email on Acid are two of the most popular testing tools for emails. In addition to error-free rendering, you must also see that your email designs guide the reading flow of the reader and feed the crux of your email campaign.

Wrapping Up

Abiding by these email design best practices will delight your subscribers and bring in a higher conversion rate for your business. It will also keep the users hooked to your emails and make them look forward to hearing from you.

Source: Email Design Best Practices – Email Uplers