Design Tips to Optimize Your Email Campaigns

In a session at last month's All About eMail Virtual Conference & Expo, presented by our sister publication eM+C, Megan Walsh, email marketing manager for home furnishings retailer Williams-Sonoma, provided a checklist of creative best practices to help email marketers optimize return on investment. Here's a recap of Walsh's presentation.

(To register for the free conference on-demand, click here.)

Before crafting any email campaign, ask yourself the following three questions:

1. What's the message about?
2. Why should the audience care?
3. How do you expect the audience to take action?

The answers to these questions will help you design an email that has measurable results and provides value to your audience, Walsh said. Make it crystal clear to recipients why you're emailing them, what's in it for them to listen and what you want them to do next.

Research Your Audience
It's necessary to know who your audience is, what it's looking for and how it'll be reading your emails — at work, via mobile, with images enabled, etc. — before creating an email campaign. Tailor your message content and design/rendering style to what's going to work for your audience in its chosen medium, Walsh said.

Don't create roadblocks for recipients to get to your content; instead, opt for usability over fancy features unless you know they're adding engagement to your program, Walsh advised. Examples she cited include using audio or video in emails.

The Anatomy of an Email
Emails can be broken down into 11 parts: pre-header; header; top promo; navigation; hero; table of contents; content; right rail; promotion; social media bar; and footer. Walsh broke some of these sections down into more detail.

* Pre-header. Generally located just above your company's logo, ask yourself the following questions to effectively create this part of an email:

• Is there a prompt to add your sender address to the recipient's email address book?
• Is there a link included for viewing on a handheld device?
• Is there a link to view a hosted version?

Pre-headers are useful in allowing people to access an email's content in a web browser, as most email clients use a default that no longer renders images in emails, Walsh noted.

* Header. Convey consistent branding and navigation elements in this section, Walsh said. Branding effects include your logo, program name, issue title, among other things. Add navigation elements to web pages in this section for branding consistency and to boost clickthrough rates, Walsh added.

* Message. Consider the following to ensure a strong message, Walsh said:

• Is the primary message and call to action visible above the fold?
• Is your content broken up into scannable pieces? For example, use a table of contents with jump links to section headers, Walsh said.
• Create balance between text and images.
• Follow an “S-curve” when planning your content, meaning that your arrangement of text and images should flow from top left to bottom right to draw viewers’ eyes down the page.
• Spell-check and confirm punctuation.
• Render as much text as possible as system text instead of graphical text for increased readability.
• Use calls to action that “pop.”

* Footer. Follow these tips to make the most of this often overlooked section at the bottom of your email:

• Include forward-to-a-friend functionality and/or social media links to make your emails viral.
• Include legal text and CAN-SPAM requirements — such as a physical address and an unsubscribe link — here.
• Put key contact phone numbers and email addresses in this space.
• Include preference center links (if applicable).
• Offer customer service links for more interaction with your customers.

Last-Minute Preparations
Before turning over your message to an email service provider for launch, Walsh advised the following:

• Install any tracking tools to follow the success of your campaign.
• Determine what key performance indicators you want to track.
• Audit your tags to make sure links work and tracking tags are “live.”
• View the HTML version of the email on a PC and a Mac in multiple browsers to ensure rendering is consistent.
• Check alt text for images.
• Include a text version to match the HTML file.
• Check rendering of special characters.
• Send a test email to yourself before sending to your full list.