A recent Forester study shows 88% of B2C companies and 71% of B2B companies currently use email marketing and another 10% plan to use before December 2011, making email marketing the top form of marketing available. So are you doing it? You probably are – and we certainly hope so. Are you doing it right? Well, that is likely the real question at hand…to be on the safe side, you should check out these 5 email design tips to ensure your efforts are not in vain. After all, it pains us when we see messages that aren’t optimized to achieve marketing success.

1. Utilize the Preview Pane

   

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   69% of at-work email users view emails in their preview panes (80% of those use Outlook).

   The preview pane or reading pane is basically the tiny portion of the body of your email that can be seen automatically (roughly 2-4 inches), before a user opens your email, displays in full view or scrolls. So, the top-left section of your email might be all the reader sees in their email inbox. You don’t have a whole lot of room or a whole lot of time to convince readers to open your email marketing message or scroll down. Putting your company logo or your newsletter masthead or something eye-catching in the top-left corner of your email might not be the best option, especially if the reader chooses not to view the image (see#2).

   MARKETER’S ACTION PLAN
   Start with your call to action (link) or your key point of the email (what the email is about). Then put your logo or pretty graphics beneath that primary message or to the right of it. While a fancy banner graphic makes for great visual impact, keep it as narrow as possible keeping the key “text” message as close to the top left corner of your email as possible, accessible within the preview pane without scrolling. ‘Eye Tracking’ research proves the human eye scans text in an “F” pattern (i.e., from top left to right or down). Ignoring this key fact could cost your readers’ attention.

   MAIL DOG ACTION PLAN
   See how your emails render first hand with Mail Dog’s Campaign Booster tool. It allows you to preview how your email renders in 33+ email readers, inside the preview panes and with image turned on or off.

2. Design Without Images

   

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   Most email clients block images by default. This means that unless readers specifically turn images on (by clicking on a link or button to ‘show images’), they’ll only see empty boxes in place of those images.

   MARKETER’S ACTION PLAN
   Use images as support for the text in your email, not the main topic. Make sure readers can grasp the main topic and action plans even if no images are visible in your message. Always use “ALT’ tags as text that could be displayed when the images are not shown. But note, different email readers block images in different ways. When Gmail blocks images, it displays Alt tags, but when Hotmail blocks these same images, it blocks the Alt tags, too. Regardless, it’s a good rule to always populate “ALT” tags for images so for readers who have image blocking on, at least they will see a short description of the image, which may encourage them to activate it.

   MAIL DOG ACTION PLAN
   Use the ALT tag fields given inside the Wizard when adding images into your message. Also, use the Campaign Booster tool to preview how your message renders in 33+ email reader both with images on/off and inside the preview pane.

3. Invisible Actions Create Invisible Results

   

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   Your primary call-to-action should not be displayed with a pretty graphic. It should be text-based HTML, tricked out with fonts, borders, and colors. Same goes for your newsletter masthead. It should be designed in such a way that your company name or the name of the newsletter is visible at all times, by all readers. And the only way to do that is text.

   MARKETER’S ACTION PLAN
   Be sure to design key messages (e.g., Register, Read more) in text. This way if image blocking is “on,” the key point of your message can still be viewed in the preview pane since HTML text will always display. Design email templates to be no wider than 650 pixels; for 2-column templates we usually aim for 600-625 pixels wide. This helps reduce the risk of horizontal scrolling.

   MAIL DOG ACTION PLAN
   Use the Link Text/Link URL fields inside the Template Wizard to insert great, easy to read, text based links at the bottom of every main topic of your email.

4. Include a Plain Text Version of Every Message

   

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   Unfortunately, not all mobile devices can render HTML messages and many mobile users prefer to view emails in plain text. While you don’t get all the fancy formatting like including images, clickable hyperlinks and HTML font options, you are still able to get your message read by users.

   MARKETER’S ACTION PLAN
   Including a plain text copy of every HTML message that you send eliminates potential issues for subscribers with mobile email applications that do not support HTML. If their mobile device doesn’t support HTML, subscribers will still see the plain text version of your message.

   MAIL DOG ACTION PLAIN
   Use the ‘TEXT’ box with every email message that you design by simply pasting the text of your message. Mail Dog automatically inserts your footer and a ‘view this email online’ link into every plain text message. Plus our MIME-encoding platform will automatically decide which version of your email is accepted by each user.

5. TEST, TEST, TEST

   

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   These newsletters are a reflection on your company and brand. Bad grammar, misspelled words and broken links speak volumes about the professionalism of your company. Likewise a poorly designed HTML message can look elementary and cheap. There are dozens of different email readers (like Outlook, Hotmail, Mac Mail, Entourage, Yahoo) each with their own specification on how the email will render. Be sure to test how the email will appear to your readers, not just to your internal corporate inbox.

   MARKETER’S ACTION PLAN
   Always send a “test” email to yourself before sending to the masses. Be sure to check ALL links to make sure they are working properly. And consider sending “test” emails to addresses outside your corporate’s mail server.

   MAIL DOG ACTION PLAN
   Use the “send test” button in your campaign to send an internal test of your message, and consider including a few different personal email accounts to preview how the message renders to your users. Also use the Campaign Booster tool to preview how the email renders in 33+ email readers.

Not sure if you are doing the best you can? Mail Dog clients can now take advantage of our Email Design Check-up Program. Click here to learn more…