Get started with email marketing design: get people interested in what your brand is doing

If you’re part of our email list for the Deer Digest newsletter, you know that we are believers in email marketing at Deer Designer.

Email is just the best marketing tool to grab the attention of an audience that already knows your brand and may be interested in what you do.

However, it can be difficult to stand out in a crowded inbox.

We’ve all been there.

Who knows what email marketing tool they use and how they get our email addresses, but these digital marketers somehow make it into our emails and spam us with offers on their products or services.

You might not even bother to open your emails anymore.

You are likely to discard all of them unless you come across one related to a product or service you are already anticipating.

Given that you are constantly battling these other digital marketers, it is important to create messages and visuals that are captivating enough for people to actually pay attention and click through.

Sure, you can raise the number of emails you send to people in hopes of getting more people to click, but it would be nothing without the right strategy.

You can make sure that your email is sent to more people, but you can’t make sure of the email’s performance or the number of people who read it.

In this article, I’ll delve into the significance of design in email marketing, explore the elements of effective email design, and share strategies for maximizing engagement and click-through rates through compelling visuals and multimedia.

How does design affect email marketing?

How do you stand out in a crowded inbox full of brand offers and other marketing emails? To start, high-quality designs.

Design can heavily affect your email campaign.

Did you know that simply having an emoji in your email preview text can help your brand stand out among the rest?

When people click through it, make sure you have interesting visuals and messaging to offer!

Here are some ways design can improve your email newsletters:

Adding a visual appeal to your email newsletter

A successful email campaign catches the eye and entices the reader to explore.

This is made easier with high-quality designs.

Imagine you’re a fashion retailer launching a new collection for the upcoming season.

Your email campaign will not be effective unless it showcases stunning visuals of models wearing the latest designs in a visually appealing layout.

Each image should be carefully curated to highlight key pieces and bring a sense of style and sophistication.

By investing in high-quality imagery and thoughtful design, you create an immersive experience that resonates with your audience and encourages them to explore the full collection on your website.

Build branding consistency through templates

Consistent branding across all touchpoints, including email campaigns, helps reinforce brand recognition and trust.

This is why our team ensures that every email sequence we design for our clients aligns seamlessly with their brand guidelines, from color schemes and typography to imagery and messaging.

Even with the Deer Designer newsletter, you can immediately tell, “This is an email from Deer Designer.”

We want the same for our clients.

You can have a set email template for your email campaigns, which you can alter a bit depending on the season or promotions you are offering.

This way, you can easily send emails while making sure they are consistent with your brand. This also allows for easier email automation in the long run.

You don’t have to worry as much about your design, so you can focus on your content and building your email list.

Using your email marketing campaign to establish professionalism and credibility

A polished and professional email design conveys credibility and professionalism.

For example, if you have a welcome email every time someone signs up for your newsletter or website, people can feel that you have a dedicated and professional digital marketing team keeping track of whoever signs up.

This can be backed up by professional-looking designs and email copy.

People are also less likely to read or trust a plain, text-ridden email.

After all, anybody can do that, including potential scammers.

You can have an email sequence that is easily recognizable and designed specifically for your brand to let people know it is actually you.

By building trust and credibility, you can encourage people to engage with your email content, knowing you are a credible source and not just another email marketer out to get their money.

Whether you use email for sending promotional offers, newsletters, or even just confirmation emails, investing in quality design reflects positively on your brand.

Level up your email marketing campaign with visuals

Visuals are powerful tools for capturing attention and conveying information quickly and effectively.

Given that we get so many emails every day, it is always a novelty to see one that is more interesting or interactive.

Other than significantly enhancing engagement and click-through rates, incorporating compelling visuals and multimedia elements into your email campaigns can help your audience gain value from your email.

You can use these visuals to add information about your products and services or offer free resources in a more engaging way.

Here’s how we use visuals and multimedia in our emails at Deer Designer:

Make your marketing emails interesting with high-quality imagery

We use high-quality graphics to enhance the visual appeal of our email designs.

Whether it’s product photos, lifestyle imagery, or custom illustrations, we ensure that the visuals are eye-catching and aligned with the overall message of the email.

Consider a travel agency that promotes vacation packages to exotic destinations.

Your email campaign should feature captivating imagery of the destinations, lush landscapes, or exciting activities like snorkeling and zip-lining.

By incorporating multimedia elements, you create a dynamic and immersive experience that ignites wanderlust and motivates recipients to book their next getaway.

Making your email campaigns interesting with interactive elements

In addition to static images, you can include interactive elements like animated GIFs and carousels to add an element of interactivity and engagement to email campaigns.

By encouraging recipients to interact with the content, we create memorable experiences that drive higher levels of engagement and click-throughs.

Still using the travel agency example, you can use these elements to showcase the highlights of each destination, from sunset cruises to fun adventures.

This is a great way to ensure a successful email marketing campaign.

A different type of email with video content

Video content has become increasingly popular in email marketing due to its ability to convey information quickly and engage viewers on a deeper level.

After all, you are more likely to pay attention to a video with fun narration and interesting visuals than read a long and detailed email.

Sending your video to a personalized email list of newsletter signups or people interested in your service lets you reach a more targeted audience.

They are even more likely to pay attention compared to direct marketing to people who don’t know your brand at all.

If this is the first email they are getting from you, people may be hesitant to open it as it might come from an unknown email address.

They might be even more hesitant to click play on an attached video.

What a waste of effort!

To ensure the success of your email marketing with video content, make sure the email isn’t sent to a cold audience that’s unaware of your brand.

You can either embed videos directly into the email or link to video content hosted on your website or social media channels.

Use an email marketing platform that allows responsive design

As of 2023, 60% of email campaign reads are done through mobile devices.

With the majority of emails being opened on different screens, such as desktop and mobile devices, creating a responsive design is definitely essential.

You don’t want your design to look wonky when viewed on a phone or tablet when most people are probably reading it from there.

Other than marketing automation, some email service providers come built-in with a design editor that allows responsive designs.

Responsive emails adapt seamlessly to various screen sizes and devices, ensuring an optimal viewing experience for recipients regardless of the device they’re using and the orientation in which they’re viewing them.

Other than choosing the right email marketing software, you will also have to use legible fonts, have clear call-to-action buttons, and have appropriately sized images to make sure they can easily adapt to the automated fluid layouts.

By designing with flexibility in mind, we ensure that emails look great across various devices and screen sizes.

Testing and optimization

Before sending out or scheduling our email campaigns, we test the designs across multiple devices and send a test email to identify any rendering issues or compatibility issues.

We also have to double-check that the email personalization or the automation that fills in your email client’s details is set up properly.

After all, you don’t want to open an email addressed to someone else. Like, “Who is John Doe, and why am I getting their emails?”

By addressing potential issues proactively, we can make sure that recipients receive a consistent and seamless experience via email.

The best email marketing strategies

Design is a powerful driver of success in email marketing campaigns.

You can make the most of this marketing channel by ensuring these best practices in email marketing design.

By investing in visually appealing designs, businesses can create email campaigns that stand out in crowded inboxes, captivate audiences, and drive meaningful engagement and conversions.

At Deer Designer, we’re committed to helping our clients unlock the full potential of their email marketing efforts through strategic and impactful design solutions.

Work with us and let’s get your email sequences done by a professional design team!

Key takeaways

• Creating effective email marketing campaigns is a great digital marketing strategy to get your promotions and offers to the audience who might be interested in them.
• While you can buy email lists and increase your email reach, you can’t ensure that people will click through and read without the right strategy.
• The design of your email campaigns can greatly affect how people respond to them. Some may dismiss it as spam if it is not done by a professional.
• You can add various images, interactive elements, and even videos for different types of email marketing campaigns.
• Effective email marketing requires you to build an email list of interested people; otherwise, people might just throw your emails straight into the trash bin.
• Most people are viewing emails through their phones and mobile devices, so you have to make sure your email tool offers fluid layouts and responsive design. This means your layout will adapt to their screen sizes.
• Before you send an email, make sure to test and optimize it first. This helps avoid compatibility issues and raises the rate at which your email opens.