Your email creative is the first consumer touch point to your brand, making it one of the most important aspects of your email marketing campaign. Therefore, it is imperative that the look, feel and message conveyed by your email creative reflect your uniqueness in a visual manner.
Email marketing is also one of the lowest cost effective digital marketing channel. Digital Marketing Association (DMA) have found that it generates $40.56 in ROI for every dollar invested. In 2012, it is predicted that email marketing will account for $67.8 billion in sales and that number is slated to grow.
If you have yet to develop your email marketing program, it is never too late. There are numerous things to consider from selecting your email service provider to getting a head start with your email creative design.
This article highlights five key points to consider when developing an effective email creative template.
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Size matters – 600 pixels or less The reality is that most people are going to view your email in a horizontal preview pane, either in Outlook, Hotmail or Yahoo! According to a study by MicroMass Communications, the average size of that horizontal preview pane will be 638×86 pixels. Yes, you read that correctly. Most people won’t even see the first 100 pixels of your email. What this means is that your html email template should not be more than 638 pixels wide. Stick to 600 pixels and make sure that you’ve got value propositions and calls to action within the first 100 pixels. This means that you may want to revisit that nice header graphic. It also means that, if you’re using that header graphic, you’d better make sure it has effective Alt and Title text layered behind it. |
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Interaction It does not matter how great your content is, people are not going to read your email! They’re going to scan it, and they’re going to scan it in under a minute. Instead of providing them with large chunks of content, design your html email template to include large headlines and then shorter sections of content that link to your website or destination page. Create a compelling call to action that stands out and make it prominent. |
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Design for “desktop”, compatible with mobile 75% of mobile searchers take action within 24 hours. Knowing that fact, focus on providing relevant and impactful information that will help mobile users take the desired action (web conversion or call). Offer the right balance of information on your mobile site that supports your mobile goal as opposed to a content from a 100 page thesis, all when you are trying to sell a widget. |
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Speed PC and mobile users share quite a few things in common and one of them is “short patience for a website to load”. The industry standard for a website to load on a PC is less than 3 seconds, while mobile users have a slightly higher tolerance, but nobody is willing to wait 15 seconds for a page to load. Internet Retailer reported in Aug 2012 that Office Depot’s mobile eCommerce site loads within 2.91 seconds while Buy.com loads in 3.66 seconds, and that rivals a PC user. The last thing you want to do it to spend money to market your website and have them leave as your site takes 15 seconds to load. |
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Conversion Mobile sites should be built with the understanding that mobile users are utilizing their fingers to browse and type as opposed to a mouse and keyboard. It is good to recognize that the goals of your traditional website might be different than the goals of your mobile site. If your conversion form consist of a 3-page checkout and require a lot of typing with the fingers, find a way to shorten your checkout. In some instances, companies with extremely long checkout are better off having the mobile user call the order. |
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