Email Design Best Practices and Customizable Email Template Options
In today's digital age, where a significant portion of communication happens on mobile devices, it's crucial to ensure that your marketing emails are optimised for these smaller screens. This is where responsive email design comes into play.
Responsive email designs are typically made using pre-existing templates, making it easier for marketers to create more emails without needing extensive design experience [1]. These templates allow for quick and easy creation, ensuring a better user experience that automatically boosts the chances for a sale [2].
One key aspect of responsive email design is the use of a single-column layout. This layout, which is 600 pixels max, works best on mobile devices for email designs [3]. It ensures that all content is easily readable and accessible, even on smaller screens.
Another important factor is the use of readable fonts. At least 22 px for headlines and 14 px for body text are recommended for readability on small screens [3]. Additionally, optimising images for mobile (72 dpi recommended) and using large, touch-friendly CTA buttons (minimum 44 x 44 px) further enhance the user experience [3].
However, it's not just about making the emails look good. It's also about ensuring they function well. This means placing the most important CTA above the fold to increase conversions [3], avoiding placing multiple hyperlinks in the same line to prevent misclicks on small screens [3], and using alt tags on images for accessibility and to handle slow or failed image loads [3].
Following visual hierarchy principles, such as the inverted pyramid design, also helps guide users to key content and CTAs effectively [4]. Using web-safe fonts like Arial, Verdana, and Times New Roman with proper fallback options, keeping text line width narrow, and maintaining a font size between 14–18 px for readability are other best practices [5].
Testing your email across various devices and clients is essential to ensure consistent appearance and functionality [2][3]. It's also important to make sure that the landing pages your email CTAs link to are also mobile-friendly for a seamless customer journey [1].
A study from Adestra in 2018 showed that 81% of survey responders used a smartphone to check emails [6]. In 2020, nearly two-thirds of visits to websites were on mobile devices [7]. As of 2021, 41.6% of all emails are opened on mobile devices [8]. With over 4.1 billion active email users in 2021, and this number expected to grow to 4.3 billion in 2023 [9], it's clear that responsive email design is a vital aspect of any marketing strategy.
By following these best practices, you can optimise for readability, interaction ease, and consistent branding on all screen sizes, helping you engage mobile users effectively and increase campaign success.
[1] https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2016/03/the-ultimate-guide-to-responsive-email-design/ [2] https://www.mailchimp.com/resources/guides/responsive-email-design [3] https://www.litmus.com/blog/best-practices-for-responsive-email-design [4] https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2016/03/the-ultimate-guide-to-responsive-email-design/ [5] https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2016/03/the-ultimate-guide-to-responsive-email-design/ [6] https://www.adestra.com/blog/mobile-email-marketing-statistics-2018/ [7] https://www.statista.com/statistics/263090/number-of-mobile-phone-users-worldwide/ [8] https://www.statista.com/statistics/659387/number-of-mobile-email-users-worldwide/ [9] https://www.statista.com/statistics/257642/number-of-active-email-users-worldwide/
In the digital age, where mobile devices dominate communication, technology plays a crucial role in creating optimized marketing emails via responsive email design. Utilizing responsive email templates simplifies the process, allowing for quick and easy production, which in turn contributes to an enhanced user experience and increased chances of sale.
