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First impressions matter

It only takes a few seconds for people to form preliminary opinions of a person, product or company. Taking the time to design effective and attractive emails will help create a positive, lasting impression.

With easy to use tools like Constant Contact you can create email campaigns in a matter of minutes. And, if you incorporate these simple design strategies you can improve your results by creating easy to read, attractive emails. 

Start with your branding

When customers and prospects open your email it should feel familiar, creating a visually smooth transition to your website or social media profiles. You can create this familiar feeling by using your logo, brand colors and standard brand images in your header, footer and throughout the email.

Design email campaigns to be read on mobile devices

Today, a significant portion of readers view campaigns from mobile devices. Make sure you’re using a mobile friendly design.

  1. Use a single column format. 
  2. Keep sentences and paragraphs short.
  3. Use headlines and dividers.
  4. Use buttons instead of links. 

Select easy-to-read fonts

The font you choose can support or distract from your message. Here a few things to keep in mind as you select font for your email.

  1. Select fonts which look like your brand If possible.
  2. Serif fonts are easier to read on screens. 
  3. Use serifs for titles only.
  4. Use all caps for buttons. 

Select the right colors

When applying color to your design, you should consider color choices that work well together, compliment your brand and project the kind of feeling you are trying to convey. Some things to keep in mind: 

  1. Start with your brand colors. 
  2. Avoid extremely bright color combinations or large areas of intense color.
  3. Use bright colors sparingly to attract attention to key points,
  4. Limit the primary color pallet to 3, too many make the design “busy” and hard to look at.
  5. If you are going to put text on a colored background, the font will need to be slightly larger and in a strong contrasting color.

Use images to create attractive emails

People respond to images. One study found 82% of people pay more attention to emails that have images so we know they add value if done well. Here are a few simple things to remember when using images: 

  1. Don’t rely on images to convey critical information.
  2. Use image descriptions.
  3. Keep images relevant.
  4. Less is more. Limit the total number of images and calls to action.

Want to see some examples of these tips in action? Check out our Email expansion tool kit.