Part 2: Redesigning Your Email for Maximum Results

In Part 1: Redesigning Your Email for Maximum Results, I covered the first three tips to consider when redesigning your email:

• Make it clean and easy to read.
• Include share-to-social.
• Add a mobile version or develop a dynamic email optimized for mobile.

Today, I’ll cover part 2. To help illustrate my 3 additional tips, I’ll be referring to our recently redesigned email newsletter, INSPIRE.

1.     Utilize the pre-header.

The pre-header is one of the most important parts of your email. Many emails use that section to include a “View with images” link, but you shouldn’t stop there. If you look at the screenshot below you’ll notice we start off on the left-hand portion of the pre-header with a link to our main offer. Since the pre-header is the first thing you see when you open the email (in some email programs it’s even included at the end of your subject line), the first line of copy is really important.  That’s why instead of placing the “View with images” link first, we have the special offer link. This section also is typically text only, so don’t clutter it up with images; simple text and links are the way to go.




2.     Optimize for images off.

By default most email programs, both online and offline, have images off by default, so why would you send an email that relies on your readers turning images on.  In some cases this works, but in most cases the reader is very selective which emails they turn images on and which they leave off. By maximizing your use of copy and image areas, you’ll allow viewers the option to read your email with or without images.

If you look at our email with images turned off, you’ll notice virtually the entire email is still readable.  In each content area you can still see the headline, teaser copy and call to action.


3.     Make your calls to action obvious.
 
The whole point of your email is to communicate a message and typically to drive subscribers from the email to your website or a landing page.  Don’t hide your calls to action. And, definitely don’t rely on having the calls to action rely an image button since images are usually turned off.  Make your links stand out by having them in a different color and even keeping the default link underline visible.

In our email, we have multiple links and multiple ways to get to the landing pages. The images are all linked, the headlines are all linked and at the end of each lead-in we have an underlined link in a contrasting color from the body copy.
 
 
Now that you have a few tips under your belt, how does your email stack up?  Have you looked at your email on your mobile device? How about with images turned off? Or how about on your 50 inch screen TV? OK so that last one isn’t probably too important, I’m just bragging that my TV is internet-capable. Now go ahead, talk to your email team and see what you can do to optimize your email for the next generation of readers.

If you need further convincing, take a look at this infographic from Return Path.

• 50% of all mobile phones in the US are smartphones.
• 88% of people check their email via a mobile phone daily.
• By the end of 2012, more people will be reading emails on a mobile device than on the desktop or on webmail.
• 63% of Americans would either close or delete an email not optimized for mobile.
• Out of all mobile openers, only 2.39% of individuals opened the email on both a desktop and mobile device.