The marketing world is like an ocean. The deeper we plunge, the more interesting it gets. The quality demand continues to grow because consumers face a gigantic amount of daily content. But one thing is certain. Email marketing remains a leader in enhancing the relationship between sellers and buyers. And as letters increasingly fill the recipients’ boxes, so the email marketing trends are changing.
Let’s go ahead and start defining some of the email marketing tasks and some of the trends that prevail in 2019. And, well, denote moments of content design.
Email marketing tasks
If you competently approached the creation of email newsletters, you will be able ultimately to solve the following tasks:
- Advertising. Where are we moving without it? An effective advertising campaign can work miracles;
- You can inform the reader about new articles, services, training courses (paid or free) on your blog;
- Feedback organization. Give a chance for potential customers to make a suggestion or ask a question;
- Formation of the target audience. Only interested users will visit your resource, and this, in turn, will increase:
- Conversion and sales;
- The number of pre-orders;
- Repeat sales.
As you can see, an email newsletter is capable of giving a rather powerful impetus to the sales of your services or, for example, info products. But remember, this should be a high-quality newsletter.
Content and design recommendation
These rules don’t aspire to be absolute, but they will help you arrange the content effectively. By the way, a good understanding of the principles will also help to break these rules creatively.
Rule 1. Clear structure
Most recipients will spend about 11 seconds to view your message. During this time, you need to explain the massage purpose, build a need and call for action. Well-structured content is instantly understood by the recipient. Your subscriber should be aware of your main message, even without slowing down the mouse wheel. Break the content into logical chunks and select exact subtitles. So, the recipient will be able to read the letter fluently.
“We give $ 40 discount for the autumn collection”, “Three top month articles”, “30% a discount for a monthly subscription”. Yey, I know, these headlines don’t pretend to be literary masterpieces, but the meaning of the message is clear from them. Remember that your subscribers don’t open letters in search of verbal delights or flashy pictures, but hoping to get the benefit (discounts, promotional codes) or pleasure (entertainment content).
Rule 2. Focus on the call to action
A good marketing letter looks like a well-focused photo. The usual recipient doesn’t scroll all letters through and stops on the first page, so put the “call to action” button at the top of the page, and highlight one in red. The red button will seem like a predictable solution, but the red color stimulates the nervous system and entails action faster than calmer colors.
Rule 3. Simple Design
Make your content as simple and clear as possible. No need to use intricate designs or visual solutions just to appear original. It is better to make your letter clear and easy than unusual, but confusing. What design decisions should be applied to the content for your letter?
- repeating elements
- white space
- popular fonts
- relevant pictures
Let us dwell on each of these stages in more detail.
1) Repeating design elements
Repeating design elements support the visual semantic structure of the letter. So, it will be easier to scan the content and don’t waste time on understanding the various design elements. Search for titles or buttons with links will take a split second and won’t tire the reader. Design repetition will allow you to skip all the uninteresting parts of the message and quickly find the information that will be most useful to the recipient. How to combine into a whole collection of diverse elements? Smithsonian.com uses a similar style of headers, buttons, and sharpened corners of photos.
2) More air.
The user perceives white space in the design as emptiness. It serves as a neutral background for your content and allows you to build a hierarchy in the submitted information. Consider this excerpt of the Grammarly newsletter:
The text of the letter is in clear blocks, and the message breathes due to the white space around it.
3) Standard fonts.
Standard fonts are a guarantee of the correct display of text. Rare or complex fonts are not supported by many mail services, so they should be abandoned, even if they are in the brand book of your company. The most popular email font is Arial. It will display correctly everywhere.
4) Images.
Images increase the download time of your letter, and while the letter is loaded, the user can change his mind to read it. Don’t overload the letter with active/bright backgrounds, icons or design elements just for decoration. If the photo or video is not your product, limit the illustrations in your newsletters to a minimum.
Here is an example without pictures from Really Good Emails:
This is a transactional email whose task is to inform the user about the action in a quick and clear way. Pictures will be only distracted in such kind of a letter. On the other hand, the sale letter cannot be left without illustrations. It means that all depends on your purpose and type. Plain text can be the main version of your newsletter or the spare one – for users who don’t see your HTML version.
If you still don’t like radical minimalism, make a beautiful header in the subject of your post, add a logo and/or a slogan.
Rule 4. A good readability
If you want your email to be really read, remove all obstacles in the recipient’s way – make the text contrast and avoid the unusual design style. Black text on a white background is a classic that shouldn’t be abandoned. Thanks to the maximum contrast, such text is the easiest to read. With the same purpose, it is worth avoiding the use of bright pictures in the letter header because the text is lost and is unlikely to be read. To focus on the text, darken or reduce the image contrast.
Rule 5. Mobile version
Even if only one in ten recipients read your emails on your phone, adapt your newsletter for viewing on mobile devices. There are two ways to adapt letters to recipients who read them on the phone: create a separate design specifically for mobile or increase the font, reduce the width and simplify the structure of the main letter (for instance, remove the columns).
Rule 6. The presence of the “unsubscribe” button
Don’t forget to offer your subscribers the opportunity to unsubscribe from the newsletter at the end of each letter. You shouldn’t make this button catchy and large, but its presence demonstrates politeness and respect for subscribers. Moreover, it will help to avoid mass complaints of spam. Such complaints reduce the letters’ deliverability in the future, so don’t neglect this item of etiquette.
Make out your letters not in terms of “beauty”, and so that it is convenient and understandable to subscribers. The decorative elements of the letter should not obscure the comfort of content perception. Only in this case, your carefully submitted information will suit the recipient.
Email marketing trends 2019
We have prepared 5 email marketing trends 2019. Read the chapter and plunge in the question!
Full automation of mailings
Automation of email marketing will help to adapt to customers’ tastes and preferences, and, thus, improve the quality of communication with them. It will be much easier to analyze the collected customer information and make informed decisions. This gives companies the ability to customize content for each individual user based on their preferences. That will lead to an increase in openability, clickability, and conversion.
In-depth segmentation and personalization
Trends come and go, but there are trends that show sustainability every year. One such trend is a course to bring together and improve relationships with potential and existing customers. Personalized emails help customers treat ezines as a friendly gesture, not a factor of irritation.
How do you know what subscribers want? It is easy to find out by analyzing previous customer purchases, conducting in-depth segmentation by gender, age, and referrals. Or ask them. See what Stitch Fix has come up with.
They send buyers letters with a link to a short test to determine fashion preferences. Then, customers receive relevant content, which helps the company permanently occupy a place in customers’ inboxes.
More interactive and gamification
Customers become more demanding every year. Standard letters are no longer interesting to recipients. If you want to constantly keep the subscribers’ attention and attract new ones, add interactive part in the newsletters. Animation, games, and quizzes will constantly stir up the interest of customers.
Use interactive elements in letters in 2019. This will increase sales and attract new customers. And also the fact that each client (fresh or existing) will improve the perception of email. But the success key is knowing when to use interactivity.
If you start including a large number of games and animations in each letter, this will lead to the opposite result. So, don’t make every newsletter an exciting game. Such messages will turn from exciting to ordinary. Do it in doses. Let interactive newsletters be a pleasant surprise for the recipient.
Quality content
Quality content means that you understand the desires and needs of your customers. When you are communicating with subscribers, follow the rule: “We send only interesting and useful content for the target audience or nothing.” You should adapt your content to the needs and problems of each consumer segment. You won’t achieve your goals otherwise.
Minimalism in design
The more space and less text, the better your letters look. Don’t overload the message text, leave only the most important. Make a color accent that draws attention to important moments. Brevity is relevant in our accelerating age. Thus, subscribers will stay with you much longer and won’t click on the “Unsubscribe” button after the first messages.
Top marketing email design trends
Are you looking for ways to improve your email marketing trends and strategies 2019? Want to learn the latest design tendency you should look to take advantage of to increase engagement?
Our team share 2019 email marketing trends in design. Here’s what form their list:
Make special sectors shareable
Creating social sharing buttons at the end of your emails is a thing of the past. The latest email design trend is to join a sharing icon on a line or quote in the middle of a paragraph or a stat that you want more people to know or read about. This helps in engaging the reader as well as helps you in reaching out to the people.
Ask For Feedback In The Same Email
This tendency is accelerating. You can ask your subscribers to respond directly by asking a question in the end or simply by asking them to click on the checkmark if they seemed the message useful.
Create Personal Icons For Pointers
Instead of numbering or putting the points of your message in bullets (which can be quite boring), try and design original icons for the same. They look way more modern and beautiful. They make your emails more exciting and unique and also promote your content.
In conclusion
Email marketing is one of the most effective and result-oriented form of marketing. You can drive instant response from the potential customers by sending them emails about new developments and the latest services in your business. However, to get the maximum response out of your email marketing campaigns, you need to upkeep with the ongoing 2019 email marketing trends. Email design trends include performing specific sections shareable, asking for feedback in the email and creating own icons for pointers.
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