The truth is, a lot of email newsletters suck. Sometimes, I open one up and am greeted by a blank page (hello, images with no alternative text). Sometimes, there’s just too much text and no incentive to click through to a landing page. And sometimes, the subject line is so boring, I don’t even bother opening the newsletter at all.
There are some great newsletters out there, of course- they’re the ones I always open, because I know they probably a). Look great, and b). Have something interesting to say.
So how to design email newsletters that work well? Here are some tips:
Design at 600-pixel width or below.
It would be wonderful, indeed, if everyone in the world was using widescreen monitors and one email client- but to make sure that even your subscriber with the 12″-screen viewing mail on AOL’s tiny preview pane can read your newsletter, don’t go beyond 600-pixels in width.
Use less images, and always include alt text.
Many email clients- Gmail is one- have images turned off by default, and it’s up to the user to turn them on. I use Gmail exclusively, and I usually only turn images on when the subject interests me. If it’s obvious that all I’ll see are huge promotional give-me-your-money images, I won’t bother. Having alternative text is extremely important, of course.
Embrace tables. That’s right- tables.
Until all email clients portray HTML emails similarly, tables are your best friend when creating newsletters that are design-heavy. You can brush up on your HTML table coding here.
Don’t rely on the external.
Don’t try to load external stylesheets or javascript documents. Instead, use only inline CSS styles. And forget javascript entirely- unless you want your email to be marked as spam.
Be interesting.
Nothing turns me off an email faster than a subject line that reads like a tabloid headline. Subject lines should be well-crafted, reflecting the “style” of the newsletter itself, and intriguing enough so that your readers will want to open the email.
Use a good email service.
Not so long ago, I wrote a post titled 5 Awesome Email Marketing Services. Any of these five services are recommended, but the one I use all the time now is Mad Mimi– not only is their customer support pretty awesome, is it unbelievably easy to craft great-looking, cleanly-coded newsletters in my Mad MImi dashboard.
Have a killer landing page.
After your reader reads the newsletter, you probably want him or her to click on a link that will direct to a page on the web. Work on this page- make sure there’s continuity from the newsletter to the page. You want your reader to feel that their click was worth something.
Test, test, test.
You want to code for all email clients, so try to test on as many as possible. It’s always good practice to send yourself a newsletter before you send it out to hundreds or thousands of people.
What are your tricks for great-looking email newsletters?
