How Can Simplifying Your Template Design Increase Your Email Marketing Results?

It is easy for an email marketer to go overboard with their template design in effort to make the best of the latest technology and enhance the subscriber experience.  With email quickly growing more advanced right before our eyes, fighting the temptation to incorporate dynamic elements that give your content more visual appeal can be very tempting.  However, if your message lacks usability or doesn’t reach the intended recipient at all, there is no way it will be able to make an impact.  These are just some of the risks you take when putting too much into your template design.  As with all forms of design, whether it involves a website or company logo, the best way to approach your email template is with simplicity. 

People tend to be more responsive to email with designs that have consistency and familiarity.  This is especially true if they subscribe to your mailing list via the sign up form on your website. It just makes them feel more comfortable.  Of course you can’t completely duplicate your website within the small confinements of an email window, but you can create a simplified, condensed version that has many of the same characteristics.  For example, you could utilize graphics and photos, and even implement a similar navigation scheme that guides your subscribers through the message.  Whatever elements you decide to incorporate, remember to keep your important content above the fold and push the other information further down the page.

Keeping your template design simple does not mean you have to create boring emails that will lull the reader to sleep.  In fact, by using simple technologies such as HTML and CSS, for example, you can create visually stunning designs that grab attention and breath life into your message.  A little innovation goes a long way, but simplicity is key when it comes to email creation.  Therefore, you should avoid using tools such as Javascript and Flash.  While these elements are perfect for designing a dynamic website, they only ruin the experience for subscribers and their email programs especially.  Use web design technologies that are too complex and sophisticated, and your message may never be delivered. 

With computer processors and internet connections increasing in speed, many email users are ready to take on all the technology they can handle.  Most of them do not want to receive messages that consist of only text.  They want innovation that enhances the emails readability and enriches the experience for them.  These demands spell trouble for the template designer who must focus on a creation that emphasizes important content, highlights the call to action, and results in a finished product that gets the recipient to take action.  Each of these goals can be achieved through simplicity.  The simpler your email design, the better chance it has of garnering attention and generating the conversions your business needs to be successful.