Email Design
Every email has a purpose. Whether it’s to inform users of a product update, an upcoming event, or the latest offers—every campaign should have a primary goal. In most cases, the goal is to get subscribers to do something. Enter: calls-to-action (CTAs). CTAs help guide your subscriber to the primary action you want them to take. In this blog, we’ll cover CTA best practices, including: Why is a call-to-action important? Designing calls-to-action for email Types of calls-to-action Primary CTAs Secondary CTAs Styling calls-to-action Styled text links Rollover effect How many calls-to-action are too many? Testing your call-to-action Why is a call-to-action important? While some email campaigns exist purely for entertainment or educational reasons, most campaigns are used to market something—a product, service, or event. As email marketers, we need our subscribers to buy those products, subscribe to those services, and register for those events. And the only way to accomplish
We’ve all been there. You craft the perfect automated welcome email, test it thoroughly, review it with all of your key stakeholders, and start sending it out to your target audience. Subscribers are engaging and it’s performing well! But then a landing page goes down without you knowing, preventing your subscribers from taking action and crushing the opportunity for your email to foster positive brand experiences and drive revenue. The good news? In this new era of email, this is no longer a problem you need to worry about. Introducing Link Monitoring in Email Guardian Litmus Email Guardian is the only solution that proactively monitors your emails so you can protect them from the unexpected. When an email client makes an update and your email changes as a result, Email Guardian will ensure you’re the first to know. With the addition of Link Monitoring, Email Guardian will also let you
The email marketing landscape in 2023 was tumultuous to say the least. Amidst the ever present buzz of a looming recession, marketers navigated a world where email volume was on the rise, new AI-powered innovations were front and center, and subscriber expectations were skyrocketing. On top of this, increasing data privacy regulations heightened the need for marketers to lean into first-party data. There’s no denying that all marketers felt compelled to do more with less. As a result we saw brands embrace email, a channel with unmatched ROI, in an unprecedented way. They used email as a vehicle for gathering and refining first-party data to gain the insights they need to perfect their personalization strategy. They experimented with AI, finding ways to strike the right balance between efficiencies driven by new technologies and the indelible human ability to create one-on-one connections. They found new ways to work as efficiently as
In the realm of email marketing, few things are sadder than working hard on an email and sending it out, only to see Gmail truncate your content with the dreaded “[Message clipped]” text. Gmail is the second-most popular email client , and we know that avoiding unnecessary user experience friction is important for increasing engagement with your content. Thankfully, with a little effort and attention to detail, you won’t have to worry about Gmail cutting your email off at the knees. What is Gmail clipping? If you’re not already familiar, Gmail clips any message with a file size of over 102 kilobytes (kb). Once the email reaches that limit, the rest of the content is hidden, with “[Message clipped]” text and a “View entire message” link displayed leading to a webview version of your email. What’s particularly unfortunate is that the clipping will occur wherever the 102kb limit is reached
The era of third-party cookie tracking is over. In the before times, marketers could access data about their customers’ travels around the Internet, picking up important information about their browsing habits and other purchases. You could easily manage advertising retargeting efforts or trigger the right kind of emails based on the data you’ve collected. Sigh. It’s not so easy anymore. Enter: The post-cookie era. The email data privacy landscape is ever-evolving It all started with Google’s plan to end third-party cookies by 2024 remains a key element of its Privacy Sandbox. We’ve known about this change since January 2020, when it was first announced… but it’s still a punch in the gut. An Epsilon study of US marketers found that 69% said the elimination of third-party cookies will have an even greater impact than GDPR and CCPA on their marketing efforts. As Google goes, so does the rest of the
The Community Spotlight—a monthly blog series highlighting some of the amazing members of the email community —is back for 2024! Every month, we interview, highlight, and celebrate the splendid members of the email community. We dig into where they got their start, where they are now, and explore their challenges and passions in email. This month, we’re chatting with Alice Li —email developer, accessibility activist, and former Geocities webmaster. Alice Li (she/they) Principal Email Engineer at Zillow Follow Alice on LinkedIn & X (Twitter ) What did the beginning of your time in email marketing look like? Picture this: I’m walking into a beige cubicle jungle of an office for my code screen, wearing a pantsuit I just bought with my meager retail wages for the occasion. The hiring manager sits me at a desktop PC with a giant CRT monitor that’s disconnected from the internet so I can’t
At Litmus, we personalize our emails with purpose: to create tailored inbox experiences that go the extra mile—the kind that surprises and delights our subscribers (and goes beyond “Hello %%first_name%%”). It’s our way of making a more human connection with our subscribers. Something we think is especially important during a time dominated by artificial intelligence (AI) . It’s a new era of email, and we’re here for it ! Today, we’re sharing one of our favorite ways to add a human-touch to our email marketing campaigns —and that’s with Litmus Personalize Live Polls . It’s what our email marketing manager Tracie Pang deems a “quick win” that’s sure to give your engagement metrics a nice boost. Did you know that Litmus offers personalization for all levels? From Litmus Personalize Essentials—which includes a whole suite of time-saving, quick-start personalization templates—to Litmus Personalize Pro, we’ve got plans for teams of all sizes.
We love looking at email design trends. They’re like a catalog of fun, new toys that you can flip through and circle the ones you have to have. Staying up to date with email trends also helps you keep up with subscriber expectations, keep your skills sharp, and invest in proven strategies without a bunch of guessing and checking. Based on what we’re seeing (and we see a lot of emails) plus research from The 2024 State of Email Trends Report, here’s what we think will be popular this year. Read through them all or jump ahead to the latest design trends: Interactivity like polls, quizzes, carousel, and AMP for email Minimalism and micro-interactions Hyper-personalization and AI-powered recommendations Accessibility and usability for all Playful shapes, colors, and layouts The ever-evolving inbox landscape Email design trends make the most sense—and are the most actionable—when you consider the context of email marketing
“Can we put video in email?” This question has come up a lot over the years, and we still hear it from time to time. After all, video seems like a great way to up the subscriber experience. But can you actually put video in email? And should you? It depends. Which seems like the go-to answer for all things email. Email has so many things to consider that every question raises more questions. So let’s dive into the pros and cons, how to fake it, how to actually embed a real video in your email, and some examples you can take inspiration from. Do videos in emails work? Yes, you can use videos in emails! And, there’s evidence that you should (at least sometimes) use video in email. According to the State of Email Trends Report, only 34% of marketers are using video in email, but over 50% of
Marketing strategies face some headwinds in 2024. They must adapt to leverage emerging technologies while operating under tighter budgets and an increased focus on accessibility and data privacy. Let’s take a closer look at how companies can navigate these very real—but not insurmountable—challenges this year. Marketing budgets In January 2023, many experts shared dire warnings about the economy. It was clearly headed for a recession. One year later, despite multiple interest rate hikes, the U.S. remains recession-free. A report from the National Association for Business Economics found that 76% of those surveyed believe the risks of a recession this year have fallen to 50% or less, and some businesses, like Bank of America, are predicting a soft landing. However, when they planned their 2024 budgets, most marketing teams expected to do more with less this year. Those tight budgets will push companies to streamline fragmented collections of niche marketing technologies.