Redesign your emails for today’s inbox
Redesign your emails for today’s inbox
1. Use a tool like Email on Acid or Litmus to run a rendering test and find out how your emails look on all devices.
Send a proof of your email to your account. After a few minutes, login to your account and review the 40-50 renderings on various devices to see if anything is breaking.
2. Update any existing email designs that using a side-by-side or a two-column layout to a single unified column to be better laid out for mobile devices.
For example, the image below shows a two-column layout condensed into a single unified column:
3. Add white space around your main elements and clickable CTAs to make skimming content and tapping easier on mobile devices.
For example, adding whitespace to the email below makes it easier to skim through:
4. Convert your call to action buttons to one-column by one-row tables with a colored background to ensure they show up even when images are turned off.
These types of buttons are also known as bulletproof buttons. If your email platform allows it, style the text link inside your table to remove the underline using either the WYSIWYG editor or by adding text-decoration: none; to your inline CSS.
5. Use short copy with important text not embedded in images, so it shows up whether images are on or off in your readers' inboxes.
It’s always worth testing longer copy if you’re committed to it.
6. Ensure your emails are at least 500 characters of true text long to improve your chances of reaching your subscribers' inboxes.
All-image emails or emails where the majority of the text is embedded in images may get filtered as spam before they even reach your subscribers’ inboxes.
7. Run a new rendering test after redesigning your email or template, to ensure your emails are readable on all devices.
8. Find campaigns or visuals in your email content calendar that would benefit from animation - like GIFs or still shots from videos - to tell the story and drive engagement.
Make sure any animation or videos you add are relevant to your product or offer.