Optimize Your Emails From Top to Bottom With These 27 Tips

There’s a lot to consider earlier than you hit ship in your newest marketing campaign or ship a brand new template into the world. With so many variables, alternatives to optimize your emails can conceal in plain sight. 

It’s a bit like beginning a house challenge and promising to return again to it later. The busy-ness of life sends the main points to the background, and also you get used to how the half-finished room appears. 

Once you create emails day in and day trip, it’s tempting to take a look at greater and extra thrilling concepts. Typically, it pays to return to fundamentals.

Listed below are some suggestions and finest practices that I take into account as Litmus’ e-mail developer, throughout six important elements of an e-mail. 

Carve out a while for an e-mail check-in—and see the place you might have alternatives to optimize.

6 e-mail sections to optimize 

Don’t know tips on how to optimize your emails? Begin on the high. Evaluate your present e-mail templates one part at a time to make sure you don’t by chance skip one thing.

1. Envelope

An e-mail is only a digital letter, so it is smart that there’s an envelope. The e-mail envelope incorporates your subject line, preview text, and sender title. The job of those parts is to encourage somebody to open the e-mail; the items must work collectively. For instance, Paula’s Alternative sent an email about their vitamin C serum with the topic line ‘3 Issues to Know About Vitamin C ?’ and ‘#3 is v. necessary’ within the preview textual content.

Ideas for optimizing your e-mail envelope:

• Make your sender title welcoming—don’t use a ‘no-reply’ tackle
• Use a sender title that’s clearly out of your model
• Don’t stress about phrases that set off spam filters (they don’t actually impact your email deliverability)
• Coordinate your topic line and preview textual content, just like the preview textual content answering a query within the topic line or each organising a subject that the e-mail continues
• If a message is ‘from’ somebody in your group, ensure that the e-mail truly appears prefer it’s from an individual
• Don’t use ‘Re:’ or ‘FWD:’ in your topic line. Your emails ought to construct belief, not deteriorate it.

Learn extra: The Preview Text Hack You May Want to Use in Every Email

2. Header

When a subscriber opens your e-mail, they’ll first see your header beneath the envelope data. You have got just a few choices for tips on how to arrange your header, however most headers ought to a minimum of embrace your brand. You too can make your header dynamic, for instance, our newsletters have a dynamic hyperlink within the header. If the subscriber is a Litmus buyer, there’s a login button. Non-customers will see a ‘View on-line’ hyperlink.

Different issues you might embrace in your header part embrace social icons or menus. I’m not a fan of together with social media icons except they’re straight associated to a name to motion. And menus are solely good in the event that they match the message of your e-mail. But when they’re essential in your model, the header is an OK place to incorporate them.

Ideas for optimizing your e-mail header:

• Hiding your preview textual content gained’t set off spam filters, so depart it out of the header.
• If you wish to use navigation in your e-mail header, limit it to desktop opens. Actual property on cellular is far smaller, it’s higher to place your message on the high and transfer the menu to the footer.
• Make certain the font, dimension, and coloration of your header contents are accessible.

Learn extra: Modular Starter Template: Header with centered logo

3. Hero

Your e-mail hero is a visible aspect—usually a picture, animation, or textual content header that units the tone for the e-mail. Due to its dimension and site, subscribers would possibly look to the hero at the beginning, so it ought to clarify the message. Schoolhouse used a header, textual content, and CTA button with a background image to create a comfortable temper in their email.

Ideas for optimizing your e-mail hero:

• At all times use retina photographs for images and set width and top attributes. Outlook doesn’t render CSS types, so with out attributes in place, your photographs will likely be blown out.
• Use an inverted pyramid design for text-based headers with a header, subheader, textual content.
• Make your headline and/or hero picture clickable in case your header doesn’t characteristic a CTA

Learn extra: The 102 of Email Code: Working with images

4. Physique copy

In case your web site is sort of a digital store, your e-mail is the show window that draws folks.You don’t want to elucidate every little thing in your e-mail, simply sufficient to drive a single motion. Drizly stored their copy short and sweet whereas nonetheless giving essential dates and particulars.

Ideas for optimizing your e-mail copy:

• Use dwell textual content in a web safe font. You’ll be able to add internet fonts the place supported, nevertheless it’s higher to create an accessible e-mail than one with refined font adjustments that most individuals gained’t discover. 
• Keep your copy concise and left align your textual content if it’s greater than three traces lengthy
• Use the ‘rule of three’ to create participating and scannable ordered lists
• Make the most of white space
• Use semantic code to indicate headers and paragraphs
• Break up extra text-heavy emails like newsletters with photographs or offset quotes

Learn extra: How to Use Dynamic Email Content to Increase Engagement

5. Calls-to-action (CTAs)

Hick’s Law states that the extra choices you give somebody, the longer they take to resolve. So, wield your CTAs thoughtfully and use bulletproof buttons to make sure everybody sees them. For instance, ILIA used a bit of little bit of copy and a clear CTA to direct subscribers to their web site.

Ideas for optimizing your e-mail CTAs:

• Use Litmus Personalize to dynamically replace which content material and CTAs a subscriber sees primarily based on their previous actions
• Make certain there’s visible curiosity pulling subscribers to the underside of the e-mail if that’s the place your CTA is
• Linking the identical web page in a number of spots offers you a fallback in case one hyperlink doesn’t work. Make certain to alter up the copy on the CTAs although to keep away from being repetitive. (Don’t overlook, you should utilize Litmus to automatically check links earlier than you ship, simply sayin’.)

Learn extra: Guide to Calls-To-Action (CTAs) in Email Marketing

6. Footer

Your email footer wraps up your message and holds necessary bits like unsubscribe hyperlinks and legalese, however it may be enjoyable, too! Litmus Weekly emails at all times embrace ‘Made with ❤️ utilizing Litmus’ however you may even swap up the message every week.

Ideas for optimizing your e-mail footer:

• Make your unsubscribe hyperlink seen
• Put your tackle within the footer
• When you don’t need folks to answer to the e-mail, inform them how they will contact you
• In case your ‘view in browser’ hyperlink isn’t within the header, put it within the footer
• Maintain your footer organized and readable
• Don’t be afraid to have a bit of enjoyable and present character within the footer

Learn extra: 12 Email Footer Design Best Practices

Above all… check!

Everybody ought to check each e-mail. Testing is one of the best ways to make sure that all of your onerous work reveals up precisely as you supposed within the inbox. Litmus Previews and QA allow you to preview how your e-mail will seem throughout e-mail shoppers and units, examine hyperlinks, guarantee accessibility, measure load velocity, and examine for potential spam points.