Super email design ideas

I'm abroad but it seems foolish to deny you some fabulous new article links until my return on Monday. So have a peek at these:

A while back I argued about the need to stay creative and not get caught in the rut of email mediocrity. Easier said than done.

But you may find inspiration from Chad White's 2007 Design Hall of Fame. He introduces some standout examples of calls to action, animated gifs, send-to-a-friend functionality and images.

Talking about calls to action, one point I forgot to mention yesterday is that it helps to have one. Dylan takes Ben and Jerry's to task for missing this point.

But let's focus on getting it right. Mathew Patterson has a long article outlining the principles of beautiful HTML email design. As well as the words of advice, note the many screenshots of good design in action.

Then MarketingSherpa report on a somewhat complicated study of email newsletter design.

I'll admit it left me a little confused. But the takeaway seems to be that it's very definitely worth testing different design approaches to find the right fit for your audience and goals.

(And by design approach I mean the layout and structure as a whole, rather than just tweaking individual elements within that design.)

And talking of design approaches, just how many email templates does a business need? MailChimp say seven and describe each for us.

Finally, I remain a commited fan of the Email Standards Project for HTML email. They are a touch frustrated at their inability to get through to the nice folk at Gmail in their pursuit of email client rendering standards. So they hit on a rather fun idea to help with their communication efforts. Take a peek and join in.

Tags: email marketing, email design, html email

Permalink | January 31, 2008 | 0 comment(s)
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