How to make visually appealing emails

The world has gone digital and with every passing day people’s attention spans are also getting shorter. If you want to make an impression, you have to do it quickly. This is the rule that marketers use with every piece of content… even emails! 

Making an impression with emails can be a little challenging, but with the right tools and creativity, you can transform your emails into visually appealing masterpieces that captivate your audience from the get-go, whether you want to make more sales or create more awareness. In this blog post we will walk you through a complete guide on how to amp up your marketing email design game. 

Using professional email templates

An email should be more than just a boring body of text, it should be a visual journey. Instead of manually designing every little part of your email, you can simply pick an email template from PosterMyWall’s vast template library. Save yourself the extra effort and make use of such an incredible free resource!

Whether it’s a new year’s eve party…

…or even a Christmas sale.

 You will want to create an email campaign as well to seal the deal. Pick a theme, choose your designs, and kickstart your marketing directly from our platform. Once you know what you want to be sending to your customers, it’s time to tweak it to make it your own. Here’s where customization comes in. 

Picking the right color scheme 

It’s important to have a color scheme that connects with your audience and conveys the emotions you want to convey. You can easily alter color combinations in any template that you select from PosterMyWall’s template gallery. 

But what colors to choose? 

• Use your brand’s exact color scheme by simply copying and pasting hex codes.
• Good contrast between colors increases readability 
• Play around with color psychology – warm colors convey excitement and passion, while cool colors convey trust and reliability.  
• Make sure the colors you use in your call-to-action stand out! 

Incorporate email buttons

Adding buttons to your email makes it so much easier to get results from your outreach. The big shiny button is right there, who wouldn’t be tempted to click on it! 

Here are some things to keep in mind when placing a button on your email:

• Use precise language – a call to action is the perfect choice. 
• Make your button stand out using contrasting colors. 
• Make sure your buttons are mobile friendly (a button that’s easy to tap on)
• Double check the URL you embed in the button – can’t afford a mistake here. 
• Surround the button with white space so the main part isn’t too distracting

Email layout to create a visual map

When it comes to marketing email design, your layout needs to be planned in a way that creates a visual hierarchy. Haphazard layouts make it difficult to focus on things in order, and can become overwhelming for the reader. 

Your goal should be to send out emails that create visual maps, and naturally make people move from one section to the next. Whether your email has a single column, multiple columns, or even a zigzag layout, the main thing you want to achieve is balance. 

Here’s what you need to keep in mind: 

• Layout your first section as the most important one – this is where you grab the reader’s attention.
• Giving your email design some breathing space will make it easier for readers to make sense of it
• Use relevant pictures and graphics to keep things interesting
• Check if your layout looks good across different devices
• Make sure your headers and footers live up to their purpose!

The perfect header  

Let’s delve deeper into what your email headers and footers need to look like. Your header is the first thing your reader will see. If you nail this, most of your work is already done. It needs to include two things:

• Brand information
• Email agenda 

Now you need to lay this out with 4 ingredients:

1. Your brand logo 
2. A heading
3. Your message in the form of a paragraph 
4. A compelling CTA to bring in conversions 
5. A catchy visual to tie it all together

Look at all 5 header elements in this template: 

Ending on a good footer

A footer is the final call for engagement in an email, you better make it count! Use this opportunity to build trust and end in style. 

Here are some key elements for your footer: 

1. Company logo
2. An unsubscribe button (so you don’t get marked as spam!)
3. Contact details (Address, email etc.)

And here are some recommendations on what further to add:

4. Social media links 
5. CTA 
6. Links to other related content 

Look at the footer in this halloween promotion email: 

Responsive emails!

Your emails will be viewed across screens of all sizes, so it needs to be able to respond to all of them. A non-responsive email is a recipe for disaster. 

Desktops have bigger screens, so the mobile version of the same email will need to become more compact for better readability. To ensure this, you need to:

• Keep testing! View the same email across screens to make sure everything is okay.
• Avoid tiny elements that are annoying for mobile users.
• Prioritize a mobile-first design approach. 

Wrapping it up 

Marketing email design is a task that needs a very well thought out strategy before execution. Everything, from the colors you pick to the font size you use, has a different impact on the reader. As a marketer it’s your job to research and figure out which aspects resonate with your audience better. 

This guide is just a starting point, you can tweak it according to your own audience. After all, you do know them better! Just make sure you keep following certain designing ground rules. If you need more help, you might find these blog posts useful: 

• 9 time saving design tricks to help you stay on top of your marketing 
• 5 sizzlin’ strategies for your summer email campaigns
• How to use mailing lists to improve your email marketing