After you design the perfect subject line and pick the best content, you need to consider what format will garner the highest click rate. The layout should make it easy for readers to find the content they are looking for from the subject line or discover new content. Simple layouts with clearly defined ways to get to the content are the most successful for any type of email campaign.
Keep it Short and Simple
Skip the short novella and stick to a simple and sweet content plan. Sadly, subscribers aren’t reading long articles within emails so spending time writing out long paragraphs won’t increase your click rate or site traffic. Keep the length of the email as short as possible while still providing value. As a rule of thumb, your intro or letter should be 100 words or less. Remember, you can always break down a longer email into two separate campaigns so that you don’t overwhelm your subscriber.
Mobile First Format
Over 50% of all email is opened on a smartphone. While people are busy with their day, they take small breaks to check email with their phone. In order to make the email campaigns optimal on mobile, it is imperative that it is easy to read and click on a phone. The ideal font size for mobile is 16pt or more. The layout should be clean and simple with options to click or click to buy high in the campaign, within the first swipe. Most email marketing programs have responsive designs which means that they stack the content instead of side by side as it is on desktop. Test your campaigns on your smartphone before sending to ensure that it is functioning properly.
Link Love
The goals of email marketing are usually to gain sales, increase website traffic, or inform customers. In order to achieve these goals, you probably want your readers to click back to your website. Making your links easy to select whether on desktop or mobile is important. When you test your campaign on mobile, can you easily click one link if located close to another? Sometimes the spacing of links can make it difficult for your finger to select one item. Using buttons can eliminate this problem and makes it very obvious to the reader where she should click to receive the content. Even though most people know that blue underlined text is a link, buttons make it even more obvious and garners more clicks than text.
Colors in Campaigns
When it comes to colors, be careful when picking colors to use in campaigns. The easiest text to read on desktop and mobile is still a plain font with white background and black text. Using white fonts on lightly colored backgrounds can be very difficult for most people to decipher, even on desktop. For increased attention, using callouts in red or orange can draw in the eye and make those links more likely to be clicked. Colors can work in campaigns, it’s just important to make sure that your content is still readable and effective.
Formatting an email campaign is like laying out a good magazine article, it should make your content more desirable to the reader while giving them the content they expect. The best layouts are short and simple which makes creating winning campaigns less of a burden on your weekly schedule. To ensure that you’ve created the best campaign sometimes asking a friend to review it with fresh eyes on a mobile device will give you the best feedback.
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