Email Marketing Best Practices

Why do we need it?

Benefits of best practice

Allows for larger volumes to be sent

Accessible to all ISPs

Message not reliant on images turned on

Device agnostic

Leaves the user in control

Instant recognition of brand

The email journey

Sender name Subject line Preview pane Entire email Interaction Closing

How people read email

Recipient reads who the email is from

Then the subject line

The preview pane

The entire email possibly, with images o first then on ff(depending on mail client)

Interaction a click through, or response if a personal mail

Closing interaction hopefully a positive conversion and not an unsubscribe

Envelope / Subject Line

-Include your brand name in the friendly from. The brand or the company name is immediately recognizable to the recipient.

-A recognizable “from” email address should be used. Subject lines need to be tested and used accordingly.

General guidelines

Web friendly link ensures that all subscribers can access the information as you intended, even if the email they received does not render properly.

Pre-header text amplifies the message and delivers key information.

It is worth including the o er link in the pre-header as this allows people to ffinteract with the mail immediately.

Unsubscribe link needs to be prominent in order to discourage the recipient from using the spam complaint button.

Pre-header

Body

-Content in preview pane should display the call to action in text and have multiple links. The top content needs to be motivating enough to encourage recipient to scroll down.

-Good balance between text and images. Content should not be dependent on images being enabled. Use ALT tags to describe the images.

-Text should be all formatted as text. Use standard, most commonly supported fonts. Examples of these are Arial, Times New Roman, Georgia, Verdana and Tahoma.

-Buttons should be created as text on a solid color background. Advantage – call to action is visible regardless of image enablement.

-Background images and gradients should be avoided where possible these have to be made into regular images and so will not first appear if images are disabled.

-The purpose of the email and main o er needs to be prominent, clear and concise. - ffShare content via forward to a friend and with links to social media sites.

-Text copy is a must to help deliver the message to recipients who receive only receive text emails.

Footer - Include a physical postal address to boost creditability. This is legal requirement in the United States

Display the recipient's email address.

Displaying the address helps boost the email's credibility and helps recipients who may be receiving duplicate copies under several di erent ffemail addresses unsubscribe from the correct address.

A link to the online privacy policy to reassure the customer their email address will not be shared with or sold to any other organization without their express consent.

The unsubscribe link.

- Include a Pre-header. This contains important information and allows the recipient to immediately interact with the email.

- Design the email with a good balance between plain text and images.

- Text wherever possible should be plain text and rendered with web safe fonts.

- Buttons should be styled links and plain text.

- Avoid over design as all these graphical elements need to be rendered as images.

- Display the recipients email address

Summary

Make sure that your email is responsive

Email and Mobile