Although you hate to see the little subscription email notifications pop up on your phone and filling the limited gigabytes of real estate in your inbox, theres a designer on the other side that took about an hour or two out of their day to make it. So who’s time is really being wasted? Even if you’re not opening that SALE ENDS TODAY SHOP NOW FOR 25% OFF that just means you’re not apart of the elite 1% of email subscription openers. It means that you are the motivation for a designer to improve their campaign to get that 1% to 2%, because obviously that’s the reason no one opens subscription emails (my campaign designs keep me up at night knowing none of you open them and how I should have designed better).
Email campaigns are a way to advertise or get information out there quick. Big companies will use email campaigns to further reach customers and clients to re-enforce an existing sale, in addition to mailers, flyers and receipt coupons. As a designer, I do not spend a lot of time on these, especially if I know all of the information I need to put in and and I have pictures specific to the campaign. Some popular emailing programs are Shopify, Constant Contact and my favorite, MailChimp. For a small price you can hold and create your own contact lists and pick from templates if you want to make your life easier.
A few ways you can raise that 1% to that 2% that every designer strives for:
A catchy tag line is most important, its the first thing someone sees when that notification pops up. I would stray away from marketing trends like threatening the end of a sale or demanding a customer to shop. It can be really aggressive and you might as well be holding me hostage while I move that email from inbox to trash while looking over my shoulder to see if Bath and Bodyworks is going to jump me for doing so.
Personalization, is another way for a customer to notice your campaign. Many of those programs have a personalization tab that will include each senders name in the heading for it to say, “Dear [name],” instead of, “Dear customer.”
Once you can hook an email opener, you have to really reel them in with the design part. Think about how big your phone screen is and how much you actually read past the scroll line. The scroll line is from the top of your screen to the bottom, any information you can see without scrolling is above the scroll line. You want to try and keep the important information up there.
Make a gif advertising the sale, usually a three frame gif on photoshop can get the job done without causing an epileptic episode (say that three times fast). Many times a gif is more interesting than one picture and you can bring a bit of movement and life into your email.
Get to the point! I don’t want to be here, you don’t want to be here, don’t mislead and don’t over do it. Say what you have to say and get out.
Finally, no ones going to notice this detail but me and now you, but link your CTA’s (call to action) and hyperlinks OUT, not in. Meaning when I click on them open a new tab. Linking in only stacks history on top of history, so going backwards back into my email might make me sign in again or lose my place in my inbox. Plus when they’re looking through their open tabs, now they have one specifically for your advertised product.