The Dos And Don’ts Of Creating Eye-Catching Emails
Every company dreams of having free SMTP email services that consistently deliver attention-grabbing emails to their customers. But many spend big bucks to get results only to be disappointed when they review analytics later. The key to getting it right is in understanding what people find engaging, and designing emails according to that knowledge.
ReachMail and computational neuroscience firm EyeQuant recently used special software to evaluate a number of email campaigns. The campaigns were rated based on clarity, excitingness and an attention heat map. In other words, EyeQuant’s software anticipates what people will like or dislike in particular email campaigns, and what they’ll respond to.
What we learned:
Use white space to steer the eye.
Under EyeQuant’s criteria, a whiskey maker missed the mark in clarity with an advertising email that’s full of dense text that overwhelms readers and gives a cluttered perception. While it’s considered exciting due to a large visual image, attention is diverted from the actual content of the message. More white space would make for an easier read.
Narrow your options and focus your message.
A trade publication also struggled with ratings because too much is going on with the design. Readers are given so many options in the email it’s hard to focus on any particular message. A robot image and the large word “automation” draws attention, but there is no clear call-to-action.
Simple design, and contrasting call to actions.
A B2B email campaign fares much better with clarity by using a simple design. Attention is drawn to the headline and “watch now” calls-to-action. The simplicity of the campaign, though, dampens the excitement factor. The company also misses out on the opportunity to convey an immediate value proposition with its content.
Clean display for technical content.
A financial services company demonstrates a simple, effective email campaign. The email evaluated here includes a short section with written content and a chart. The company does well for a financial services firm, as far as providing serious information in an uncluttered way. The call-to-action and headlines are also attention-grabbing.
Be mindful of colors and secondary elements in images.
Looking at product description, an aviation company does a great job with its titles and headlines but the email content itself is not considered interesting. The cluttered background in the photo and drab colors overall make it less successful. Like other examples, there is no call-to-action or value proposition.
We hope these insights help you improve your marketing email designs and optimize this crucial element of business communications. Stay tuned for further tips on how manage transactional email campaigns.
Original Article