Email Debrief: 2023 Email Marketing and Design Trends | Acumen Tech

Welcome to our new month-to-month weblog collection the place I, your humble Senior Group Evangelist, recap our newest Litmus Talks and be aware key takeaways (and supply a couple of ideas of my very own) to occupy your treasured mind area.

This month, I’m sharing my ideas on our Dwell E mail Optimization digital occasion, the place Litmus’ Director of E mail Advertising, Jaina Mistry together with our E mail Advertising Specialist Carin Slater and E mail Design and Manufacturing Specialist Hannah Tiner assessment 5 submitted emails by our brave viewers and supply suggestions and reward.

Learn on (or bounce forward):

 

Client Reviews ShopSmart publication

Client Reviews sends a twice-weekly ShopSmart publication despatched with the objective of driving clicks to affiliate buying hyperlinks and driving digital all-access subscriptions.

🌟 What works nicely Animated GIFs: An animated GIF because the hero picture, designed with a easy palette of three colours and a comparatively small variety of frames, is efficient at participating preliminary visible curiosity whereas additionally maintaining the information weight of the picture manageable. An excellent option to stimulate however not distract the reader, like an amuse-bouche earlier than a full meal.

 

❤️ What wants love

Textual content hyperlinks: Textual content hyperlinks don’t at all times do a great job of making visible friction to compel readers to pause, and “learn extra” because the textual content doesn’t supply the reader any context for what to anticipate. Plus, utilizing the identical textual content again and again causes the reader to file these components away as identified and acquainted—nice for logos and model recognition, however unhealthy for calls-to-action (CTAs) the place we wish the reader to cease and have interaction.

Buttons are higher at being visually differentiated—they use clearer, uniquely phrased CTA textual content to drive extra of a response.

Normal Life publication

The objective of this Normal Life publication is to drive visitors to the weblog part of their web site, which is concentrated on offering related data to encourage buyer retention.

🌟 What works nicely Learn time estimates: E mail works greatest as a channel when it units clear expectations for the viewers, and using learn time estimates subsequent to CTAs linking out to articles is efficient at doing simply that. Whereas this has develop into extra frequent apply on blogs, placing the estimates within the e-mail itself exhibits the reader you respect their restricted time and a focus.

 

❤️ What wants love

Imagery: In the identical vein of setting clear expectations, if you happen to’re quoting an individual in an e-mail—as they do on this one for a testimonial—it’s greatest to make use of an precise photograph of them when in any respect attainable as a substitute of utilizing a graphic. This helps set up credibility and offers our brains the little push wanted to attach with the content material emotionally. One thing else that helps create credibility is utilizing constant types of illustration and pictures in order that the e-mail reads as visually constant.

Feed 365 publication

The objective of Feed 365’s publication is to precise gratitude and share updates with members of their month-to-month giving program.

🌟 What works nicely Emotional connection: Human beings mirror each other—it’s a deeply hardwired conduct. Utilizing pictures that includes precise folks smiling prompts the reader to create a optimistic emotional connection, and creating that emotional response is central to creating content material memorable. We don’t keep in mind issues that don’t immediate a sense. Equally, describing the affect of donations and the way they’re used moderately then merely totaling the numbers provides the reader actual emotional stakes in what’s being introduced to them.

 

❤️ What wants love

CTAs: One of many methods you may present respect in your e-mail viewers is being easy as to what you might be asking of them. This is the reason having clearly distinguished CTAs are necessary—it alleviates any confusion as to what the subscriber is predicted to do. 

In fact, CTAs are additionally central to measuring engagement and tied to most e-mail packages’ success metrics, so they’re additionally crucial in a crunchy numbers sense. However I’d argue the first purpose to incorporate them is to offer a transparent subsequent step for the reader to additional the connection you’ve gotten with them.

American Vehicle Affiliation (AAA) publication

This month-to-month publication from AAA is meant to share information and updates with their members and  assist them profit from their membership.

🌟 What works nicely Visible hierarchy: The most effective methods to make your emails simple to learn is to have a constant visible hierarchy—how your content material is styled and structured. When every precedence stage of your content material has a definite fashion and placement that stays the identical from e-mail to e-mail, that creates each readability and familiarity within the thoughts of the recipient—they don’t must work to grasp what you need them to have interaction with first, second, and so forth. Decreasing the cognitive load on this means provides the reader extra capability to note what you do need them to cease and contemplate, like your CTAs.

 

❤️ What wants love

Numbers: Whereas we completely want an emotional connection to content material to make it memorable, we additionally crave numbers to maintain our comprehension of that content material digestible. Sturdy statements with none quantification stimulate our brains however don’t allow them to relaxation. Numbers, statistics, percentages—these all work to include what the reader is taking in in order that it feels much less amorphous and all-consuming. 

JetBrains publication

This JetBrains e-mail is geared toward driving registrations to an upcoming webinar.

🌟 What works nicely Hero characteristic: In a single-topic e-mail, a good way to point out respect in your readers’ time and a focus is to have a hero part that accommodates all the mandatory data and a right away CTA, after which you may add extra element beneath for people who want it. This additionally lets you measure who in your viewers is simply on the lookout for the fast synopsis, and who amongst them craves extra context, which could be an actionable little bit of segmenting knowledge down the road.

 

❤️ What wants love

Content material size: Whereas providing extra element after a concise hero part may be useful, a number of paragraphs of undifferentiated textual content is tough to parse visually. As we all know that most individuals skim emails, brevity is nearly at all times going to be the right strategy, together with styling the content material in order that there are breaks and destructive area to permit for simpler comprehension.

Together with a secondary CTA on the backside of the e-mail linking to a touchdown web page lets you seize those that discovered it price their whereas to learn that far. It’s additionally good to bear in mind which content material is correct for which channel—prolonged element is probaby higher served on a touchdown web page, in any case.

Don’t need to look ahead to my recaps? You’ll be able to join our subsequent Litmus Occasion proper right here.