Designing marketing emails is a dichotomous process.  It marries both the creative and the technical to create a product that will hopefully win you some customers. Because of this dueling nature, email design is oft misunderstood.  So I’ve pulled together some tips and instructions that will help you build better emails.

Always start your design with the brand or product in mind.  Showcasing the brand or product is your first duty.  But don’t fail to design for the target audience.  Tailor your emails so that they appeal to the target demographic.  The call-to-action is another consideration.  It should be immediately visible and easily actionable. Email client preview panes make this a necessity.  For example, AOL uses a very small preview pane; it’s not even the standard 600 pixel width.  This leaves you with a minute window of time and space to make an impact.

Always design for balance.  Consider the weight of your text versus images.  I prefer to design with a ratio of 70% text to 30% images, but best practice states a ratio of 60% to 40%.  Because of this text versus image weighting, text design takes on a greater significance.

Lots of brands design so that the top third of their emails display as a wall of images.  Now, if this email is viewed in Outlook, that top third isn’t even going to render.  So, what can you do?  I always represent the brand in text within the top third of the email.  I do this with a headline.  This effectively eliminates the preview pane issue, and optimizes my design for mobile users.

A mobile phone offers a preview pane that includes the subject line and the first few lines of the email’s body copy.  By including a tagline at the beginning of the email, I can create a mobile preview pane that ties the subject line and body copy tie together, forming a seamless user experience.

I hope this information works to expedite and clarify the email design process.  If you have questions or any helpful tidbits you would like to add, please leave a comment.