Email Marketing Tactics #10: Professional Layout

It’s important for email campaigns to look professional.  Most recipients will not read emails that arrive in an unprofessionally cluttered format.  The information needs to be clearly laid out in a clean design.  When creating an email campaign there are basically two layout options.  A custom design or a email service provider template.

A custom layout that supports the organization’s brand is ideal. This ensures that your email campaign won’t be confused with any other company’s messaging.  It can also be tailored to provide an ideal fit for your email content.

Email service provider templates can be a lower-tech solution.  Two criteria need to be met to ensure it will work for your email campaign:

1. The layout allows customization to adhere to your email content needs (i.e. if you need two columns you have the ability to set them up while maintaining some company-specific customization).
2. The layout isn’t widely used.  Some stock designs become popular and quickly saturate the market.  Credibility diminishes if recipients receive an email that has the same design as another campaign.  Swapping out the logo is not sufficient to make a template yours, so do some legwork to ensure you aren’t implementing a design that is identified with other organizations.

In either custom or template layouts, make sure the layout is flexible so that it can be consistent.  Meaning, the campaign should have a consistent design so that it is recognizable on sight to recipients.  However, it should easily allow for different content to be applied so that different messages can use the same design.  This facilitates recipients receiving unique messages while recognizing it as a piece of the entire campaign.

People will judge your email campaign by it’s cover.  Make sure the design reflects the professionalism of your organization.