How to Make Data-Driven Email Design Decisions

Savvy email marketers know that good design determines an email's success. And if your emails aren't performing the way you want them to, it's critical to examine your design. To make smart data-driven email design decisions, ask yourself these five questions, and then test our suggested solutions to improve your metrics.

1. Are your click-through rates lower than you want them to be?

Your click-through rate shows how engaged the audience is with your email. Click-through rates can vary pretty significantly depending on the industry, company, and email type, but IBM Marketing Cloud once reported an overall mean click-through rate of 3.3% in its Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study.

What to consider: The number of images

Images can have a big impact on click-through rates. Campaigns with images have shown a 42% higher CTR than campaigns without them. If you've been using the same email templates for a while, it's a good time to test fresh, more visual versions. Once you add more images, it's important to know how to optimize them:

• Only include images that add value to your message.
• Take note of image rendering and avoid blurry images.
• Never skip ALT text, and always make sure images are linked.
• Use text over background images (vs. text built into the image).
• Using stock images? Make sure they're on-brand, and consider quick customizations.

2. Are you getting enough clicks on your primary CTA?

Bad and boring CTAs happen to the best of us. There's a lot to consider, like how it should look, where it should appear, how many times it should appear, and what it should say.

What to consider: The CTA button

People are wired to click on buttons, and your primary CTA should be one. Linked text is for secondary CTAs, when needed. Here are the design best practices to try and test:

• The CTA should pass the squint test. This means that even with blurred vision, readers can still see where and how to take action in your email.
• Make the button bulletproof, so that it's HTML and not an image. This means it's always clickable, even with images turned off.
• Move the CTA somewhere else. In most cases, the button should appear at the top of your message and close to an offer.
• Reduce the number of CTAs. Simplify your email and offer readers a call to action just once (or twice).
• Change the CTA color. Color is one of the most significant components of making a button stand out.

3. Are your mobile readers engaging with your email?

Do you know what percentage of opens occur on mobile devices? Believe it or not, the percent is often higher than 50%. So engaging mobile readers is definitely a top priority for most email marketers.

What to consider: The mobile-first design approach

There isn't a single golden rule for optimizing your email for mobile. Taking a "mobile first" approach means adopting multiple design techniques and testing how they perform:

• Choose a single-column layout with easy scroll.
• Go with a simplified header design (no navigation menu, no clutter).
• Make sure to have a responsive design that allows images to resize or move, or for some content to be hidden.
• Have CTAs that are bulletproof, legible, and have appropriate padding.
• Include images that are always mobile-optimized.

4. Do you wish people spent more time looking at your email?

If time spent on email is important to your business, have you considered how to use design to increase this? Even transactional emails can include secondary upsell content, and some emails are long enough to warrant anchor links.

What to consider: The message content, length, and structure

• Use anchor links to improve navigation.
• Feature user-generated content that's relevant to your audience.
• Consider alternative ways of featuring products and services.
• Try a mobile-responsive photo gallery.
• Test different layouts (multiple columns, hybrid, etc.).

5. Does your data show that certain email clients dominate your subscriber base?

Email marketers should continually monitor which webmail services readers use, but every user base will be different.

What to consider: The priority of email services

With the number of email clients growing every day, it's not realistic to have designs tailored to every user's email service. Instead, designers should know the main email services (and devices) that their audience is using and then optimize designs for the most significant environments. For example, if most of your readers use Outlook, then it's imperative to know Outlook's design rendering quirks — older versions don't have the best HTML or CSS support, with no support for background images in divs and table cells, CSS float or position, or text shadow. For the majority of readers who use Apple devices to read emails, it's important to monitor iOS updates and see how they impact design. The key is to do your data research, to test, and to prioritize for your audience.