Email Design Best Practices: How to Improve Your Email Conversion Rate

First impressions mean everything — and with a first impression, you only get one chance! In the world of email marketing, email design is even more important than you might think: it's one of the best ways to catch your readers' attention, enticing them to read to the end and follow your call to action (CTA). By focusing on email design best practices, you can create emails that are a pleasure to read, leading to a better email conversion rate.

#1. Optimize the subject line

The subject line of your email is often the first thing people see, and it's essential to make it count. Consider including a teaser about what's in the rest of your email — but don't give too much away! You want to suggest a question so compelling that your readers choose to click through to find the answer. Also keep your subject line short (under 50 characters), because longer subject lines will get cut off on mobile devices.

#2. Fine-tune snippet text

Many email providers have a feature called snippet text on both desktop and mobile. Essentially, this gives a short preview (often 100 characters) of the copy that's inside the email. Your snippet text is valuable — use that space wisely and don't repeat what you said in the subject of the email. This snippet text can actually serve as a CTA in itself, prompting your reader to open the email.

#3. Follow email design best practices

Once your reader opens the email, you want to keep them there — and one way to do that is by designing a good email with beautiful colors and images, creating a pleasurable reading experience. Choose a clear, on-brand color palette and include bright imagery.

#4. Make things easy

What do you want your email readers to do next? Whether it's to go premium, visit your website, or make a purchase, you have to make it as easy as possible for them to take that next step. Design your email layout so that readers' eyes will be immediately drawn to the most important element: the CTA. You can also utilize positioning to strategically place your CTA in the email. People generally read from the top left to right of an email and then scan down, so try putting your CTA near the bottom or the right. Linking images can also help improve email conversion rates.

#5. Strategically place text

Aim to strike a good balance of text and images in the email layout to make your email easy and inviting to read. Many people simply scan through their emails, skimming the text instead of reading every word. By breaking your text up and making it easy to spot the highlights, readers will be more likely to retain key points. Try creating a small section of text to accompany each image you include; each section should have its own headline and make one central point. Your copy needs to be top-notch, too — good copywriting can help email conversion rates skyrocket.

#6. Create mobile-friendly emails

Worldwide, almost half of all Internet traffic is mobile. And here's another memorable statistic: emails that don't display well on mobile will be deleted within three seconds in 70 percent of cases! You can improve your email conversion rate by making your emails mobile-friendly. Include text breaks and use a large font size; test your email layout to discover any potential problems. Make absolutely certain to use a responsive email template or other responsive design.

Wrap-up: Improve your email conversion rate

Ready to implement all these tips and start improving your email conversion rate? A drag-and-drop email editor with stunning, professionally-designed templates can help your email conversion rate rise!