Myth 15: design is the only thing that matters

Category: Email Marketing

A newsletter is made up of many elements that influence its success. It is a myth to believe that design is the only thing that matters because even before the subscriber can appreciate the visual aspect of the content, there are many other factors to take into account within the email marketing strategy that will make the campaigns successful.

 

Content choice

The first important decision is not what template you want to use, but what type of mailing you want to send. The answer will vary depending on the objective and is what will most influence the rest of the factors. There are many possibilities: a newsletter with corporate news, a curated selection of the most relevant in the sector, a promotion for the launch of a new model, an offer for customers who have not bought for a long time, a purely transactional notification, a birthday greeting, etc. 

 

Frequency of sending

Sending one newsletter a month is less commercially aggressive than sending a couple of campaigns every week with different promotions. The decision can be made by the company or it can be left up to each subscriber, but their perception of the messages and the company will vary and they may unsubscribe if they are too frequent.

Combining different types of communications is a way to prevent the user from getting tired of receiving our mailings. In addition, it is important to take into account the possible impacts they are also receiving through other channels.

 

Segmentation

Deciding who to send to is also a way to avoid unsubscribes because you can choose a small segment that is more valuable than the entire list. In this way, it is possible to prepare an interesting message for that group of subscribers without the rest of the subscribers seeing an increase in the frequency with which they receive communications.

There are different ways of segmenting, such as by previous purchases, language or interests, but they all depend on having a good database and not on the design of the messages.

 

Timing

No one likes to be bothered with messages of little value. These tend to accumulate and end up being deleted, often without being opened because there is no time for them. Choosing the best time to send an email to your contact list will depend on factors such as your business model or the action you want them to complete. 

Both segmentation and frequency influence this decision, but not the design, as we have not yet even considered which template to use.

 

Deliverability

The spam folder is much feared by email marketers because it can be difficult to get out of it. Users often don't pay attention to the emails that end up there and they are automatically deleted without being read.

Deliverability measures the ability to reach the inbox and takes into account technical issues, such as the reputation of the sender, but also the content itself, where the design or rather its programming can have an influence.

 

Personalisation

Everything in an email marketing campaign can be personalised, including the design, and therefore this factor affects every element. However, most of the time, the template remains the same and what is adapted is a block of content. 

For example: a campaign designed with a featured image and a text with a button underneath can be customised by varying the photo, but the general layout of the content will remain the same. Dynamic fields help to avoid duplicating or tripling the number of mailings and also to obtain useful statistics to optimise future communications. 

 

Sender 

The sender's name and email address are usually a strategic decision for the brand because it is what gives the user confidence to open the message. But it is another myth that the sender must always be the company: it can be adapted to each type of mailing, depending on its characteristics. The most common is newsletter@, but it can also be info@ or a proper name if it is someone recognisable to the recipient.

Each user configures the inbox as they wish and the design has no effect on how the message headers are seen, although they are the key to getting openings.

 

Subject and preheader

If you think that adding an emoji in the subject line and white space in the preheader is a matter of design, then you will believe the myth that it is the only thing that matters. The truth is that these are the few options to make these elements more visual because they are basically text that every email manager interprets the same: subject in bold and pre-header in grey.

In order to attract attention and achieve a high open rate, you have to rely more on the wording than on the design, for example by personalising them with the recipient's name or adding a keyword that may be relevant.

 

Copywriting

The text is as important as the image. Both matter and they need each other because it is when the two are in good harmony that results are achieved. A good example are calls to action. You have to take into account the words you are going to use to encourage the click as much as the colour of the button or the size of the font to make it easy to do so.

Another example is the images, because when choosing them you also have to take into account the text they accompany, as well as leaving enough white space for them to stand out. The distribution of the content in columns or how the blocks of text are separated also has an influence, that is, practically the whole design is related to the wording. 

 

Design

Of course, design influences the results of your email marketing! It is important to make sure it looks good on all devices, is accessible and respects your corporate identity. But it is not the only thing that matters as we have just seen: success is the sum of many factors and a good email marketing strategy takes into account all of them.

 

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