How to Elevate your basic email template
Sick of feeling limited by an out-of-the-box template that ESP’s like MailChimp, and Klaviyo offer?
No offence to either ESP’s, or the brands that utilize those templates, but for those of us who are dying to be creative and don’t know how to drive email further, using them consistently can be a huge eyesore, and pinpoint when senior stakeholders want more.
A lot of default templates follow a format of
Logo
Hero Image
Body Copy
CTA button
Footer
You can probably picture it in your head right now… right?
Here’s my advice on how to drive your basic email templates further.
Logo
When it comes to a logo, you probably are presented with a default template that prompts you center align your logo smack dab, at the top of your email. Thank you MailChimp?
MailChimps out of the box template featuring a logo at the top, in the centre.
Good Pair Days takes a different approach by left aligning their logo.
How do you accomplish this? Play around with your logo alignment! Can you turn the space where your logo is positioned into a navigation bar? When you have the flexibility to transfer a website-like layout into an email, the world is your oyster. People have already opted in to receiving emails from you, so no need to overwhelm them by shouting out who you are.
Hero Image
I am unsure why there is such a tradition of using an image right at the top of the email - does anyone know why this is? I’d assume it’s to catch the subscriber’s attention, or there are some rules on hierarchy that I am unaware of, but what if an image doesn’t always work to describe or summarize all that you have to tell? Should you slot in a stock image anyways? Throw in a picture of your product? How can you avoid this looking like a template?
Miro takes a traditional approach of using a product-focused image at the top of their emai.
Wealthsimple’s TLDR newsletter, uses small infographics with the emails key topics in the space where the hero image traditionally sits.
Despite Miro using the left aligned logo that I outlined as a design hack above, they have fallen into the traditional category with the use of a 1200x600 product hero image. To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with this standard approach of having an image at the top of your email, but what Wealthsimple does to differentiate itself from the pack is nested in the whole design of the email. Things like:
a consistent background colour
a date of issue at the top of the email to emulate a newspaper
images that are infographics with text against a transparent background that are eye-catching
make the email overall easy to understand and my interest is peaked. If Miro took the same approach by making its imagery more easy to understand to the naked eye, it could result in higher engagement.
Body Copy
To lead with a headline and then a small paragraph of text, or to not. Or to use a list to divide and conquer all that the copywriter wants to say? Those are the questions.
Most often, keeping body copy simple and easy to digest is always recommended, instead of making things overcomplicated trying to stand out in the inbox. But, there are definitely ways you can elevate your email.
Classpass follows a clear and easy-to-understand hierarchy of breaking main value props down in a list format.
Get Back Necklaces blends their hero image, into the background of the body copy, eliminating the stark contrast between the two.
It’s all about how your email flows. What Get Back Necklaces has done, is actually designed their email holistically to keep in mind that they don’t want such a sharp divide between the hero image, and a background for their body copy. The overall usage of text is pretty much the same as Classpass; a paragraph.
CTA Button
The most important part of your email - how you drive conversion! Is there that much that can really be done with a button? Yes, and no.
A local fitness studio near me, CMMN GRND, uses Mindbody Business for their email marketing, which screams out of the box template when reviewing this CTA.
Cuup uses a full width CTA, which despite being an email font, is almost spot on to their website CTA button text. Design wise, it’s as aligned as it could be.
So, with such a limited space to make unique, how do you level up a traditional email CTA button from an out-of-the-box template? Align the styling with your brand - are you into hard lines? Make your CTA rectangular. Are you curvy? Make your CTA pill-shaped. Don’t feel scared to test out different design.
Footer
Yes, logistically your footer needs to have your core information, but it can also be a relationship builder piece that allows your subscriber to follow you on social, reach out with questions, and visually, be nice to look at.
A typical email footer from Wise.
A nicer to look at email footer from Fig Face.
How do you elevate your email footer? In the right-hand example, the brand has assigned a background colour to the entire footer section, and broken text into columns on each row. The dividers allow for content to be broken up into relevant sections. And it finishes with a standard unsubscribe footer. Although both footers include mostly the same information - social handles, address, and relevant links to help, they are very different.
Wise uses Sendgrid to send email, and Fig Face uses Klaviyo. A great example that a smaller ESP can actually do a lot.
TLDR
Being underwhelmed, and overwhelmed with the limitations and design woes of email is normal. All companies, individuals, and brands go through it. Nowadays, you don’t need to know HTML and CSS to make an email unique. Pick one element at a time and see how you can optimize it to be more on-brand for you, and go from there.