Email Design Best Practices For 2021

Email marketing is ALIVE and KICKING.

According to Statista, 306.4 billion emails were sent and received each day in 2020; in 2024, the figure is expected to shoot to 361.6 billion!

Great! But this also poses a burning problem for email marketers - the problem of plenty.

With so many emails flowing into the subscriber’s inbox every day, subscribers are not reading but scanning them. In fact, the average time spent by a subscriber on an email has decreased by 12% from 2018.

13.4 seconds

2018 average time spent reading email

11.82 seconds

2020 average time spent reading email

Source: 2020 State of Email Engagement, Litmus

So, you have to convey the purpose of your email during this short time span!

That’s where a well-designed email crafted with best practices in mind, can work wonders.

A good email design handholds a reader

Guides their reading flow, keeping them engaged

Feeds them the crux of your email campaign

Let’s get started...

Email Inbox BEST PRACTICES

When your subscribers check their email inbox, there are 3 things they see:

From Name, Subject line, Preheader text

These 3 aspects determine whether your email is opened or ignored.

Here are best practices to ensure it is opened:

Identifiable From Name

Keep your brand name as your From Name for instant recognition.

Captivating Subject line

Craft a crisp, personalized, intriguing subject line. However, make sure it conveys the purpose of your email and is NOT misleading.
You can always experiment with emojis to bring life to the inbox.
The sweet spot for the length of your subject line? 65 characters.

Informative Preheader

An extension of your subject line and a prelude to your email content, the preheader, again, must be crisp, further introducing the reader to the purpose of your email.
Considering the space available on mobile devices for this text, 30-55 characters work well.
Do check your subject line and preheader in all email clients before hitting send to ensure the text does not get too long.
Add a ‘View Online’ link in the preview text.

Email Template BEST PRACTICES

Apt From Address

Your From Address, coupled with your email's From Name, forms an important part of your branding.

01. Use an email address from your own domain, not a free webmail address.
02. A 'noreply' address is a strict no-no.

Clean Email Layout

Your template layout is the foundation of your email. Organize it with the end-user experience in mind.

Go for white space, avoid clutter, and strategically place images and text to make the email easy to consume & navigate.

01. Ideal Template Dimensions.

Template width	600-800px
Template height	Upto 3500px (with essential details covered within the top 350px)
Headline height	Upto 300px

02. Ideal Layout type-Vertical.
03. Follow the inverted pyramid design pattern - The top portion on the page is perceived as more important. Place your logo at the top followed by title and hero content - imagery and copy that signify the purpose of the email.
04. Used grid-based layers to ensure a simplistic design.
05. Stick to an 80-20 text to image ratio.
06. Place your crisp CTA/ CTAs aptly. Use white space effectively so that your CTA button stands out.
07. Create a dark mode version of your email for an enhanced user experience. According to Litmus, 7.5% of those using Apple Mail and 36% of those using Apple iPhone, are viewing content in the Dark Mode.

Well-designed Email copy

Email copy and design go hand in hand. While your copy must be to the point, engaging, personalized, and targeted to the individual recipient, here are the best practices for the design of your copy:

01. Use bullet points, white spaces, dividing lines to help break the content monotony.
02. Use web-safe fonts from Serif and San-serif (more preferred) font-family. Want to use custom fonts? Appropriate fallback is a must.
03. Using contrasting typography and font color as compared to the background enhance the look of the email.

Attention-grabbing Rich Media and Interactivity

Humans are wired to consume visual information.
Make the most of the disposition.

01. Add image to go with the copy.
02. A lot of information to showcase? Use rich media like GIFs, Videos, or interactive elements like Menu, accordion, Flip effect to cover more information in less space.
03. Giving fallback and alt-text - these are a must for rich media and interactive elements.

An Effective Footer

Your email footer is much more than just a place to add information that's essential according to the laws.

01. Arrange your footer information in a hierarchy.
02. Use headers and colors to create sections; avoid clutter.
03. Allow space around each cluster of information for better visibility.
04. Use background color to separate the footer from the email body.
05. Include vital contact information.
06. Going by the spam laws, an unsubscribe link is a must in the email footer, this is a must-have, going by CAN-SPAM and GDPR rules. Gmail automatically adds the "unsubscribe" link at the top, next to your from address.
07. Links to your social media platforms can work in your favor.
08. You can inform your recipients about why they are receiving this email from you; it enhances your credibility as a brand, thus reducing spam complaints.

The "RESPONSIVE DESIGN" Best Practices

39% email consumption happened on mobile devices in 2020.

While there has been a dip in mobile opens from 42% in 2019, this is still a huge number. Your emails, thus, have to be responsive.

01.

Stick to a single column layout.
02.

Keep the title font size 22px or more. The copy line width should be up to 6 words of 12-14px font size; the size is ideal for both desktop and mobile. Keep line spacing around 1.5 times the font size.
03.

Apple recommends a minimum of 44×44 pixels for your CTA button. As far as the font size for your CTA button is concerned, a good rule of thumb is to use 16 px or more.

Making Emails Accessible - IT'S IMPERATIVE

2.2 billion people worldwide have some form of vision impairment. It is thus crucial to follow email accessibility best practices to make your emails inclusive for one and all.

Give a logical reading order to your email by assembling the content from left to right and from top to bottom.
Use Headers to help your subscribers using screen readers to clearly understand the hierarchy.
Use ALT Text for Images as those using screen readers will listen to your Alt text.
Avoid center-aligned copy as people with dyslexia may find it difficult to read.
As mentioned earlier, your CTA button size should be 44X44 px and the size of the text should be 16 px or more.
5% of the world population is color blind. So, mindful use of colors and contrast is essential. Make sure to include a contrast between text color and the email background color.

Follow these email design best practices and we bet your email templates will not only pleasantly surprise your subscribers but also yield the ROI you are looking at.

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Email Design
Best Practices

Email marketing is ALIVE and KICKING.

13.4 seconds

11.82 seconds

Email Inbox BEST PRACTICES

From Name, Subject line, Preheader text

Identifiable From Name

Captivating Subject line

Informative Preheader

Email Template BEST PRACTICES

Apt From Address

Clean Email Layout

Well-designed Email copy

Attention-grabbing Rich Media and Interactivity

An Effective Footer

The "RESPONSIVE DESIGN" Best Practices

01.

Stick to a single column layout.

02.

Keep the title font size 22px or more. The copy line width should be up to 6 words of 12-14px font size; the size is ideal for both desktop and mobile. Keep line spacing around 1.5 times the font size.

03.

Apple recommends a minimum of 44×44 pixels for your CTA button. As far as the font size for your CTA button is concerned, a good rule of thumb is to use 16 px or more.

Making Emails Accessible - IT'S IMPERATIVE

Give a logical reading order to your email by assembling the content from left to right and from top to bottom.

Use Headers to help your subscribers using screen readers to clearly understand the hierarchy.

Use ALT Text for Images as those using screen readers will listen to your Alt text.

Avoid center-aligned copy as people with dyslexia may find it difficult to read.

As mentioned earlier, your CTA button size should be 44X44 px and the size of the text should be 16 px or more.

5% of the world population is color blind. So, mindful use of colors and contrast is essential. Make sure to include a contrast between text color and the email background color.

Embed this infographic

Email Design Best Practices

Email marketing is ALIVE and KICKING.

13.4 seconds

11.82 seconds

Email Inbox BEST PRACTICES

From Name, Subject line, Preheader text

Identifiable From Name

Captivating Subject line

Informative Preheader

Email Template BEST PRACTICES

APT FROM ADDRESS

Today 07:45 PM

WELL-DESIGNED EMAIL COPY

ATTENTION-GRABBING RICH MEDIA AND INTERACTIVITY

An Effective Footer

Apt From Address

Clean Email Layout

Well-designed Email copy

Attention-grabbing Rich Media and Interactivity

An Effective Footer

The "RESPONSIVE DESIGN" Best Practices

01.

Stick to a single column layout.

02.

Keep the title font size 22px or more. The copy line width should be up to 6 words of 12-14px font size; the size is ideal for both desktop and mobile. Keep line spacing around 1.5 times the font size.

03.

Apple recommends a minimum of 44×44 pixels for your CTA button. As far as the font size for your CTA button is concerned, a good rule of thumb is to use 16 px or more.

Making Emails Accessible - IT'S IMPERATIVE

Give a logical reading order to your email by assembling the content from left to right and from top to bottom.

Use Headers to help your subscribers using screen readers to clearly understand the hierarchy.

Use ALT Text for Images as those using screen readers will listen to your Alt text.

Avoid center-aligned copy as people with dyslexia may find it difficult to read.

As mentioned earlier, your CTA button size should be 44X44 px and the size of the text should be 16 px or more.

5% of the world population is color blind. So, mindful use of colors and contrast is essential. Make sure to include a contrast between text color and the email background color.

Embed this infographic

Email Design
Best Practices

ATTENTION-GRABBING RICH
MEDIA AND INTERACTIVITY