Why html emails are an integral piece of an online ad campaign

Design trends come and go, but certain aspects of good design always hold true. Content is king as it’s been said, and with that, the crux of good design is the balance of that all important information in an aesthetic wrapper which seamlessly ties it all together. As a designer, the challenge is to stay true to the brand, define a clear message and present a visual story personalized to your target market. To that end, I try to incorporate these essential key elements into every campaign.

The all important tagline and message! Clearly defining the message while captivating the reader enough to actually READ your message.

Getting creative about your topic increases your chances of engaging a reader enough to actually view your message. When developing a landing page we try to come up with catchy phrases and unique messaging to capture a reader’s interest. We’re also able to track various versions to see which specific message brings a higher rate of turnover which can be invaluable tool when targeting a specific market for your client’s campaign. This allows us to revise and custom tailor an online campaign on the fly to make the biggest impact possible.

Message placement is also of key importance. After getting down just what you want to say, making sure it’s placed above the fold and at the top of your layout ensures that those using a preview pane are able to view your message and be more inclined to follow through. Sounds easy enough, but it can be quite challenging to layout your graphics and message without it becoming too much, and too cluttered. That being said the first couple of inches are the most crucial in identifying your message. You should be captivating your audience and providing an action for more information so your reader isn’t scrolling to the bottom of the page in frustration – if they bother to go that far to begin with.

Personalization can also boost a campaign’s performance. Reaching out to your reader in more focused, personal, and significant point, beyond just “Dear Mr. Smith!” can heighten their interest, thus increasing your chances on that all important call to action increasing. This also ties back into what I referenced previously in being creative in your messaging. You can take this one step further and make it personal by incorporating a few different targeted points of interest in your messages. The ability to track and measure them for its success rate helps you get that much closer to culminating interest with your reader while gaining important information about exactly what is most important to them.

Achieving the right symmetry of graphics that flow in harmony with your message.

So I’ve touched on some important aspects of what should be included in your message, but graphic layout is just as significant and essential. Personally I find this the most challenging as I love to design an eye-catching, unique and distinctive layout for every campaign. The great, and at times most difficult, part of my job is being creative in how I approach a campaign in my designs to make it stand out from the others. Less can definitely be more in an email campaign, but too little can make for a bland and unappealing presentation. It’s been proven that graphics make more of an impact than those that are text based only, however the importance lies in the balance of the two. In essence you are creating a visual narrative of your message.

In regards to that aspect you must achieve a delicate harmony in your graphic arrangement which complements your topic or theme, the creative palette, and of key importance, also incorporates your client’s branding. Making the logo a focal point and your message clear and prominent is crucial in the arrangement of complimentary graphics in your layout.

Once I’ve decided on a layout I try to keep in mind that not everyone will actually see any of it. Being a designer I always hope that someone views my work the way I intended it to appear, but I also realize a lot of the time that is not always the case. The fact that some either have chosen to set their email programs to not display any images or just plain text, making sure that the actual message is still clear and all of the information is presented and readable in the event that graphics are not being displayed is critical. As much as I loathe that possibility, it is a very real and fundamental aspect that I fulfill the whole point of creating the html email in the first place – and that goes back to the all important message.

Following these guidelines and principals helps to ensure and increase the success of a campaign. So when the day is done and the client is happy because of it, I can still derive some satisfaction that the goal of accomplishing a winning campaign was achieved, graphics or not, the way I intended it or not, the message was still delivered.