Five Tips for Successful Email Advertising Layouts
November 27, 2009 by Steve O'Bryan
Filed under Internet marketing
Layout is often overlooked because email marketers focus too much on the copy and the graphics and ignore how they all work together. Many messages are too busy and confusing to clearly show the reader what is expected and others are too boring to bother looking at. A good layout will catch the reader’s attention and keep it long enough for them to respond properly.
Graphics can catch the eye of your readers, but too many graphics will distract from the message. If the reader is distracted or confused then they are much less likely to feel inclined to follow through or even know how to. You have a split second to make a good first impression and according to studies, about seven seconds to deliver your message. Too many graphics will eat up the little amount of time you have to connect with your reader. Keep it simple – this is the key to creating good graphics.
Many email clients will disable pictures and other graphics when a reader first views a message. If you are using images as the main way to interest your reader then most of your readers will not be interested. The graphics must add to other elements in the message, and more importantly, the reader must be motivated to click to show the images. Because graphics take longer to load than text, you do not want to overload your messages with images that will take four or five seconds to load – remember the seven second grace period? Keep graphics to a minimum – limit each message to four images.
If you can encourage your readers to click on links in your email messages then the email service providers will recognize your messages as legitimate and not spam. Having multiple links in your messages will encourage your readers to click on them and thus improve your reputation as a real email marketer. Place several links in each message – as many as seven is ideal.
Just as with graphics, you want to be judicious in how you use copy in your messages. Readers are even less motivated to spend their attention span on copy than they are on graphics. If you keep this in mind then you will always remember to be quick and to the point with the limited copy that you do use. Keep things on a low reading level and do not write long paragraphs – like in this article. A few lines of well thought out copy will serve as a teaser to get your readers to follow your links to a landing page where you will have fewer constraints on your words. In email messages – use copy simply and sparingly.
Testing is a must. Run split tests on everything you do, so you can find out what your readers respond best to. Every campaign will be incrementally better if you get in the habit of always A/B testing your layouts – as well as other elements.
You will also want to test by sending a trial message to yourself first. Get an email account with each of the major web clients and look at your messages in all of them before sending it out. This will increase deliverability and readability by catching problems that may occur on any particular client display.
Do not neglect the layout of your emails and you will not fall into the trap that so many email marketing professionals do. A good layout will take the most advantage of every open and help get your click-through and conversion rates to a level that will make your competition very jealous.
Learn more about email advertising. Stop by Steve O’Bryan’s site where you can find out all about the best email marketing campaign software and what it can do for you.
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