Week 2: Designing the Perfect Email

[Caitlin_M]

Drive Results with Impactful Email Design

Now that you've set your goals and have a clear expectation of what you're working towards, it's time for Week 2 of Constant Contact's Ready, Set, Send Challenge! This week, we're turning our attention to the ins-and-outs of crafting the perfect email. A well-written and designed email can make all the difference in engaging with your audience and driving the results you want. Watch the video below, and then share an email you created – either in the past, or a brand new email with BrandKit, to earn your badge and get feedback from our community and coaches. 

I’m Aaron Wesley Means, founder of ACTIVATE Business Solutions, based in Asheville, North Carolina. For more than 12 years, ACTIVATE has served clients of all shapes and sizes from local to national, has trained thousands of businesses through seminars, webinars, and conferences, and is a recurring award-winning solution provider.

In this week’s Ready. Set. Send challenge, we will tackle a true cornerstone of successful marketing: your emails. The inbox is easily the most powerful and visible strategy in your marketing lineup, so it has to be great! What does that mean? Designing the perfect email starts with the basics of a great subject line, stellar branding, and a handful of critical components ranging from a featured image, font size, a call to action, or social media integrations. Be sure to plug in for Week 2 of Ready, Set, Send for a breakdown of how to execute the perfect email.

The 7 Essential Design Elements

Behind most successful endeavors lies deliberate and thoughtful planning, which helps guide the process and ensures an impactful outcome (we love using the word ‘impact’). Crafting an effective email campaign is no different. Check out our 7-step checklist below and try implementing the strategies that make sense to rise above the inbox clutter.

1. Header: This is your From address, your Reply-to address, and your Subject line. These three elements work together to build trust and get those opens. So make sure the email is coming from an expected address - whether it’s your company name, or an individual person then hook your audience with an email subject worthy of being opened! Don’t be afraid to get creative, use a play on words, include any recent trends, or seasonal identifiers. This is also a great spot to release your inner child and include emojis. 
2. Preheader: You’ll want to stand out from the rest with a preheader that’s unique, eye-catching, and intriguing. The preheader and the subject of the email are like the perfect couple. They have to work hand in hand, but one needs to be funnier for the relationship to last. Choose which one has the spice, but know they both equally contribute to the success of the overall email message. 
3. Your Brand’s logo & color: To continue to build trust with your subscribers, your emails should match your brand or aesthetic. So make sure to include your logo front and center, and leverage the same colors you are using across your website, socials or store.. Leverage our BrandKit tool to save yourself time and create consistency across all your campaigns. 
4. Image: Ask yourself if it makes sense to include an image in your email. Hint: it always makes sense to do this! Include a photo, GIF, video, or whatever you think caters to your audience best! And did you know, if you are crafting images in Canva, you can save them directly to your Constant Contact image library to help save you time
5. Text: You don’t need to be a Nobel-prize winner author to compose the perfect email. Be yourself – and write what your recipients would expect to read from you, or your brand. The goal is simply to convey the main reason for your message
6. Call to action: After determining what the reason for sending your email is, ask yourself: “What would I like my audience to get out of this email?” Is it to click a link to your website, schedule an appointment, or discover something new? Including a call to action button directs your audience to the next step!
7. Footer: Think of your footer like your signature. You want to include any necessary information to ensure recipients can continue to engage with you or your company, whether it’s  your socials, your website, or contact details! 

🗒 Too much? Download our PDF cheat sheet on The Anatomy of a Perfect Email to design the perfect email faster.

You can spend hours crafting the perfect communications, or you can use Constant Contact tools to cheat your way to more opens, more clicks, and more time saved. 

• Branded emails in an instant: Enter your url or upload colors and images into BrandKit, then choose a layout template to have your aesthetic instantly added to emails. See how it works or try it out.

• Optimize your subject lines. Check out the AI generated subject lines if you are at a loss for words, or try testing two subject lines to see which one performs better.

• Make an impression with Canva images. If you’re using the free graphic design tool Canva, you can add images, photos and more directly to your Constant Contact library and then add to your emails. 

• Got an idea but not enough words? Try the AI generator tool in the email editor toolbar to turn your ideas into a full-fledged email. If you’ve already used BrandKit, it will automatically pick up your voice and tone from your website.

Your Assignment:

• Use BrandKit to upload your assets, either by scanning your website or manually adding your logo/color/images.
• Review the 7 Essential Design Elements from the Anatomy of a Perfect Email handout. 
• Want extra credit? Challenge yourself to try something new, like using a new pre-built block layout or including a new image that best captures the message of your email
• After sending your email, share it with the Community using the permanent URL. Not sending an email this week? Take a screenshot and include it in your reply. We'd love to see your hard work and what you’ve learned!

How you’ll earn your badge:

Reply below with your email’s permanent URL or a screenshot of your draft, and you’ll receive the Week 2 badge. It will be proudly displayed on your Community profile, plus keep an eye out in your Community inbox for a larger image to share on your own social channels once Week 2 is finished.

 

Resources:

• Handout: Anatomy of a Perfect Email
• Blog: Email Design Best Practices
• Community: Creating Your First Email

TL;DR

Design the perfect email by following the 7 Essential Design Elements from the Anatomy of a Perfect Email handout and dip your toes into BrandKit. Watch the video, follow the tips, and crank out those emails for greater inbox visibility, improved open rates, and increased click rates galore! 

Not yet a Constant Contact customer but want to start creating beautiful-looking emails? Start a free trial.

We’re excited to see what cool templates you come up with!

[MTassone]