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 projects, careful planning keeps everything on track and makes sure the results have impact (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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Image: Ask yourself if it makes sense to include an image in your email. More often than not, it always makes sense to do this. Include a photo, GIF, or video that caters to your audience best! Did you know, that if you are crafting images in Canva, you can save them directly to your Constant Contact image library to help save you time?
- Text: You don’t need to be a Nobel-prize winning 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.
- 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!
- 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!
🗒 Feeling overwhelmed? Download our PDF cheat sheet on The Anatomy of a Perfect Email to design the perfect email faster.
How well do you know Constant Contact's hack to better emails? Take the quiz!
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. Click to see if you know these shortcuts:
- How do you get branded emails in an instant?
Click to see moreUse the BrandKit feature under Tools to ensure consistent application of your brand. BrandKit acts like a library for your logo, colors and even images, and applies them to our special Layout Templates.
To take advantage of BrandKit, enter your URL or upload colors and images, make any tweaks you want, then click Create choose Email, and choose Layout templates. Your aesthetic will be instantly added to emails.
- How do you optimize your subject lines?
Click to see moreThere are several easy ways to make your subject lines pop. When editing your subject line in Constant Contact, check out the “recommend subject line” options to see if AI has any better ideas.
To really catch a subscriber’s attention, click on the Personalize button to include a subscriber’s first name. Adding emojis might also do the trick.
Finally, when you’re scheduling your email, check that A/B Test toggle under Campaign Info and try testing one subject line against another.
- How can I make an impression with images?
Click to see more
We recommend using the free graphic design tool Canva to craft crisp, bold, and eye-catching images. Once you're satisfied with your creations, you can save your graphics, photos, and more directly to your Constant Contact library, making it easy to incorporate them into your emails.
Have a lot of Instagram-worthy photos on your phone? Download our mobile app, and save those photos directly to your image library.
- How can I save myself time writing if I don’t know what to say?
Click to see moreUse the AI Content Generator 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.
- Build an email using your assets and the tips outlined in the handout and share it with the Community using the permanent URL. Not sending an email this week? Take a screenshot of your draft 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:
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!
Aaron Wesley Means ACTIVATE Business Solutions Help others find this post by giving it kudos. Note: I am not a Constant Contact employee. |  |
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This is a great start! I love the branded colors and big text to identify that there's a sale your customers will not want to miss. Your call to action button is bold and truly stands out next to your logo. I also really like how your image is the background of the email. It's aesthetically pleasing and adds depth.
Although I can't see the footer of the email in this screenshot, consider adding your personal details so a customer can reach out to you on social media, visit your website, or share your details with their network!
Abigail St Jean Community Program ManagerHelp others find this post by giving it kudos. |  |
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Great to see the full view! Last bit of advice- maybe put the call to action button front and center under your SALE of the year text and see how much more engagement you get!
Abigail St Jean Community Program ManagerHelp others find this post by giving it kudos. | |
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Nice job on this email! Your logo and branding is present and clear, you have a nice big featured image that also gives a good headline at the same time. You have a call to action that matches perfectly. If your font is smaller than 16 I'd consider increasing it (not sure on the particular screen I'm using to look). The footer is a great start but I'd consider adding some more contact info or details about the business if you are open to sharing that with your list members! Overall I love the simple clean easy to absorb layout and messaging. Great work!
Aaron Wesley Means ACTIVATE Business Solutions Help others find this post by giving it kudos. Note: I am not a Constant Contact employee. | |
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Our consumers are in the pharma, pharmacoepidemiology, pharmacovigilance, health outcomes research fields so we also have enterprise level email scanners which wreak havoc on opening statistics making them useless.
We typically send out newsletters every few months like this.
So it seems like your audience is dealing with some tricky email issues because of those big scanners. Here’s a couple of suggestions:
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Try A/B testing subject lines to see if certain phrases trigger fewer issues. Also, keeping subject lines concise and relevant might help.
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Instead of relying on open rates, pay attention to other measurements such as click-through rates or engagement on the landing page for more significant information.
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Consider breaking newsletters into smaller, more frequent updates to keep readers engaged and prevent them from being too many, as they are only sent out every few months.
Hope this helps, and good luck!
Elevate your marketing with Constant Contact's Professional Design Services! From eye-catching email templates to custom branding and social media graphics, our professional design services are tailored to boost your business's impact and engagement. | |
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Hi. I am Laura. I create a newsletter every Friday about the programs and Sunday School curriculum we offer at our church. I am the Director of Children and Family Ministries. I found the link to an example of our newsletter. It represents our newsletter much better than the screenshot I took earlier. ( I came back to edit my intro, but could not locate it.) I appreciate the ability to click "Copy" and have instant access to the template each week. Plus, I am able to keep content that I need to share with the readers again, but yet be able to delete and add content. The 2 videos I just watched were very helpful and I plan to incorporate the tips into the next newsletter. Thanks! Here is the link to the newsletter : https://Conta.cc/4elSL98 .
I am looking forward to Week 3's tips.
I appreciate you sharing your email draft @user6529 . Upon review, I found it to be enjoyable overall and have a couple of suggestions. Please feel free to consider them or disregard them, as you are most familiar with your audience.
I noticed your subject line is "Halloween Happenings for all ages in October!" How about making it more fun? Like, "Spook-tacular Halloween Events for Everyone this October!" Sounds more exciting, right?👻" This adds excitement and a playful tone.
The email is somewhat lengthy. Break it up with headers for each section (e.g., "World Communion Sunday," "Youth Group Trip," "Halloween Dance Party") to help recipients quickly find relevant information.
Why not ask people to share their Halloween plans or pics in future emails or on social media? It'll make everyone feel like one big happy family.
Instead of saying "families are responsible for purchasing tickets," you could say something like "families can grab tickets ahead of time to make sure they have a spot." It's way more inviting and encourages everyone to join in!
These ideas will help make the email easier to understand and more interesting, so it can really get the word out about the upcoming events.
Elevate your marketing with Constant Contact's Professional Design Services! From eye-catching email templates to custom branding and social media graphics, our professional design services are tailored to boost your business's impact and engagement. | |
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I think this is a great newsletter! (and shout out to my North Carolina neighbors) Off the bat, it's a lot of fun, and as we move through the checklist it's obvious your logo and branding are in place. You do have a featured image but the way it's laid out it takes a scroll or two to get into it: the monthly header and the Halloween graphic. I think the words Charles H. stone Memorial Library and Pilot Pages graphic are taking over your most valuable real estate in the email, which is what appears "above the scroll" when it loads. (I'll also mention here you should link everything to a relevant location online - the logo or header to the website, etc. You may have done that and just not in this example draft...)
The Halloween Trick or Treat Party announcement and request for candy donations could be the perfect featured item with call to action up top with the special Halloween Header graphic. Below that section could be your monthly calendar. Your footer looks good as far as information on hours, but I would suggest showing the address in large easy to read font in case someone wants to know where you are located - especially nowadays when we touch the address to active directions on our smartphones...
To recap: your email is lots of fun and is well laid out, has excellent and relevant content and resources, but could benefit from a re-approach to the top half of the email and by putting a clear call to action earlier in the email.
Aaron Wesley Means ACTIVATE Business Solutions Help others find this post by giving it kudos. Note: I am not a Constant Contact employee. | |
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@RachaelK54 this is a great email! Let's break it down:
✅ Your Logo is clear (nice 10 year celebration log, btw)
✅Branding is consistent
✅Featured Image
✅Point of the email is clear and call to action along with button are in sync
✅You have social share and social buttons, a nice explanation of who you are and a solid footer with a link to learn more about your organization
I'd consider adding your address and perhaps phone number to that footer to make it feel more along the lines of "contact us" as well.
The photo in the footer is great, I wonder about swapping it with the one at the top and seeing how that feels? People in photos tend to grab the eye and engagement and the people talking seems to better represent the training that is occurring.
Lastly, if I'm looking for things... maybe review your fonts to make sure they are the same, but more importantly consider your sizing. You do a good job of making the font larger but because there are so many sizes and shades it feels vaguely unpolished. There may be some opportunity for taking the look and feel to the next level with a font and font size review.
Well done!
Aaron Wesley Means ACTIVATE Business Solutions Help others find this post by giving it kudos. Note: I am not a Constant Contact employee. | |
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