How To Construct A Visually Appealing Email

Given that email remains one of the best ways to reach fans and potential fans, it's important to put some thought and care into how to make said emails aesthetically appealing to the viewer. Here we look at some important visual factors.

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Guest post from Team Fanbridge

Designing an email campaigns makes you consider many elements you might not have thought of before, such as ‘How big should I make this button?’ or ‘Do you think this canary yellow complements the white text? Should I go with Tuscan Sun instead?’

 
If you’re not familiar with email design, all of these details that need your attention can seem very daunting. With practice, you’ll start to find a visual aesthetic that fits your brand and appeals to your fans. In the meantime, here are some tips on how to get started.

The Template

After the subject line, the layout of your template is one of the most crucial things your fans will use to decide if they want to continue reading. The Template Tool may need some exploring on your first time around, but for any questions on how to navigate the different modules, consult this tutorial video.

 
We’re here with recommendations on how to implement those modules for a successful email campaign. An extremely important factor to keep in mind is how many people are going to be viewing your email through a mobile device. Each year the number of emails viewed from smartphones and tablets rises, so you’ll want to test your layout and make sure it appears how you intended on both small and large screens.
 
A few things you’ll want to test are the header lines and spacing. What appears as one line on your computer screen might be shortened into two, causing words to overlap.
 

 
Also, think about how pictures with text on them might transfer to a mobile viewing setting. If the pictures shrink, so will the text. Pictures may also be too large to load or blocked on a mobile device so, be sure to include a description of the picture in the html.
 

The Color Scheme

Don’t have an art degree to analyze the aesthetics of your email campaign? Neither do most of your viewers. But they can still feel overwhelmed or confused by an email with too much going on. We have some words of wisdom for choosing whether or not Pantone #9DCFA3 will be too muted for an email about exciting tour dates.

 
First, think about your brand. Do you have a website with a color scheme? An image you use as the profile picture across all of your social media accounts? Sticking to two or three main colors will help your brand be easily recognizable, even if the viewer only spends 30 seconds reading the email.
 

 
If you don’t have a brand color yet, it’s time to take it back to elementary school and think about the color wheel. The colors you pick shouldn’t be over the top or boring after one email. These are the colors you will be using as the Global Settings for your template to maintain unity over time. You could go with something simple like black and white with monochromatic accents. You could also stick with warm or bright colors to stand out (However, from personal experience I can say that an all pastel-colored email is visually offensive). Find one color you like and see what works best alongside it, colors that contrast or colors that complement?
 
You can also find inspiration from campaigns you already love. Subscribe to brands/influencers whose content you enjoy, or check out this article from Hubspot for some examples of successful email campaigns. Find what moves you and tweak to fit your own brand’s voice.

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