Is your email marketing earning its keep?
Every part of your email, from the subject line and sender name to the footer, has a job to do. When they work together, your email marketing will attract attention, show its value, and inspire your customers to take action.
Write stronger subject lines and pre-headers, organize your body content for engagement, and create compelling calls to action. We’ve also packed in tips about dark mode, mobile-friendly design, testing, and measuring your results.
Bonus! Download our “Before You Send It” checklist to make sure your emails are clear, credible, and ready to deliver results.
1. The From Name
Who is this?
This is why people open your email: they know you or your brand and trust you. Use a name someone will recognize; don’t just use info@mycompany.com. Sashco does a good job with this by using Todd, their national sales manager’s email.
People are more likely to open an email when they know who sent it.
2. The Subject Line
Why Should I Open It?
The “From” name answers the question ‘Who?’, but the subject line answers the question: Why should I open it? It tells your audience what is in it for them and what kind of value you’re offering.
- Be clear. Don’t be clever.
- Start strong and use active voice.
- Have an offer? Lead with that. For Big Waves who gives away free gun locks to help prevent gun. violence, “Get a free gun lock” as a subject line works.
- Keep it short: around 45 characters so it doesn’t get cut off on mobile devices. Put the most important info in the first 25 characters. For example, instead of just saying “July Newsletter,” you could say “Five Ways to Improve Email ROI” or “Is Your Email Earning Its Keep?”
3. The Pre-Header
The pre-header is where you continue the conversation from your subject line; here you can:
- Add additional information.
- Introduce a benefit, a specific deadline, or ask a question to build curiosity.
An example of this for my newsletter would be: “Design your email to increase opens, clicks, and actions.”
4. The Header
Am I in the Right Place?
A header shouldn’t be huge and take over the whole screen. It should reinforce that your audience is in the right place and remind them who is sending the email. It should be a consistent design element from email to email.
Here’s what you should include:
- Your logo.
- The name of the newsletter (see Sashco as an example.
- Keep it compact so the audience can read it quickly.
- Don’t place important information in your header images since images don’t always load in email clients like Outlook.
- Use alt text so you don’t go to spam folders.
- Ask yourself: if the header image was turned off, would the email still make sense?
5. The Body
This is where you make the value clear and deliver on your promise from the subject line and pre-header. It’s where the bulk of your content goes.
- Put your offer or most important information first.
- Make it skimmable: use headlines, subheads, and bold text to create a visual hierarchy.
- Focus on one main theme that supports your subject line.
- Give a reason why your audience should care—what pain point does this email solve for them?
- The stories, images, and statistics you include should be relevant and support the main theme.
- Give it your own voice by writing your own copy, editing it, and proofreading it with AI if you choose.
Pro Tip: Your email doesn’t need to be super short; people have been trained to scroll by social media. However, it does need to be clear, concise, visual, and clickable. Some email clients will clip emails if they are too long, so there is a limit.
6. The Call to Action
Where Do I Go Next?
The call to action (CTA) connects to what you want your audience to do next. Decide what you want your customer to do before you write your email. It should be specific and short, like one of the following:
- Schedule a call
- Get an Estimate
- Buy [Product Name Here] Now
- Download the White Paper
- Get Your Free Sample
- Read the Guide
- Get the Checklist
- Watch the Video
- Save Me a Spot
Here are some tips on how to build a CTA that gets engagement:
- Use a button for the primary action you want your audience to take (e.g., Sashco uses “Get free samples”.)
- Keep it short and specific.
- Tell them what’s in it for them (aka the value.)
- Avoid offering too many competing options.
7. Supporting the Main Message
If your main call to action is to get customers to call for an estimate, you might support that by offering a maintenance checklist. There’s a great opportunity to support your audience no matter what stage of the buyer’s journey they’re in (awareness, consideration, or decision) in this section.
Tell them what to do next by directing them to:
- A blog post about why maintenance matters.
- Aservice page.
- Your social media account.
- Or your YouTube videos.
Pro Tip:Visually, use clear separation between sections. For example, alternate between light and dark backgrounds to show separation, see the image below from Sashco's newsletter.
You can also use typographical hierarchy to grab attention and draw your audience in. Headlines are large and and in a different color and subheads are smaller.
This is also a great place to put customer stories, helpful resources, or events.
8. The Footer
Make It Legal
Ignoring the required information at the bottom of your email, aka the footer, can land you in the SPAM folder and erode trust. You need to include the below to be compliant with the CAN-SPAM Act:
- Your business name.
- Your physical mailing address (believe it or not, but this is required so that someone can send you a letter to unsubscribe.)
- An easy unsubscribe option (it should require only one click.)
Although not legally required, you should also include:
- Contact information, like your email or customer service phone number.
- Social media links.
- A friendly reminder about why they’re receiving the email.
9. Measure It!
Once you hit send, your work isn’t done. You’ll need to measure your results to keep learning what works best with your audience.
Here’s what the metrics are trying to tell you:
- Open Rates: Did the sender name, subject line, or timing work?
- Clicks: Was the content and CTA engaging?
- Conversions: Did the email support your business goals?
- Replies: Are you building relationships?
- Unsubscribes / Inactivity: Is the content relevant to your audience, or is the sending frequency too high or too low?
- Testing: Test one element at a time. Don’t change several things at once, or you won’t know what influenced the results.
10. “Before You Send It” Checklist
Just because your email is pretty doesn’t mean it will pack the ROI punch that you want.
Before you hit send, use this checklist to make sure your email is packing a the most punch:
- Check the mobile version for layout and clickability.
- Test on dark mode—is there enough contrast?
- Is the font size readable? (Best practice is to use at least 14 px to 16 px or 11pt to 12pt in point-based clients, for body text.) And consider an easy to read font like Arial or Helvetica.
- Is there enough color contrast in the light mode version for accessibility?
- Do your images have alt text? (If not, your email could go to the junk folder.)
- Is your entire email an image? (That can also get you sent to spam.)
- Are your important headlines and buttons live text rather than static graphics?
- Are your buttons large enough for easy tapping on mobile? 16px to 18 px type is just right tapping.
- What’s left when images are disabled? Having a balance of images and live text ensures better accessibility and deliverability.
Download the checklist to print or feed into your favorite AI bot to audit your next email before you hit send.
I help build brands.
Not sure which parts of your email are helping or hurting your business? Moonshine Design can review your email strategy, content, and design to build a system that works with the rest of your marketing. Schedule a call today!
