Before starting my career at ExactTarget, the title “designer” often brought to mind thoughts of artworks and purely aesthetic pieces that are meant to be appreciated and interpreted by their viewer. However, I have been introduced to an entirely new aspect of design that goes far beyond pretty pictures and mad Photoshop skills: Performance-driven design.
Performance-driven design is the foundation on which emails are created. In fact, it is the visualization of a business plan and takes into consideration the subscriber at all stages of development. Rather than a designer trying to express herself through visuals, performance-driven design is executed from the subscriber’s point of view. It’s all about creating the best possible experience for your audience, with your existing branding as the visual foundation.
In fact, if you are familiar with ExactTarget’s mantra, “Subscribers Rule!”, you won’t be surprised to hear that design for email takes into close consideration the subscriber experience. There are several components to the subscriber experience when viewing an email, and all of them influence whether or not your readers will continue to view and engage with your message. Unlike other types of design that are static in nature, email is experienced in six stages:
From Name: When subscribers receive an email, their first introduction to the email is through the from name. Consider this a first impression of the entire email – what seems like a small and almost insignificant part of the email will most likely play a large part in whether or not the email is opened. Take into consideration what the from name says – unless there’s hard evidence otherwise, using a brand name rather than an individual’s name is usually better practice and creates a sense of trust when making the decision to open an email or not.
Subject Line: Once your subscribers have looked over the from name, they will most likely move on to the subject line. Consider running A/B testing to ensure you are delivering an optimized subject line that encourages the reader to open the email and continue engaging with it. Remember: always take into consideration what the subscriber may be thinking. A subject line may make sense internally but sound confusing to your audience.
Preview Pane: Once the decision has been made to open the email, your subscriber will encounter the preview pane, which varies by browser and email client. We recommend you focus on the 400 x 300px space in the upper left corner of the email. (Read more about preview pane sizes in a post by Kristina Schott here). Many times the preview pane will contain images that have been turned off. This is not your fault, but rather what most major email clients do by default unless the subscriber has listed you in their address book or otherwise given permission to display images. Therefore, take into consideration what your email is saying with images off by carefully crafting your ALT tags and using appropriate background colors to create an enticing experience before the next step is taken.
Above the Fold: After getting past the preview pane, subject line, and from name, your subscribers will open the email fully and will then be viewing the content that’s above the fold. This is the portion of the email that is visible before scrolling, usually about 60% of the email depending on the length of the email. Be sure to include relevant and compelling content to encourage the subscriber to scroll, but don’t pack so much information above the fold that the viewer becomes overwhelmed by the amount of content being thrown at them.
Complete Email: Congratulations! Your subscriber has made it this far and is now scrolling to view the complete email. However, remember that your subscriber’s attention span is not infinite, and there are probably dozens of other emails in the inbox among yours. Realizing that your subscriber will take less than one minute to scan your email can help you identify short, concise messages to develop that will catch your reader’s attention. Provide calls to action and links to read more of the articles on a landing page or other website if the subscriber is so inclined.
Click Through: Remember that the engagement is not finished when the reader gets to the end of your email. Encourage your subscriber to continue exploring your brand by providing links to other marketing collateral, or ensuring there are direct links to products on a website that are featured in the email.
Performance-driven design gives the traditional idea of design a whole new dimension and adds a new dynamic to the way we think about the messages we are sending our subscribers. The conversation does not end here, however. Head over to the resource center and download the Design Kit to get more email design tips. If you are a customer you can also visit the Design Center on 3sixty and check out our webinar, “Designing For Your Subscribers: Tips and Tricks to Increase Email Marketing ROI”.
Lindsay Siovaila
Catapult, Design Solutions Rotation
ExactTarget Campaign Solutions Team
Comments for Design Tip of the Week: The 6 Stages of Subscriber Experience
blog comments powered by Disqus