Mail Design Principles

Yesterday I had a front-row seat and gained valuable insights during a discussion with a CEO about the daily barrage of sales emails he faces Here’s what he shared about what grabs his attention—and some tips to help you stand out 🔹 Immediate value is key The first few lines must deliver something valuable. He said "If someone sent me that email, I’d be like F*** off and [dismiss it]. There's no value created in that email. Make sure your opening offers a clear benefit or useful resource 🔹 Impactful subject lines Your subject line is your foot in the door. He mentioned the need for change if there's no initial response: "If they didn't respond to the first email, then you try a different header." Make it count by being specific, intriguing, and relevant to their interests 🔹 Brevity wins: Keep your email concise. As he noted, "First sentence, you've got like 2 seconds." Busy professionals appreciate brevity. Make your point clearly and quickly Now here are some actionable tips based on these insights Value prop front and center Start your email with a clear value prop Example: "Thought you might be interested in these industry benchmarks we just released—already helping companies like yours increase efficiency." Test your subject lines Don’t be afraid to A/B test different subject lines to see what resonates best with your audience. Sometimes a small tweak can make a big difference Personalize thoughtfully Use the information you have about their business challenges to tailor your message. This shows you’ve done your homework and aren’t just sending a blanket email Let’s make their experience with our emails as positive and relevant as possible Do you have any email strategies that have worked well for you lately?

POST 6/7 👉2025: Why Design Is Now a Deliverability Signal—Not Just a Branding Element. Good design doesn’t just get attention. It gets delivered — to the right part of the inbox. Let’s get one thing clear: Promotions is inbox. Updates is inbox. What matters in 2025 is avoiding spam, not forcing Primary. If your email is expected, renders cleanly, loads fast, and respects UX principles, you're in the right place. Too many ecommerce marketers still underestimate how much design affects deliverability. It's no longer just about what looks good. Design performance is now tied to how your domain is scored by Gmail, Apple Mail, and Outlook. Here’s how. Mobile-first rendering: Over 74% of ecommerce opens now happen on mobile. If your layout breaks or loads slowly, you're triggering behavior Gmail sees as friction — not engagement. Load speed and responsiveness: Gmail and Apple Mail monitor how quickly your message displays and how long the user interacts. Heavy layouts or large imagery can cause quick exits, reducing future inbox trust. Dark mode compatibility: Unreadable emails in dark mode break the experience. Invisible text or poor color contrast are quietly penalized. Accessibility: Skipping alt text, using tiny fonts, or low-contrast layouts may technically deliver your message — but visually fail for many. Those silent exits hurt engagement scoring. Real-world case: A brand redesigned its templates with GIFs, AMP, and rich visuals. On desktop? Beautiful. On Gmail mobile? Broken. Result: click rates dropped, complaint rates rose, and inboxing fell. They reverted to fluid layouts, lighter assets, and simpler code. Engagement and delivery recovered within 2 sends. Email design checklist for 2025: 1. Keep size under 100KB 2. Use system fonts 3. Code mobile-first, not retrofitted 4. Preview in both dark/light modes on Gmail and Apple Mail 5. Always use alt text 6. Avoid base64 images and fixed-width tables 7. Load-test AMP and interactive elements 8. Match design tone with your website 9. Ensure contrast and readability pass basic checks Takeaway: Every second of lag is a penalty. Every failed render hurts trust. Gmail is evaluating design behaviors—not beauty. Design is no longer just branding. It's inbox access. #email #emailmarketing

Should your brand focus on Design or Plain Text emails? Let's break down the pros of each. Benefits of Design Emails: -> Branded Look: They reflect your brand’s identity. -> Direct and Clear: Ideal for getting straight to the point. -> Perfect for Sales and Promotions: Straight to the point with clear headlines and buttons Benefits of Plain Text Emails: -> Personalized Touch: Feels more personal and relatable. -> Storytelling: Great for sharing stories and deeper content. -> Better Deliverability: Higher chance of landing in the main inbox, meaning more people see your emails—translating to more revenue. The Reality: After three years of sending emails for brands, I’ve discovered that plain text emails outperform designed ones significantly. They create a personal connection and 85% of the time, they land in the primary inbox. So, which should you send? It’s simple—both. 👉🏽 For Sales/Promo/Reviews: Use design emails. 👉🏽 For Content/Value: Use plain text emails. The best marketing strategies aren’t either-or. They’re a judicious mix of both. So, let’s stop the debate. Plain text and design emails can make your brand explode. #emailmarketing #emailagency #emails #agencyowner #ecombrands #shopify #woocommerce #bigcommerce

We recently ran an A/B test with a statistically significant outcome, and the results are pretty compelling. The Setup: Variation A: Plain text email with a direct, no-frills approach, coming from the brand's founders who are well-known to customers through their appearances across social channels. Variation B: Designed email with visuals and branding. What We Learned: Oftentimes, simplicity wins. The plain text email not only outperformed the designed one in engagement but, more importantly, drove nearly double the revenue. Why do Plain Text emails work? - Pattern-Interrupt: Plain text emails stand out in crowded inboxes, catching the reader’s attention. - Clearer Offers: Without distractions, offers are presented more directly, leading to better click rates. - Better Deliverability: Plain text emails tend to have higher deliverability rates, which contributed to the higher open rate we saw in this test. This is something we consistently see success with across clients. However, it must be used sparingly. It doesn’t mean you should start sending only plain text emails. Balance is key. Sometimes, keeping it simple really does work wonders—but remember, variety keeps your audience engaged.

I want to dive into a topic that's been sparking a lot of discussion in the nonprofit email marketing world: the debate between designed emails and plain-text emails. On one side, we have the proponents of plain-text emails. They argue that simplicity is key, and that plain-text emails feel more personal and authentic. They also point out that plain-text emails tend to have better deliverability rates and are less likely to trigger spam filters. On the other hand, we have the advocates for designed emails (myself included!). We believe that designed emails offer a range of benefits that can elevate your nonprofit's email marketing game. Here are a few reasons why I'm a fan of designed emails: 💌 Branding and Visual Appeal: Designed emails allow you to showcase your nonprofit's brand identity through colors, logos, and imagery. This creates a cohesive and memorable experience for your subscribers. 🎨🌟 💌 Engagement and Interactivity: With designed emails, you can incorporate engaging elements like GIFs, images, buttons, and polls. These interactive features can boost engagement and encourage subscriber participation. 💌 Storytelling and Emotional Connection: Visuals are powerful storytelling tools. Designed emails enable you to showcase the impact of your work through compelling images and infographics, creating a stronger emotional connection with your audience. 💌 Professionalism and Credibility: For well-established nonprofits or those aiming to grow, a polished email design conveys professionalism and credibility. It shows that you value your subscribers' experience and are willing to invest in quality communication. I'm not dismissing the value of plain-text emails. They definitely have their place, particularly for smaller nonprofits with limited resources. The key is finding the right balance and ensuring that your email design aligns with your brand, goals, and audience expectations. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic! Do you prefer designed or plain-text emails in your nonprofit's email strategy? What challenges or successes have you encountered? Let's start a conversation and learn from each other. Together, we can harness the power of email to make a difference! ✉️💖

It’s always fun when your gut feeling gets challenged by real data. We wanted to find out if plain text emails perform better or the visual one. So we ran a 3-month experiment with our Dealfront Digest newsletter. And after 6 rounds of A/B tests, here’s what we saw: - The plain-text version won on open rates and click rates almost every time. Had better open rates in 5 out of 6 emails. Outperformed on click rates in 5 out of 6 emails. - It even had lower unsubscribes in most cases. - Visual email only helped a bit in CTOR (click-to-open rate). Performed best in Test 1, but not consistently across others The result? We’re going text-only for Q3 and shifting our experiments to subject lines. (Shoutout to Jamie Pagan for the ongoing newsletter brainstorms 👏) We’ll still keep testing, tweaking, and evolving, but for now, simple > shiny. Have you tested something recently that surprised you? Share in the comments 👇🏻 #b2bmarketing

Our client—a mid-sized consulting firm—sent two versions of the same campaign to their list. One was beautifully designed with custom graphics, perfectly balanced colors, and multiple CTA buttons. The other was a simple, plain text message that looked like it had been typed quickly between meetings. The plain text version outperformed the designed email by 32% on opens and 51% on click-throughs. This wasn't an isolated incident. I've spent decades crafting email campaigns, watching the pendulum swing between elaborately designed newsletters and stripped-down text messages. What strikes me is how we've come full circle. In the early days, all emails were plain text because that's all we had. Then we gained the ability to create visual masterpieces, and many of us (myself included) went overboard with that power. We built miniature websites that happened to be delivered to inboxes. But something got lost in that evolution... the feeling of receiving a message from another human. I remember opening my own inbox one morning and feeling a sudden, uncomfortable recognition: I was automatically ignoring anything that looked "marketing-designed" while prioritizing emails that looked like they came from a colleague or friend. And I'm the person creating those designed emails for clients. 🤷♂️ There's something almost subversive now about the plain text email. In a world where every brand is fighting for attention with increasing visual complexity, simplicity has become the pattern interrupt. When I send a text-based email, I'm essentially whispering in a room full of people shouting. The data increasingly supports this counterintuitive approach: ✅ Plain text emails consistently show higher open rates. ✅ They rarely trigger spam filters (well, is not that simple, as always). ✅ They create a sense of personal connection that rich HTML often can't match. ✅ They actually get read rather than just scanned. I'm not suggesting we abandon beautiful design completely. Visual emails still have their place, particularly for: 👉 Product showcases where seeing is believing. 👉 Regular newsletters where brand consistency matters, like sendXmail. 👉 Content with multiple offers or sections. But I've started advising clients to approach email with a new framework: If this message could come from a trusted colleague rather than a brand, consider stripping it down to text. If you're still sending only highly designed emails, I'd encourage you to experiment. Try sending your next important message as plain text. Make it look like you wrote it specifically for the recipient. You might be surprised by how removing design can actually strengthen your message. I'd love to hear about your experiences with plain text versus HTML emails. When has simplicity worked for you? #EmailMarketing #DigitalCommunication #Authenticity #MarketingStrategy

Your email designs could be tanking your deliverability And you might not even realize it They can have bad image-to-text ratios, which can: - Confuse email clients trying to render them - Be unreadable on screen readers - Get flagged by spam filters This messes with your deliverability rates Plus, it trashes your sender reputation Don’t let your design throw your email marketing off track Make sure you: - Use >500 characters of text to dodge spam filters - Balance text & images (60/40 mix works best) - Compress images to cut down load times - Break up big image blocks with live text - Add alt text for every image Keep your email designs looking sharp But not at the cost of deliverability Get the balance right, and your emails will hit inboxes & boost your rev/sales

Emails are a direct way to connect with your audience, and a well-designed template can make all the difference. Here's how to create one that stands out: 1- Define Your Goal: Know the purpose of the email—inform, promote, or convert—and design accordingly. 2- Keep It Simple: Use a clean layout with concise text, clear visuals, and ample white space. 3- Ensure Brand Consistency: Use your brand’s colors, fonts, and logo for a cohesive experience. 4- Prioritize Mobile Design: Use single-column layouts and test for responsiveness. 5- Highlight CTAs: Use clear, actionable buttons with prominent placement and contrasting colors. 6- Personalize Content: Address users by name or tailor content based on preferences. 7- Test and Refine: Use A/B testing to optimize layouts, subject lines, and CTAs. An effective email template is clear, engaging, and drives action. Design with purpose, and you’ll create stronger connections with your audience. #uiuxdesign #emailtemplate #producdesign #userexperiencedesigb

Ready for a truth bomb? That beautiful image-only email design your team created is probably costing you sales… 💸 I know it's tempting to use one big image in your emails. It gives you perfect design control and it looks identical everywhere... But here's what we're seeing happen with brands who take this approach: • 43% of Gmail users have images turned OFF (they see nothing!) • Spam filters are more likely to flag your emails • Slower loading times on mobile = abandoned emails • Screen readers can't interpret them (excluding visually impaired customers) The real-world impact? Our data analysis shows: • Up to 23% higher bounce rates • Significantly reduced open rates  • Lower click-through rates when images fail to load • Decreased deliverability over time When we helped Pooky move away from image-heavy emails to a balanced HTML approach, their email revenue increased 5.5x in just four months. Want better results? Try this instead: ✅ Use HTML structure with strategic imagery ✅ Embrace responsive design that adapts to different screens ✅ Include meaningful alt text for all images ✅ Keep critical messages (especially CTAs) in text form ✅ Test across multiple devices before sending What email design approaches have worked best for your brand? #emailmarketing #ecommerce #deliverability #dtcbrands #customerloyalty