Email layout best practices
One of the best calling cards for your newsletter campaign is surely a great email layout. It’s not only a matter of aesthetics. A clean, well-designed HTML template will make immediately the difference between a professional communication and amateur one. So as the first impression counts a lot while a user is quickly browsing his incoming emails, it’s necessary to get the best email layout you can.
Of course, building a choosing the right layout for your email marketing strategy can be difficult. That is why we have collected 300 templates crafted by our web designers and fully customizable with your favorite email software. All templates have been carefully tested against the most popular webmails and clients, so to guarantee a perfect rendering everywhere.
If you prefer to create your own layout, however, you may find it useful follow these five best practices to design an awesome email template:
- Get the right size. The maximum width of your email template should be 600px, with the most relevant information put in the first 250px (which is also the general dimension of a client’s preview panel).
- Use images correctly. They are not a substitute for your content; they are there to convey it better. So don’t overstuff your layout with images and always put an alternative text to them.
- Structure your layout with tables. Tables are still the best choice to organize your HTML emails; they are read by all email clients and do not create any problem. Remember also to write CSS inline.
- Use color contrasts. This way your layout will be readable also on mobile screens (something that will happen much more times than you may think).
- Test on different clients. As email templates happen to be rendered in different ways on different platforms, we recommend you to carry out testing on webmails like AOL, Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail (Outlook.com), Android Mail, Android Gmail, Apple Mail, Gmail for iOS, and clients like Thunderbird, Windows Mail, Apple Mail, Outlook 2007/10/13+, Outlook 2000/03.
