Email Marketing and Design Templates Are Not Just For Beginners
Template development isn’t just easier; it’s smarter
The biggest problem in the creative process for email marketing and design may be the way you manage the creative process itself. For most people, the creative cycle takes far too long and crowds out other important processes. When producing email pieces for internet marketing, the success comes in how efficiently each can be turned around and followed up. Eliminating repetitive steps in the creative process, including re-testing and re-checking elements, can be done by investing some up-front time in designing basic mailer templates.
More time is spent on design than on content
Sometimes people devote more time to the email marketing and design of a mailer than on the copy content of the information they need to convey. Even though getting the next email effort ready seems to be done in a mad rush, that rush is most often caused by spending too much time in the designing process. Delays in the creative process, caused by experimentation and reworking elements, crowd other time demanded by message specifics, assembly of elements, proper linking, and final execution. Rework wastes time. That time also takes away chances to review, optimize, and refine in the final steps. In short, life gets progressively more rushed and frantic in each following stage of the entire development process. Examining what parts of the creative process should be standardized helps. Little by little, time spent re-inventing the same old wheel can begin to go away.
Designing proven modules
Reusable modules can help you reduce the amount of time in design, assembly, and execution. That increases the time for optimizing and refinement. These two areas are often short-changed by the rush to keep to the schedule. Invest some time planning what the big picture needs to be for your overall mail campaign. One of the first things an email marketing and design agency could do for you is help you develop a “look” for your campaigns. There are reasons for this. A standardized header with consistent placement of elements and dynamic insertion of messages and/or graphics not only raises recognition but simplifies future layout development. Here are some items to consider in putting together templates and a pre-development plan.
1) Stabilize the Top Areas
Develop a logo/header module. Standardize the use of logos, banners, click points, and headlines for the opening part of the email. In that way, changing elements can be easily dropped in or dynamically fed.
2) Consider a leading copy block
Whether you call them teasers, eyebrow copy, pre-header copy, or something else, create a module for that. Include in that key click-throughs and options critical to keeping your reader engaged. Yes, this will move your banners and headers down a bit, but it can help in a couple of big ways. First, it gives a text-only pocket of information that will appear in ANY browser or mail client (even Outlook 2007) where you can place important links to landing pages, and what your company, products or services are all about. Second, it gives a place to guide the reader into the rest of the copy. Your message will still get across even if graphics are blocked. Internet readers are scanners, but this area is the most likely to be read thoroughly.
3) Provide all primary selling in the first screen
Sometimes referred to as “above the fold” which is a carryover from print media, the area of the first 600 pixels in width and breadth is the hottest real estate in your mailer. The reason is that it seems to be difficult for many readers to actually scroll down the mailer. This means you have one shot at impressing the reader with reasons to stay while providing your call to action, selling opportunities and click-through to where you want them to end up.
4) Include “quick engagement” opportunities
Early on in the copy, include links to social media contact points such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. You can even that that in the pre-header copy. These are important parts of providing your customers with all opportunities to stay engaged with your company.
5) Use standard best practices in creating layouts
For whatever reason, when Microsoft introduced Office 2007, they included significant changes to it that reached for new lows in email clients. Microsoft has created the newest, lowest common denominator for email clients. Outlook 2007 has a lot of users and you will have to deal with that. Think about what you want include in your email presentation as it may not work in this commonly used channel. Many ways of presenting that work in Outlook 2003 and other mail clients will not work in Outlook 2007. Therefore, you must use Outlook 2007 as a benchmark in designing your emails.
6) Getting back lost time
Reclaiming early development and creative time for later use in optimizing and refining is something anyone can do with pre-planning and template development. It need not be one template; in fact, there should be a template for each purpose in your campaign. Build the templates in modular fashion and you will find it much easier to turn around the mailers as well as take a lot of stress and rush out of your life. Templates are worth the investment in time and expense and will produce great returns on future projects.
If you need help developing templates, and you are not sure what to do first, call someone who does it for a living. Thrive Marketing would be happy to help you with all your internet promotional and planning needs. Call us at our toll-free number, (866) 521-0827.