7 Rules of Typography in Emails
Have you ever felt yourself inspired with the well designed and perfect email? Most of us have. And I bet you thought about how to create such an email for your marketing campaign. While creating visual images may require some specific skills and muse, writing and formatting the text is not rocket science. To follow several basic tips is all you need to build an email which is going to improve your conversion rates sharply. You can find these tips and recommendations below.
- Correct and Relevant Subject
Why is it important?
Because in case the subject is not relevant to your target audience, people are going to be disappointed. That’s the last thing you need. Remember that the subject of an email should be first of all relevant to the content inside. Your goal is to make your audience interested enough to click on the email and to open it. Still the subject should be both informative and short enough to be read by user in a quarter of a second.
The subject also should not contain lots of capitalized letters. That’s a big temptation for a marketer, but caps lock rises up the spam rating of the whole email campaign. Normally you should have 2-3 capitalized letters. 3-4 letters will result in a higher spam rating, so that users on some mailing services may find such email in the spam box. Or not to find it at all.
One of the good practices is using short subjects with a colon. Another option is a short call to action. You can also use symbols and signs when it’s appropriate.
You can find some examples below:
- Outsourcing: 5 tips how to choose a dedicated team
- Black friday rush – click right now to get 35% off
- ✈ FlightFinder: Let’s make your weekend unforgettable
- Start With A Benefit, End With A CTA
Why is it important?
When you show the benefit first your readers understand what they get in case they do want what you for them. All people appreciate their time. People don’t like wasting even a few seconds clicking somewhere without a clear understanding of what is the result. To make the click rate higher, show the benefit of each action before asking for that.
Here are some examples:
- To get 25% OFF click the button below (not Click the button below to get blah-blah-blah)
- To check your reservation click here (not Click here to check the reservation)
- Less Exclamation Marks, More Question Marks
Why is it important?
Modern customers have an immunity against multiple exclamation marks. Most people just ignore them. While more people will willingly share an opinion answering questions. Let’s speak frankly. You yourself won’t pay attention at colorful titles like “Hurry!!! Don’t miss your opportunity!!!”. Neither does your audience. Using question marks is much more efficient. They subconsciously make people feel that somebody is interested in their opinion.
Let’s drop several examples:
- Exams are at hand? Try our essay service for bachelor degree students.
- Feeling unsafe in your own home? Install “Citadel” alarm system.
- Tired of switching TV channels? Get 1 month of Panda TV for free.
- Use Positive Words At The End of Each String
Why is it important?
Eye tracking research shows that people pay the most attention to the beginning of each string and to it’s end. So the last word matters because it can affect a reader’s attitude toward the whole text. Just leave the most positive words at the end of each string. It’s very efficient in putting your reader in the mood you need.
The short example:
- To create really awesome
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- Avoid “Hanging Strings”
Why is it important?
People ignore design which ignores people. To format text in a right way we should follow some rules of typography. Avoiding “hanging strings” is one of the basics. In designers’ slang, “Hanging string” means short line under the long one. That looks ugly. The string should have approximately the same length. Even if you use different font sizes.
Here it is:
Imagine yourself spending your weekend on a paradise island
On the South Pacific.
This is how it should look like:
Imagine yourself spending your weekend
on a paradise island on the South Pacific.
Or
Imagine yourself spending your weekend on a paradise island
on the South Pacific, drinking margaritas with your friends.
- Play with the size. Not with font faces.
Why is it important?
Let’s continue to talk about typography and different parameters of the fonts we use. Our goal is to make the text easy to read for everyone. Using more than two font faces makes the text not so clear and users have to spend a bit more time to grasp it. That affects the conversion rate. Any designer in the world will confirm that playing with font faces is a pretty bad idea. When you want to underline some fact or get the reader’s attention at some point, just use the bigger font size, or boldness, or anything you want. Just don’t use two or more font faces in one email.
The example can be found in the previous paragraph where we used different font sizes to get user’s attention to an island in the South Pacific.
- Use An Appropriate Email Signature
Why is it important?
Because the signature is almost the final thing which the user sees in the email. So, it sticks deeply in their memory. Your potential customers may contact you using the phone number from your signature. Your subscribers will join your social media using the social icons in your signature. Your current clients will remember better your brand and will stay with you for a longer period of time. So, creating an efficient email signature is vital.
How to do that? It depends on your niche and on your goals. To find the best examples of email signatures follow this link.
