Take a look at what great email marketing looks like in 2014, from length to copy to video in emails. Presented by emfluence Digital Marketing Evangelist, Jessica Best.

1. Email Marketing
Creative That Works
Jessica Best, Digital Marketing Evangelist
jbest@emfluence.com
@bestofjess or @emfluence

2. Email Creative – Best Practices
• Content vs. Reputation
• Common Spam Words
• Pre-Flight review
• Technical Guidelines
• Anatomy of an email
• Designing for Mobile
• Background images
• Alternate text
• Image/Text ratio
• Bullet-proof Buttons
• Planning for Horizontal &
Vertical Preview Panes
• Planning for vertical stretch
• Video in Email
• National Geographic’s
Creative Challenge
• The secret sauce…

3. Content v. Reputation

4. Content v. Reputation
Your reputation
is based on
many factors
and always in a
state of flux. If
you develop a
bad reputation,
it’s difficult (but
not impossible)
to fix.

5. Content v. Reputation
A daily search result for a single IP address showing
scoring for many reputation factors.

6. Common Spam Words & Phrases
50% off! Discount Offer expires Save $
Accept credit cards Discount! Offers coupon Save big money
Act Now! Drastically reduced One hundred percent guaranteed Shop
Act now! Don't hesitate! Fantastic deal One time Shopping spree
All Natural For free Only $ Special Promotion
All New Free offer Opportunity Subscribe
Amazing Free sample Order Supplies are limited
Cannot be combined with other offer Free! Order Now Take action now
Click below Full refund Order status Talks about prizes
Click Here Great offer Orders shipped by priority mail Time limited
Click here link Guarantee Outstanding values Visit our web site
Click to remove Guarantee, Guaranteed Please Read What are you waiting for?
Click to remove mailto Lucky You Price While Supplies last
Congratulations Money Prices Why pay more?
Credit Name brand Removal instructions Win, Winner, Winning
Dear email No catch Reserves the right You're a Winner!
Dear friend No cost Risk free Offer expires
Dear somebody No purchase necessary Satisfaction Guaranteed Offers coupon
Different reply to Different reply to Save Save $

7. Common Spam Words & Phrases
If you are getting
filtered, the
Pre-Flight Check
is a good way to
determine how
the combination
of words in your
campaign are
adding up.

8. Pre-Flight Toolset: Spam Score
A total SPAM
score of 5 or
above is a pretty
good indicator
that you are
going to have a
deliverability
problem.

9. A Balanced Image to Text ratio

10. Some Technical Guidelines
• Go old-school HTML
• Use inline CSS, rather than top-down
• Use universal system fonts where possible
• Keep total size under 100kb
• Don’t make your unsubscribe link a graphic

11. Anatomy of an Email in 2010
• Pre-header
• Header
• Navigation
• Table of Contents
• Primary Message
• Submessage(s)
• Siderail
• Recovery Module
• Footer
*Graphic by Smith Harmon

12. Anatomy of an Email in 2014
 Pre-header
 Header
 Body:1-3 Articles
 Recovery Module
 Footer

13. Ideal Email Width
500-700
pixels wide
for desktop

14. Designing for Mobile
• Consider subject line length—
put info in first 4-5 words
• Max width of about 640 pixels
• Space your links out by 45 px
or more, so fat fingers don’t
click the wrong one.

15. Designing for Mobile
• Single column layouts
are mobile friendlier.
• Keep your info in the
first 230 pixels.
• Keep emails under 20K
to accommodate
internet speeds
– Email-sized images
– Snippets link to content

16. Responsive Design for Mobile

17. Use true-to-size images

18. Avoid Background Images
Avoid background images that won’t render in
some email clients (Outlook, Hotmail).

19. Avoid Background Images
NOTE: Solid background colors are ok!

20. Avoid One Big Image/Use Alternate Text

21. Stylized Alternate Text

22. Bullet-proof Buttons

23. Pre-Flight: Campaign Preview
Preview: iPhone 5

24. Pre-Flight: Campaign Preview

25. Pre-Flight: Campaign Preview

26. Design for Horizontal Preview

27. Design for Vertical Preview

28. Planning for vertical stretch
Text renders in different
fonts in different browsers,
so plan for vertical stretch
of any text field.

29. Video in Email?

30. Creative Challenge – Nat Geo Kids
The Challenge:
Three of the top email design
firms were pitted against one
another to create a campaign
with the same goal as the
original pictured here.
The list was then segmented
randomly and an actual test
was performed.
*credit Scott Harmon

31. Creative Challenge – Nat Geo Kids
Go ahead. Pick a winner…

32. Creative Challenge – Nat Geo Kids
eROI
114 clicks
96 opt-outs
100 orders
Mighty
111 clicks
101 opt-outs
72 orders
Smith-Harmon
121 clicks
105 opt-outs
85 orders
Control
100 clicks
100 opt-outs
100 orders
Test to determine what will truly work for your audience.
Challenge your strategy and tactics on an ongoing basis.

33. The Secret Sauce…
The secret to great email creative…
TEST!
Measure
Track

34. Some fun ideas from others: CAH
Indigo Wild has a strong
brand voice and supports
causes related to their
brand, not necessarily
their products.

35. Some fun ideas from others: ESPN
ESPN has a little fun
with their birthday
emails. They lean on
social memes for
creative partnership
ideas like this one.

36. Some fun ideas: Rent the Runway
Don’t just show
product, show benefit,
uses, tips…
Give your readers
content, not just
products and offers.
(Plus, use of bold
graphics doesn’t hurt.)

37. Some fun ideas: Animated GIFs
IF your audience can see them, this can lift open rates!
TIP: Be sure your “default slide” is intentionally set.

38. Some fun ideas: Downtown Council
DTC uses short blurbs and links to event
information on full websites

39. Some fun ideas: Hostess
Hostess scores 3 points: creative personalization,
directional graphics and friendly white list request.

40. Some fun ideas: image mosiac

41. Email Marketing
Creative That Works
Jessica Best, Digital Marketing Evangelist
jbest@emfluence.com
@bestofjess or @emfluence