Email Design Hacks: How To Increase Your Conversion Rates

Beautiful emails are nice, but what you really need are emails that convert.

“Every aspect of marketing is entirely useless unless it produces conversions.” – Jeremy Smith

Here are 6 email design hacks that will help you leverage your design elements to get people to click through – not just admire the scenery.

Every email you have has a point to it. You’re trying to persuade the recipient to take a specific action. You’re trying to convert them from a passive reader into someone who takes another step towards becoming a customer.

Designing emails can lead people in the right direction, whether in subtle or more assertive ways. Let’s take a look at some email design hacks that will help you do exactly that.

1. Emphasise Your CTA

Your call-to-action is the most obvious point in your email where you try to convert. Make sure your readers pay attention to it. Use bright colours, create button shapes and/or bold fonts. Consider placing plenty of white space or block colour around the CTA to isolate and emphasise it. Learn more about how to pick the best CTA button colours here >> 

2. Divide Into Sections

Make it easy for your reader to pinpoint and digest key information by dividing your email into a few sections. You may decide to incorporate a separate CTA for each of these parts of the email.

3. Use a Grid or Angular Structure

You can also boost the way those sections work by arranging them into a grid. You could decide to put them into a simple square grid shape, or you could opt for a “zig-zag”, angular shape. The latter can be a great way to draw the reader’s eye down through the content, highlighting each CTA.

4. Use an Inverted Pyramid Design

Another useful approach is to use an upside-down triangle structure. This is known as an “inverted pyramid”. It’s very simple, but effective: you start with a larger header or block of text and have the visual and text elements get progressively narrower until the CTA button. It’s as if the whole email is an arrow pointing to this button, encouraging people to click.

5. Remember that Your Subject Line Needs Designing Too

It’s easy to forget that the way your subject line and email preheaders aren’t only copy, but visual elements too. You need to think about how they’ll look, especially on mobile. 

Keeping subject lines and preheaders short enough to be fully visible in the display of a person’s email app is a good start. That said, research suggests that email conversions are best when the subject line is 6-7 words long, possibly because this gives just enough detail, and the content matches the person’s expectations when they open it.

6. Incorporate Graphics and Video

Overloading your emails with huge image files can slow things down, but a well-chosen image really lifts your content and makes it attractive to the reader. Video is especially engaging, but it’s not really possible to use native video in an email – usually, you might make it look like the video is embedded, but when you click on it, you’re taken to an external site. 

GIFs get away with this by using image files but making the final product move like a video. It’s a very effective way to catch the reader’s eye and keep them engaged with the content, encouraging click-throughs. Learn more about creating and embedding GIFs in your emails here >>

Final Thoughts

Whatever email design hack you decide to go for, make sure it displays the way you imagined it, on any kind of device. Use a platform with built-in responsiveness for mobile, preview it in every format and check loading times. The great thing about a top email marketing platform is there should be no nasty surprises when you hit send.