7 design best practices for successful emails

Emails are commercial documents like any other, and as much care should be taken over their design as over your website, with which they will almost always be linked. Here are a few best practices for optimising their impact, whether for everyday emails or newsletters. The aim is to provide you with a clear list of the essential elements to consider so that none are overlooked when the time comes.

1. Add one image — but not ten

Our brains process images 60,000 times faster than text! It is therefore almost essential to include an image in your commercial emails. However, do not overdo it, as images are heavy files that can slow down the display of your email or even block its delivery.

Important note: many email inboxes block images by default (the user must manually authorise their display). Therefore, ensure that your content is readable and that your message comes across even without images.

In the same vein, be concise. Your text should be readable even without images, and as brief as possible. Nobody wants to read an endless email, and the goal is to persuade — not to put people off.

2. Add CAN-SPAM and unsubscribe links

From a legal standpoint, these links are mandatory: they allow the recipient to know where the email comes from and to unsubscribe if they wish. Include them discreetly but legibly at the bottom of your message.

The unsubscribe link is all the more important because if your recipient cannot find it, they will be strongly tempted to mark you as spam. They will not receive your future emails, and the more often you are marked as spam, the greater the risk of being blacklisted by certain email providers.

3. Add a signature

Whether for commercial mailings or everyday emails, a signature including the sender's name and contact details is a positive touch. It reassures recipients, makes your communications feel more human by showing that real people are behind these messages, and it also allows the reader to contact you easily.

It is also a way of embedding your visual identity in your contact's mind through a recurring visual element.

4. Emails must be responsive

Just like all online content, optimise the display of emails on mobile and tablet devices. 67% of emails today are opened on mobile, so it is essential that they are easy to read on these smaller screens.

This is all the more important if you include visuals in your email. While text adapts automatically, your images will not necessarily do so.

5. Respect the graphic charter

Like all your communications materials, your emails must respect your graphic charter. This reinforces your brand image and makes you appear as the professionals you are in the eyes of your readers.

This element will demonstrate your consistency and professionalism. The overall visual of your emails depends on this charter and will be the first thing your recipients notice.

This overall visual must convey your seriousness and reassure your readers.

6. Include a CTA and links to social media

It is always useful to integrate a CTA into your commercial emails, as it removes one step (visiting the website) for the conversion of interested recipients.

This is all the more important for a commercial email. If a recipient is interested in your offer, they may easily be put off by a journey that is too long to complete. Make it easy for them: include links to the important pages. All they need to do is click to, for example, order your product or take advantage of a promotion.

Social media is a major communications asset — it allows you to reach your subscribers in the most direct and simple way possible, so make the most of it! A recipient interested in your email may want to follow your brand. But here again, if they have to seek out your Facebook or LinkedIn page themselves, there is a strong chance they will not bother. No time to search, no motivation either.

By placing a direct link to your social media, they are only one click away from following your page.

7. Personalise your emails

Where possible, personalise your emails by addressing the recipient directly: using their name or the name of their company will make them forget that they are looking at a commercial document and make them feel that the content is relevant to them personally.

For mass mailings, tools such as Mailchimp offer personalisation of the recipient's name.

Concretely, this means entering a certain code (for example: "Hello, [NAME]"). The email will personalise itself automatically by pulling the information from the recipient's email address. Each recipient will therefore see their own name appear in the email they receive.

This type of personalisation is all the more important because a recipient who suspects a mass mailing may dismiss your email for that reason alone. "They are not addressing me directly — I'll close it."

It takes very little to make a difference at this level, so always remember to personalise your emails.

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If you correctly apply all these principles to the creation of your next emails, you will almost certainly increase their conversion rate, and the time spent producing these documents will be amply rewarded!

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