It`s always a good idea to make sure that your email design is one that can be read easily and without problems. However, a block of wide text can often be a bit difficult to assimilate, so many email marketers find that it is easier to present email content in columns which are far faster to scan and present clear information in more than one place.

Rather than require readers to scan down the page several inches to find the next article, you can just have it begin in the next column. While this makes the email content clearer and more easily available to the reader, it also serves another purpose.

When email design incorporates columns into the email, it can be a very good way to draw the reader in. Rather than close the email when he sees the first article, which doesn`t much interest him, the reader will be presented with double the information and this can double your chances of keeping the casual reader interested.

Email design can make the difference between whether or not people are reading your email newsletters and columns make it that much easier to capture their attention.

Images can really add a lot to your email design, but that doesn´t mean they should be central to your email content. In fact, it is often best to keep images to a minimum or just keep them out of your email design completely. The reason for this is that when images aren´t properly displayed, they cause a lot of ugly spaces and icons to appear in your emails and if the images are critical to your content, most readers will miss the message.

The majority of email providers don´t display images as a default option. Instead, the user is required to manually turn on the images in each email. Most won´t bother, so it´s a better idea not to make the images a vital part of the email design.

ClickZ has an interesting post on this issue.

Jeanniey Mullen, executive chairwoman of the Email Experience Council, points out that e-mail marketing current generates an estimated return on investment of $48 for every dollar spent. If messages are optimized, she said estimates show the return could climb to $53 by increasing the open rate, clickthroughs, and conversions.

The fact is that more could be done by most email marketers to optimize their email design for maximum responses. This could easily become a far bigger industry with the right email design.

One of the more common email design questions is how long your email newsletter ought to be. There is no flat answer to this, but there are definitely a few guidelines to help you make your decision.

Attention span. How long is your reader attention span? Depending on the age group you are writing for, this could be quite short (teens and kids) or a little longer (businessmen and moms). Keep this in mind when thinking about email design.

Time. Some people may have a great attention span, but are too busy to actually sit and read through four or five articles in your email newsletter. Keep it shorter for business people who probably won´t have a lot of time.

Ease of reading. When considering your email design, remember that glaring screens are hard to read for very long. If your email design includes a white screen with black text or tone-on-tone text or even white text on a black background, keep in mind that no one will be able to read these for a long period of time without feeling a little eye strain.

Keep your email design easy to read and remember the time constraints and attention span of your readers as you design your email newsletter. This is a vital part of making sure taht most of your subscribers actually read down to the bottom of your email, so it is worth putting some effort into it.

Whether you like to admit it or not, chances are you´ve deleted emails that have lousy email design. It´s human nature. We want things to be easy and when you can´t easily read an email because of poor design, it´s pretty tempting to just get rid of it. We don´t have time in our busy lives to sift through piles of unreadable email.

Common Email Design Errors

Backgrounds. When the background is a busy image or a color that tends to blend into the text, that´s poor email design. It makes it difficult to read your emails and you´ll be better off not using any background at all.

Font. The size, style and color of your font is all part of your email design. A font that is too swirly or too small can be difficult to read and most readers simply won´t bother trying to work it out. They´ll just unsubscribe from your poorly designed emails.

Neatness. If your text is broken into odd lines, your readers will find it difficult to read, as well. It´s far better to keep everything neat and easy to read. You´ll find that your readers really appreciate this.

Your email design really does make a difference when you are trying to keep subscribers. It isn´t the only thing that matters, of course, but it´s definitely a huge part. People don´t want to read something that costs them to read it!

Email design doesn´t have to be complicated and bright to get your point across. In fact, the simpler it is, the less the email design will distract from your content. Less is more, as they say, and this really does apply to email design.

• White space. Using plenty of white space is important since it can be pretty hard on the eyes to read on a computer screen, so make it easier by leaving space for the eye to rest.
• Borders. Using borders between columns makes it even easier to read your email.
• Images. Images can add a lot to your email content, but as far as email design goes, they can really mess it up. This is because the majority of email clients now hide images for the safety of their users. This means that your carefully designed email might just end up looking weird.
• Paragraphs. Keep your paragraphs nice and short and use a space between them to keep things easy on the eyes.
• Color. If you want to use color in your email design, it´s often a good idea to go with soft colors that will make it less harsh to look at.

Email design needs to be something that doesn´t confuse the reader. Keeping it simple and clean will greatly help you and your readers will continue coming back.

When it comes to email design, you really need to make sure that it is easy to read first. No one likes a cluttered screen or tiny fonts that make your eyes hurt. But if you are using HTML email design, you have a choice between one, two or even three columns.

In general, 3 columns is rather crowded and can get a bit confusing, so you´ll probably want to keep it two just one or two. There are a lot of advantages to both options, so let´s take a look:

One Column Email Design

• Simple, easy to read design
• No distractions
• Easy to add photos with text wrapping
• Fonts can be a good size

Two Column Email Design

• One column can be narrower than the other
• Space for ads to one side
• Sidebars add extra interest
• Narrower lines of text are easier to read

Email design is very important to think about. Do you need lots of space for text? Then a single column design might work best. For ads and extra links, you might prefer the two column email design a bit more. It really depends on the purpose of your email and your audience.

Email design is very important since it is how your clients will see you. Your header is the first thing that people will see when they open your email, so you want it to be impactful and to convey the feeling you are aiming for with your email design in general.

Designing your header can be a bit tricky. There are just so many options. Which font to use, size, color . . . it´s a complicated process. Here are a few tips to help you out.

• Keep it simple. Going super fancy will just increase load times for your email and annoy people.

• Company branding. Remember that you want to carry your business brand over into your emails, so your header should reflect that in color and style.

• Get their attention. Your heading should catch your readers´ attention in a good way. Do that by making it a bit bigger than the regular text.

Your header really can be the way you spread your brand recognition and this is extremely valuable. You´ll find that more people think of you when they need your type of product and the continuity between your website and your email design will create a more professional image, as well.

Email design is very important if you want your readers to keep reading, but if they make it to the bottom of your email, what do they find? Your signature line is in the perfect place to capture those who have actually read to the bottom of the email and you can use it to your advantage. Think of your signature line as an ad and make it perform!

Email Design Tips for Signature Lines

• Include a link. This will direct the reader to where they can find more information, though this could be a an affiliate link as well.
• Add a tag line. A good tag line can get people to do whatever it is that you want them to do.
• Repeat call to action. Your call to action should be included in your email, but having it again in the signature line can really grab their attention and it gets you out of the way.
• Give contact info. People want to know how to stay in touch with you and if you include your contact information in the email design, you can rest assured that your readers will trust you more, since you are offering some personal info.

Your signature line is a vital part of a functional email design. It can really boost sales, too, something that everyone wants to do!

You can learn a lot about email design from magazines. When was the last time you opened a print magazine that had dozens of elements and short clips on every single page? Probably not very recently. That´s because magazines know design. They´ve spent years and thousands if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars on researching what makes a magazine easier to read.

While email design is definitely different from magazines, it is usually harder to read and often requires even more simplicity. Making it easy for your readers to get the information they need in a hurry will keep them reading. Having a dozen different sections across the email and everything all cluttered will not help them read quickly!

Email Design Tips

• Color. Keep the colors to a minimum, a full rainbow palette can be quite the eyesore.
• Background. Backgrounds that are lighter than the text tend to be easier to read. Avoid images.
• Columns. Separating columns is a good idea, but don´t have more than two, since this can be very difficult to read.
• Images. Make sure your images have alt tags in case they are blocked by the email client and don´t include any vital information in them.

Simple email design will keep your subscribers reading. If you make things too glitzy and confusing, while it might be amazing to glance at, you´ll be turning a lot of readers away because they simply don´t have the time to sort everything out. Keep your email design simple.

Email design seems pretty simple . . . most people figure that it is just formatting your emails to look pretty. That´s not all though. White space plays a vital part in email design and you need to be sure that you incorporate it into your email template.

White space gives the eye a chance to rest, something we tend to need more online than off. For example, a print newsletter can get away with having all the elements closer together, while an email newsletter will need more space. It is physically harder for us to look at the bright monitor than a piece of paper and people tend to move away from email design that is just solid text.

To make your email newsletter easier to read, you must have white space in your email design. This means leaving a little space around photos or images and breaking your text up. You´ll notice that typical online formatting has space between the paragraphs, which makes it easier to read.

Incorporating this basic principle into your email design can really help boost the number of clicks you get, since more of your subscribers will actually read through the email. White space helps people keep reading, so they will get more of your message. Try it in your next email newsletter and see what happens.

You know that your email design is very important, but how much work are you willing to put into it? Building a beautiful email design is something that many people assume they can do in a coding program like FrontPage, but this is actually a very bad idea.

You see, FrontPage doesn´t create clean code. For email marketing, it is vital to have clean code or you will end up with strange symbols that no one will understand. The code will be messy and can actually screw up some email clients, meaning that your subscribers may not even be able to read your email content. The only reason you´re writing it is so they can read, it right? So using FrontPage is not a good idea for email design.

Instead, look at coding yourself, by hand, if you know HTML. If you have no experience to try your hand at email design, then you may want to consider hiring someone who does this for a living. They should be able to whip you up a custom template fairly easily that will help you present a professional, working email design to your subscribers.

Email design can be tricky. But the right design can keep readers coming back, whereas an email design that doesn´t work well, will no doubt get your email newsletter deleted by the subscriber!

More and more people are using the preview panes in their email programs to read emails. This counts as an open, so you are probably seeing these email newsletters as being opened. But, if your HTML email is poorly designed, it won´t be read, just glanced at. Very few people will actually scroll to read what you have to say unless it is something that really intrigues them.

Email design is often done by those who design websites. The HTML is the same, but the end result is not. Most websites are designed to fit a 1024×768 screen. This might work if your subscribers open the email up, but the majority of them won´t. They´ll check what you´ve written in the preview pane and many will only read the email newsletters that fit there!

To maximize on the preview pane email readers, you will want to make your HTML email marketing newsletter a bit narrower. It shouldn´t be wider than 600 pixels. This will make it readable in the majority of preview panes in most email programs. Also, keeping the exciting or important news at the top of your email newsletter is a good email design technique to keep them reading. Grab the reader´s attention qiuckly and they will be more likely to scroll down.

Your email marketing design matters, especially these days when so many people are just reading email newsletters in their preview panes! So, take a bit more care, check out a few sample email programs to see how your newsletter looks and tweak it a bit if necessary.

Email design can be a tricky subject with all the different email programs available. You may design a very nice email, but end up with readers that just can´t see it. There are a few major mistakes that you might be making, turning your amazing email design into something that no one can read properly.

Email Design Mistake One

Using images for important information. If your headlines or slogan or any other vital information is being presented in your email design as an image, you can bet that at least 50% of your readers don´t see them. Many email clients turn images off automatically, so you want to make sure that only non-vital info is included in images and always use alt tags.

Email Design Mistake Two

Placing your best content at the bottom of your email. This is a big mistake. Sure, you want people to read all the way down, but many won´t. So make sure your riveting and most important information is at the top of your email.

Email Design Mistake Three

Not testing your email design. Check it in as many different email clients as possible. Find out what your email design looks like in Hotmail, Gmail, Outlook and anything else you can think of. Not all of them will show your content as you had planned and knowing where your design can be tweaked will help you make it a good one for everyone who subscribes.

These are three big email design mistakes. If you recognized your email design in any of them, they are pretty easy to fix and can mean a huge difference in the quality of your emails.

We think a lot about formating when considering email design, but fonts are a major part of the design. Choosing a font isn´t quite as simple as grabbing whichever one pops up first on the list. There are a few considerations to keep in mind.

Readability. Cursive fonts translate to bad email design. They are hard to read and may not exist on the subscriber´s computer.

Size. While any font can be adjusted for size, you want to make sure the ones you choose for your email design don´t have to be huge to be read.

Tone. What message are you trying to convey? A fancy, hard-to-read font like Gigi will convey a more elegant (albeit illegible) message. New Times Roman is more formal, Arial is quite friendly.

Other email design fonts that are easy to read and best to use include Calibri, Corbel, and Verdana. Each of these makes your email design function better.

Are you making one of these common email design mistakes? Many people do and they could really improve their email marketing skills by fixing them.

1. Sending your email as an image. Many email marketers find that it is easier to simply design the newsletter as an image to avoid the hassles of HTML. Plus, images look the same, no matter which email server your subscribers use. But there are some major flaws in this method, the main one being that more and more servers are actually blocking emails that only consist of images. So, think twice before taking the easy way out.

2. Not including a text based link back to your website. Having the URL in plain sight means people are more likely to click on it than a cloaked link, but many email designs don´t include this vital factor. If your email newsletter is one that lacks a text based link, add it in today.

3. Forgetting to include Alt-text. If your images don´t load, the alt-text is what tells your reader what the content of the photo or illustration is. Without it, they will just be looking at big blank spots in the email design.

If you are making any of these mistakes, it is time to reevaluate your email design and try to improve it. It´s never too late to fix your email design.