I was thrilled to be asked by ASAE: The Center for Association Leadership to speak at Membership Monday about email. I shared all of my tips and tricks about email design and A/B testing to transform emails. After auditing over 40 association email accounts, the same design problems come up over and over again - I'm on a quest to change that narrative.
Here are some of my newest tips:
Decrease Visual Clutter
Email shouldn’t make you feel claustrophobic, they should be easy to read and nice to read. To accomplish this, remember:
Less is more: less text, less length.
Get to the point with the messaging, people will click through if they want more information.
Use compelling images, not plain stock images that don’t relate.
Include padding, make sure there is space between buttons, text, and images.
Email Colors
Color in emails are great, when you use them, make sure they are a dark color and have a high contrast level compared to the background. Some other tips:
Headlines and Sub Headlines are great in newsletters and longer emails. Make them 22 px+ font, in a dark color, bold so they are easy to find making the email skimmable.
Hyperlinks should be in a bold-dark- on brand color. Don’t use the default blue color, no one is a fan, pick something that shows off your brand instead.
Focus on the Call to Action
There’s been multiple audits recently where I have found the association using a button, and 3+ hyperlinks around it. This jumble of CTA’s all in one spot can be overwhelming to members, not to mention that is causes visual clutter.
Create your email with the CTA in mind first! When writing the copy, ask yourself:
What value will a member get from coming?
What problem are we solving for them?
What benefit are we providing them?
Create the CTA from those answers THEN build the copy that gets them to click that button. Additional hyperlinks are a good thing, but don’t crowd the main button.
The full recording of the session can be found on the ASAE Membership Professional Community for members.
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