Email Design Challenges and How to Tackle Them

The easiest way to search out out in regards to the greatest electronic mail design challenges that entrepreneurs are dealing with is to ask. So, we did. Greater than 3,000 senders from world wide accomplished the Inbox Insights 2023 survey and answered our questions on their targets, struggles, and processes.

A few of the key takeaways from Inbox Insights 2023 got here from an inventory of prime electronic mail design and improvement challenges. We requested respondents to pick out as much as three of their greatest challenges. These 5 points topped the chart:

1. Responsive emails (36.1%) 

2. Inconsistent rendering (35.1%) 

3. Darkish mode (24.5%) 

4. Electronic mail coding issues (22.8%) 

5. Accessibility points (22.4%)

Any of these sound acquainted? We’re prepared to wager at the least a few these electronic mail design challenges resonate with you. Perhaps there are others that you simply didn’t even notice may current issues.

Let’s take a more in-depth take a look at these 5 challenges and what you are able to do to deal with them.

All of us use our telephones to do nearly the whole lot. So, we’re not going to waste time making an attempt to show to you the way necessary mobile-friendly emails are to your success.

You want your campaigns to look good and performance accurately whether or not subscribers view emails on laptops, tablets, or smartphones. Meaning your marketing campaign designs must adapt to completely different display screen sizes. The issue is that many electronic mail layouts break when displayed on smaller screens.

A responsive electronic mail design adjusts for numerous screens and units in order that subscribers obtain a constant inbox expertise irrespective of the place they view your campaigns.

• Use a easy, single-column structure.

• Take into account a barely bigger font dimension for cell readability.

• Make CTA buttons simple to faucet (minimal of 44px by 44px).

• Optimize photographs for Retina shows.

• Embrace ample white area within the electronic mail design.

• Hold static photographs underneath 200kb in dimension and hold GIFs to lower than 1mb.

A part of the problem behind creating responsive emails stems from the truth that entrepreneurs design and develop electronic mail campaigns on desktop computer systems with massive screens. So, they begin with desktop layouts and attempt to compensate for smaller screens.

In the event you’re coding your personal emails, although, responsiveness could be slightly more difficult. Skilled builders recommend taking a mobile-first strategy that will help you overcome responsive electronic mail design challenges. Cellular-first electronic mail improvement includes designing and coding for small screens first after which increasing the design for tablets and bigger laptop screens. A responsive electronic mail framework, like MJML, can even make issues simpler.

The second greatest problem for electronic mail design and improvement includes the other ways electronic mail purchasers like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail, and Apple Mail deal with your code and finally show your design. These inconsistencies occur as a result of there aren’t any outlined requirements for rendering emails. Fortunately, the Electronic mail Markup Consortium (EMC) is an business group working to resolve that downside.

The problem of inconsistent rendering is among the greatest points in electronic mail, however many entrepreneurs are nonetheless utterly unaware of it. They most likely notice it’s crucial to check how their campaigns show on cell versus desktop. Nonetheless, they might don’t know that Gmail may render an electronic mail in another way than Apple Mail. Or that Yahoo Mail helps one thing that Outlook doesn’t.

• Google fonts will render accurately for subscribers in Apple Mail, however not Gmail.

• Animated GIFs work nearly in all places, besides desktop variations of Outlook.

• Including interactivity with AMP for Electronic mail is supported in Gmail and Yahoo Mail, however not in Apple Mail or Outlook.

• A linear gradient will show in Gmail, and Apple Mail, however not in Yahoo Mail and solely in some variations of Outlook. 

There’s just one approach to know the way your electronic mail campaigns will show on all these purchasers and units. You’ve bought to check and preview earlier than you ship. Some electronic mail groups do that manually. They’ve colleagues test issues out on their private accounts and cell units. However that’s time consuming and unreliable.

Sinch Mailjet provides Electronic mail Previews that automate pre-send testing. You may see how your emails render on all the preferred purchasers and units (earlier than you hit ship).

The problem of creating darkish mode emails can also be linked to inconsistent consumer rendering. Electronic mail purchasers deal with darkish mode in numerous methods, together with various assist for a media question that detects if a recipient is utilizing a lightweight or darkish theme.

Nonetheless, there are many different issues that may go unsuitable with darkish mode and electronic mail design. Again in 2021, we requested entrepreneurs to inform us about what challenged them most about darkish mode.

1. Optimizing logos and pictures (43%)

2. Optimizing code to render accurately (34%)

3. Preserving electronic mail designs on model (33%)

4. Unpleasant or unreadable shade inversion (31%)

5. Gauging utilization/reputation amongst subscribers (29%)

It appears like darkish mode is a digital design development that’s right here to remain. So, take the steps essential to optimize your emails for many who favor a darker person interface.

As a result of darkish mode might change issues out of your authentic design, testing and previewing is as soon as once more one of the best ways to catch points. Our darkish mode for electronic mail survey discovered that round 59% of senders take a look at emails in darkish mode earlier than sending.

Sustaining a easy and constant shade palette for electronic mail designs makes it simpler to deal with shade inversions that generally happen when emails are opened in darkish mode. A few of the different challenges could be solved rapidly, resembling including a slight glow round black logos that disappear into darkish backgrounds.

Coding emails could be complicated – even for skilled builders. For one factor, there are vital variations between coding web sites and emails. What works in your web site might not work in your subscribers’ inboxes.

• Electronic mail coding typically makes use of tables for structure functions.

• Inline kinds are a greatest follow for CSS in emails.

• Solely six-digit hex codes for shade are universally supported in electronic mail.

• JavaScript will not be supported in electronic mail for safety causes.

• Even one thing so simple as formatting bulleted lists in electronic mail could be tough.

For a lot of entrepreneurs, coding isn’t their strongest ability to start with. So, the complexities of electronic mail improvement could be overwhelming. Fortunately, there are many low-code and no-code electronic mail constructing choices out there. You’ll must resolve what’s proper on your program – DIY electronic mail improvement or a drag-and-drop editor? The reply might be a mixture of each. In the event you don’t have the necessity for a full-time electronic mail developer, a no-code, WYSWIG editor can be utilized by anybody on the advertising group. Then, you’ll be able to at all times rent a contract electronic mail developer or company for extra complicated electronic mail marketing campaign concepts.

A giant advantage of utilizing Sinch Mailjet to construct emails is that you simply’ve bought choices and suppleness. Groups can make the most of our intuitive Electronic mail Editor, which has drag-and-drop performance and entry to a template library. However in case you make use of builders, in addition they have the choice to code emails from scratch utilizing HTML/CSS or MJML.

Concerned with studying extra about electronic mail coding and electronic mail improvement? Take a look at Electronic mail on Acid’s Notes from the Dev: Video Version to get ideas and methods from expert electronic mail builders.

Rounding out the highest 5 electronic mail design challenges is the difficulty of accessibility. It’s encouraging to see that electronic mail entrepreneurs notice they should work on making HTML emails extra accessible. However though consciousness is rising, the issue persists.

A current report from the EMC discovered 99.9% of the hundreds of electronic mail campaigns the group evaluated had critical or essential accessibility points.

An inaccessible electronic mail will result in decrease total engagement whereas alienating sure subscribers. Nonetheless, whenever you enhance electronic mail accessibility, it makes the inbox expertise higher for everybody – not simply individuals with disabilities.

• Select a legible font with a minimal dimension of 16 px.

• Add different (alt) textual content for all necessary photographs in emails.

• Use <h> tags for subheadings to assist display screen readers and keyboard navigation.

• Observe: Mailjet’s templates are preformatted with <h> tags and you may simply format your personal as you’d in any textual content editor – no coding crucial.

• By no means ship image-only emails. At all times use reside textual content for key data and calls to motion.

• Consider the colour distinction of electronic mail designs for accessibility.

Most of the steps above are simple to implement, and so they’ll go a great distance in direction of making your emails extra accessible. These enhancements are a worthy funding. Electronic mail accessibility makes it simpler for individuals of all talents to learn, perceive, and have interaction with what you ship. Meaning extra clicks and a greater electronic mail ROI. However addressing accessibility additionally reveals your model cares about all subscribers’ wants.

Inbox Insights 2023 discovered that just about half of the senders we surveyed say their groups can launch a brand new electronic mail marketing campaign in lower than per week. However the dimension of your group makes a distinction.

Outcomes present 70% of one-person electronic mail groups can launch a marketing campaign in lower than per week whereas bigger organizations undoubtedly are likely to take longer. We discovered related outcomes when evaluating small enterprise electronic mail entrepreneurs to enterprise electronic mail groups. There are actually advantages to being small.

It’s simpler to maintain issues transferring whenever you’re a one-person electronic mail group. However as you get into larger teams and tackle larger electronic mail advertising initiatives, duties are divided, evaluations and approval sluggish issues up, and communication can break down. So how are you going to keep agile as a enterprise grows and the variety of individuals concerned in electronic mail advertising does too?

The e-mail manufacturing course of will get smoother, quicker, and extra versatile whenever you introduce an electronic mail design system. Consider it as constructing emails with reusable items or blocks, very like you’d put collectively a Lego set with bricks of various shapes and colours. This method provides you the chance to outline the methods your group addresses electronic mail design challenges. Plus, it makes it simpler for designers and builders to comply with model tips, which 22% of our survey respondents known as a prime problem.

We discovered that just about 20% of electronic mail groups aren’t utilizing a design system in any respect whereas one other 38% solely use a system a number of the time and 5.7% aren’t certain what their electronic mail design course of is.

Our survey additionally revealed that 82.5% of electronic mail groups that launch an electronic mail in lower than per week are utilizing an electronic mail design system. That features loads of one-person electronic mail groups, and it reveals how having outlined processes for electronic mail advertising boosts effectivity irrespective of your dimension.

Learn how the group from Sinch Electronic mail constructed a component-driven electronic mail design system that works with 4 completely different manufacturers and a number of languages. It’s also possible to watch an Electronic mail Camp 2022 session wherein Megan Boshuyzen and Avi Goldman of Parcel.io clarify why this strategy is the way forward for electronic mail creation.

Chances are you’ll be the neatest electronic mail marketer this aspect of the equator. However in case you’re working with instruments and know-how that fall in need of your wants and expectations, the success of your technique will endure. A carpenter with a high-powered nail gun goes to work quicker and higher than a man with a rusty hammer.

That’s most likely why 19.5% of senders say Inadequate instruments are certainly one of their prime three electronic mail design and improvement challenges. What’s in your electronic mail advertising toolbox? In the event you want an electronic mail service supplier (ESP) that goes past the fundamentals however remains to be simple to make use of, give Sinch Mailjet a attempt.

Carry your concepts to life with our versatile Electronic mail Editor. It provides you the choice of utilizing pre-designed templates, constructing authentic campaigns with drag-and-drop performance, or utilizing your personal electronic mail code.  Mess around with our demo to see the way it works.

When you’ve designed and constructed an electronic mail utilizing Sinch Mailjet, you’ll be able to see the way it renders on dozens of purchasers and units earlier than you hit ship with Electronic mail Previews. Plus, use our platform to A/B take a look at electronic mail designs and uncover what actually works.

Get going and begin sending with Mailjet at no cost. Improve as you develop.