Creating content for email blasts can be a challenge. Unlike traditional print where large images and plenty of eye candy is the name of the game, email design is an entirely different beast. Below are some HTML design best practices that I have collected over the years and recommend to my clients:

HTML Email Campaign Best Practices:

12 HTML Email Format and Design Tips

#1. Avoid those fancy things your Web site designers love to do: cascading style sheets, nested tables, and animation.

#2. Avoid those fancy things print art directors love to do: reversed type, colored type for body copy, type smaller than 10 points, body copy justified on both sides, type wrapping around a graphic, etc.

#3. Stick to the standard Web safe palette of 216 colors. (See below to a link for a list and examples of these colors.)
#4. Set the maximum width to 650 pixels, and type to a maximum of 70 characters to ensure readability.

#5. Use HTML code for bulleted and numbered lists.

#6. Keep the message size between 20K and 40K, or lower.

#7. Don’t waste precious above-the-fold HTML real estate on an enormous graphic such as a logo or product graphic. Content filters will assume that it’s a porn message and will reject it.

#8. Keep the design clean. Think postcard or billboard. Recipients may glance at your message for just a few seconds, most won't study it in detail. They are making a fast click-versus-delete decision, not a reasoned buying or other conversion decision.

Use your design to move them toward the click -- rely on your landing page to move them to the next stage in the conversion process. (You always take them to a special landing page, right?)

#9. If you have more than one column, make it extremely obvious which is the most important, and which merely lists "housekeeping links."

#10. Don't be afraid to include additional navigation links, if you are a well-known brand site with many SKUs or stories...

These links should not "fight" the main message, but they should be above the fold, usually on the right.
Why? Because the main message may not be relevant to the recipient. He or she may open the email and find that the subject doesn't interest them, but the other links remind them of all the other possibilities you have to offer.

Consider testing alternate orders of these links from message to message rather than considering the order engraved in stone the way it may be on your site.

#11. Be picky about brand consistency. Use templates. Create a style guide and make sure people stick to it. This includes a standard, unchanging "from" for all brand messages.

#12. Make your call to action a graphic, not a text phrase, to avoid tripping content filters trained to spot spammy calls to action. That said, include a text-URL and possibly a phone number as well in the text, so email programs that disable HTML links won't kill your response rates.


5 Copywriting Tips to Increase Response:

#1. Be disciplined. As noted above, Melissa says it's common for marketers to toss every single product feature and benefit into an email. That’s overwhelming.

Testing has proven the opposite approach is more effective. Pick a single theme and stick to it. Prioritize. People don’t read emails, they skim them. Your single theme should hit them over the head when they first open the email.

#2. Keep your copy punchy and active. Avoid flowery language. Use a lot of bullets and verbs.

#3. That said, avoid exclamation marks. That’s a flag for spam content filters. (Besides, if you're using a bunch of exclamation points, you won't impress recipients. It just looks loud and desperate.)

#4. Test your copy against content filters prior to sending (most email broadcast firms now offer this as part of their service) to see which words may get your message stopped as spam.

(By the way, your landing page is a great place to use words such as "guaranteed," "savings," "free," and "survey" that often trigger spam filters if they are used in the body of your email itself. You may have to divide your copy to conquer.)

#5. Personalize all you can; readers will skim more slowly, paying more attention if you do.

"It’s not just 'Dear Melissa," Melissa says. "Make the message as relevant as you can. PETCO, for example, sends dog messages to dog owners and cat messages to cat owners." If the message includes their account number or order number, put that information right at the top.

This works especially well for event-triggered emails -- for example, PETCO sends registered shoppers a special email promo on their pet's birthday that features their pet's name in the subject line ("Happy Birthday to Shasta") and in the email's headline.

Useful links related to this article:

List and examples of the 216 Web-safe colors -- if your email message (or landing page) has different colors than these, they won't display properly on recipient's computers:

http://www.lynda.com/hex.html

source: MarketingSherpa – September 30th, 2004

One of the most common questions I get asked is "Is There an Average Click-Through Rate?"
The answer is .... it really depends on many factors and the type of email blast it is.
Loren McDonald from EmailLabs writes....

Question: Is there an average click-through rate? Or ranges to judge whether response was poor, average or good?

Answer. The click-through rate (CTR) is important because without it, you don't get conversions. However, there's no single benchmark click-through rate, because CTRs depend on many factors: whether you send to a business or consumer audience, the kind of mailing you send, how relevant it is to your audience, how often you send, your opt-in process, your use of personalization and segmentation and dozens of other factors. And most significantly, how many links you have in your email and if you are providing content such as articles, whether you include the entire article within the body of the email or you have a teaser or snippet that requires subscribers to click through to a Web site to read.

Beyond that, many companies calculate and report CTRs differently - using total rather unique clicks. Many subscribers will click on multiple links, which means that CTRs based on "total" clicks are typically about two times higher than those based on "unique" clicks.

That being said, below are some ranges for average CTRs for permission-based house lists. CTRs that we cite are based on unique clicks (only one click per person is counted) and are calculated as: unique clicks/emails delivered:

• 
  B2B newsletters typically range from 5% to 15%. If yours are consistently below that level then among other things, you are probably providing content of little value to your subscribers. Or you may have most of the content within your email, not giving subscribers a reason or means to click-through to your site.
• 
  B2C promotional emails often range from about 2% to 12%. Emails with less than a 2% CTR may be a result of over mailing and questionable opt-in processes.
• 
  Highly segmented and personalized lists (B2B and B2C) are often in the 10% to 20% CTR range. Also, email messages with very strong content but sent to unsegmented lists, like many news or trend-type newsletters, are often in the 10%-15% range.
• 
  Trigger or behavior-based emails (emails that are sent to a recipient based on some behavior they showed, such as clicking on a product link, visiting a specific Web page, etc.) are often in the 15% to 50% range.

If your emails are typically showing under say 2-3% CTRs, some of the causes likely include:

• 
  Poor permission or opt-in processes. This includes pre-checked boxes, not making it clear what type of email they will be receiving, automatically adding someone to receive your email when they've actually signed up for something else such as a whitepaper, etc.
• 
  Poorly written subject lines that do not direct and motivate recipients to take an action.
• 
  Poor delivery rates. If a lot of your emails are getting blocked or filtered and you don't know it, your CTR will obviously be affected.
• 
  Poor open rates. If few people open your email, fewer recipients have a chance to click.
• 
  Poor design and layout. If they can't easily find where to click through or aren't motivated to by your layout - you've got trouble in River City.
• 
  Lack of links. Quite simply, the more links the better. Make it so that readers are continuously stumbling over text and graphic links like they do signage in a retail store.
• 
  No reason to click. If your newsletter has a single or multiple articles in their entirety, then don't expect them to click. You haven't given them any reason. If you are sending a promotional email and you don't include a deadline for the offer, or convey a discount, special offer, limited supply, etc., few people are probably going to take action.