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Making Your Email Your Own
An interview with Donna Glick, Senior Manager, Product Strategy
It's hard enough sometimes to figure out what to say in your emails, so who wants to worry about design too? Thankfully, with more than 400 customizable templates, Constant Contact has taken some of the challenges of finding the right look for your message out of the process.
Donna Glick, a senior manager in product strategy, has been with Constant Contact for seven years, and in that time she has overseen the development of many of our email templates. Hints & Tips recently caught up with Donna to get her thoughts on how to use Constant Contact's templates to create attractive emails.
H&T: How does someone go about choosing the right template? Is there such a thing as "the right template?"
DG: Well, there's no wrong template. What I say to people is don't get too caught up in the categories and names of the templates. They are truly there as suggestions on our part. Start with the overall layout. As you browse through the categories in the template picker, if you see a template and you like its general look and layout, pick that one. Then, in the editor, change the colors, fonts, and imagery. You might pick a restaurant template to promote a religious breakfast, for example. The Stock Image Gallery gives people access to our full spectrum of images to use in any template. In the end, it really doesn't matter what the name of the template was when you started. It's now your template, with your colors and your branding.
H&T: How much content is too much to include in a newsletter? Is there an ideal length for an email to be?
DG: The key is to make sure that when you collect the permission to send people your email, you should, as a best practice, let them know what content they will be receiving and how often, and then meet that obligation with each message. The amount of content can vary from issue to issue. Certainly, you want to catch the reader's attention right off the bat with a great article or promotion. Beyond that, I would suggest that for each topic, you include a paragraph or two and then link back to your website for the full article. That gets your readers to your website so they can see everything else you have to offer. It keeps your email on the shorter side, making it easier for readers to move beyond areas that may not interest them. The links are also extremely beneficial in terms of reporting, and finding out which content generates the most interest. Design your emails so you can learn what readers really want, and target them accordingly.
H&T: Is there an ideal word and image balance that you should strive for?
DG: I like the balance of having an image with each article, but more to complement the message. If your message is all about the image, then certainly focus on that. Otherwise, don't let the image distract from your point.
Try to put yourself in your subscriber's place: what do you like to see when you open an email? What do you look for, what catches your eye, and what turns you off? Put together something that you would like to receive. Like you, your subscribers are very busy, but they will gladly make the time for content they want.
H&T: Do you think having some white space is important?
DG: Yes. Try not to overwhelm your readers. Even though they can look away at any time, give them a way to look away while they're still on your content, and they're still absorbing the look and feel of your brand. Like using commas in sentences, it helps to separate things, so your email is not just a sea of text or images. You want to give people a chance to digest what they've just read and seen, and then be able to move on to the next topic.
H&T: Mobile devices are an increasingly popular way to view emails. What's a good way to design an email that might be read by someone on a mobile device?
DG: Use a great subject line, and put the most important part of your message up top. Then if a reader doesn't see the entire message while he's on the go, at least that part of it is visible, and when he gets back to his computer, or when he has more time, he can go back to your message and read the whole thing.
H&T: Any last suggestions?
DG: Of course! Your subscribers want to hear from you, give them what they are waiting for. Your content is the most important feature of your email, so spend the most time on that. Let the template showcase your content. Pick a layout, colors, fonts, and images that allow your message to stand out. Also, once you customize the template for the email that you're going to send out on regular basis, consider mixing it up a little when a holiday comes around. Pick one of the holiday templates. Send out something a little bit different for Valentine's Day. Send out something a little bit different for Thanksgiving. It's still your message, but take the opportunity to show your readers that you know to what's going on around them too.
For more of Donna Glick's thoughts about great email design, check out Constant Contact's Best Practices blog at www.constantcontact.com/blogs.
