As a small business owner, you need to create positive brand awareness, build a relationship with your customers, and drive actions that grow your business. One of the most effective strategies to achieve these goals is email marketing. With email marketing, you can connect with subscribers directly in their inbox and show them exactly how much value your brand has to offer.

But how do you design a good email? When you sit down to create an email for your business, it is important to consider the experience of the person reading it. Think about the goal of your message – what action do you want someone to take when they open it? Do you want them to use a discount, visit your retail location, or register for an event? Or, are you sending a monthly newsletter in which you promote a new blog post?

No matter the goal, be sure to include these elements in your design:

✅ An engaging subject line
✅ A clear call-to-action
✅ Easy-to-read text
✅ Intentional emojis, capitalization, and punctuation
✅ Links to current social media accounts

Another key part of creating a winning email is incorporating your brand consistently. Remember to use your colors and logo, and make sure the tone of the writing matches your style. The reader should be able to recognize your brand even without your business name (but be sure to include it).

⭐ Pro Tip: You can upload your branding to Constant Contact by using BrandKit. Simply choose a template and add your website.

Personalize your templates: Add your brand, Start emails with your logo and colors added automatically, Scan my website
Automatically upload your branding to Constant Contact.

Dos and Don’ts of Email Design

Now that you’ve learned some of the best practices for email design, it’s time to see why they are so important. A poorly designed email will miss the mark and give the reader a negative impression of your business. 

This email from the Constant Contact team’s favorite fake bakery, All or Muffin, is an example of how a message with the best intentions can go wrong. Before you click on the image to see the email go from losing to winning, take a look at some of the mistakes: Is the text easy to read? Do you understand how to use the discount? Do you feel overwhelmed by the excessive capitalization and punctuation? Also, do you even recognize any of the social media icons?

Slide your cursor across this image to reveal a version of All or Muffin’s email that will make a customer click instead of unsubscribe.

All or Muffin’s email has a lot of room for improvement, but their biggest challenge is that the design doesn’t support their key message and call to action. They are offering a 20% discount plus announcing a featured flavor, and both of these points get lost in the colors, multiple fonts, and lengthy writing. If you received this email, would you click or cringe?

If you are ready to take your email designs to the next level (and avoid your own roast 😉), check out our Ultimate Guide to Email Design. 👀

We have to admit that we cringed a lot while creating this example, so we couldn’t resist having a little fun with it. Keep reading to see the Constant Contact team roast All or Muffin’s design.

All or Muffin: Roasted

  • The Constant Contact team had fun roasting the fake email from All or Muffin Bakery.

Now that you’ve learned the dos and don’ts of email design and had a laugh, try creating an email yourself in Constant Contact. You can use email templates, AI, and more to craft a message that will make your audience want to take action. For even more guidance, download this free guide to creating a perfect email. With a good design, your subscribers will remember your brand for the right reasons.