Expertise

The word “engagement” gets thrown around in the marketing community and it's especially nebulous when applied to email marketing.On the surface, measuring email engagement is as straightforward as tracking engagement on channels like socials, where likes and comments are immediately evident. But what does email engagement actually look like? And what metrics should you track to make sure your engagement is healthy?We covered these topics on our recent Instagram Live with Kait Creamer, Senior Marketing Manager at Overstory. Below, we’ll give a summary of the highlights.https://www.instagram.com/p/CaCym5sqShP/

What does email engagement really mean? 

The boring answer: email engagement is the number of interactions in your email. Depending on who you ask, this could be open rates, click-through rates or the ratio between the two (referred to as click-through to open rate or CTOR).But the more important answer is that email engagement is when you’re willing to listen to your recipients. It’s when you get off the metaphorical stage and actually talk to the crowd.As Kait says, “Engagement is just being present and having a conversation.”Still not sure what we’re talking about? Let’s look at an example.Our email marketing specialist, Sophia Shalabi, recently started including a “question of the week” in our Email Design Blog newsletter (make sure to sign up!).

These one-click survey emails work by tracking how many people click on each button. Each click is worth one “vote”. Using this strategy increased our CTOR from our usual average of 3% to 9% for this campaign.The last button led to a Typeform, where we collected responses from our readers. This helps us know what you want to learn about rather than us just guessing behind the scenes. And yes - this blog post was inspired by the first answer in the image below!

Email engagement metrics to track

If you work for an organization or need to keep clients happy, you’re probably wondering how to justify these “conversations” with hard numbers. We’ve got you covered.Before we tell you which metrics to track, here are a few caveats to keep in mind:

• Understand your business model. Do you need a high open rate or does it just look good? Are clicks on some links worth more than others? If so, which are the most important? As Kait says, “Attention does not mean success.” The most important metrics are the ones that lead to an increase in revenue. This is different for a business that runs on ads or subscriptions (like newspapers and blogs) than for a company that relies on selling a product or service.
• Know where your needs meet customer needs. Good marketing comes down to one essential question: How are you helping your customer? Consider what they need from you in order to successfully buy and use what you’re selling. This might be more information, a community to rely on or simply entertaining content. 
• Test your own list before making conclusions. Every email list is different. A list of 50,000 students will express interest differently than 1,000 executives. Because there are people at the other end of the screen, it’s vital to get to know your own audience and the metrics that matter to your relationship with them. 

With that being said, here are some metrics that you can use to determine whether your campaign is working:

• Click-through rate. This is the percentage of people who clicked on at least one link in your email compared to how many people received the message.
• CTOR. Also known as the “Click To Open Rate”, this measures the percentage of clicks compared to the number of people who opened the email. Note that this is different from click-through rate because it only considers people who actually opened the email (vs all people who received it in their inbox). 
• Response rate. Rather than using a “no-reply@...” sender, try sending emails from a “yes-reply@...” address, and invite your audience to share their thoughts or feedback on the message. This works especially well for newsletters, where recipients may want to respond to your ideas. As BEE CEO, Massimo Arrigoni, says in his LinkedIn post about using a yes-reply sender, “We spend lots of time and money acquiring and engaging customers: why on earth would we not want a conversation?”

How to run a re-engagement campaign when your metrics are low

If you’re starting a brand-new list, engagement might be the easy part. But when you’re new to a company and inherit their existing list, or if you’ve neglected your own list for some time, then it’s often an uphill battle to get it back up and moving.What do you do when you’re sending emails only to be faced with low opens and very few clicks? Summon the re-engagement campaign.Re-engagement campaigns have two main goals:

1. Figure out who still wants to be on your list 
2. Understand how to make your content better 

While there are many strategies for re-engagement, the first step to take is to talk to your target audience. Go sit in on client calls. Join Facebook or Slack groups. Participate in webinars. Read YouTube comments. Do anything you have to do to understand what your ideal customer wants to see in their content.Then, don’t be afraid to take chances and change up what you’re doing. In our live, Kait shared a very simple tactic to understand her audience: she included a thumbs up or a thumbs down in every email.Thumbs up 👍: This email is helpful to me.Thumbs down 👎: This email could be better.Based on these results, she was able to create content that met audience needs (and increased engagement in the process!).

Enhance your engagement campaigns with BEE Pro

All of the Email Design Blog emails mentioned above are created using BEE Pro. Add buttons, make surveys and more with an easy drag-and-drop interface. You even make landing pages for your surveys using the page builder.

It’s December, which means the holiday shopping season is in full swing. You might think it’s too late to start your seasonal campaigns, but there are still some moves to make to optimize last-minute shopping. One of the strongest moves is seasonal landing pages.Designing seasonal landing pages is your best support tool to keep the momentum going through the shopping rush. These pages work to:

1. Drive conversions
2. Increase opportunities for personalization and segmentation
3. Improve SEO visibility

Boost your holiday marketing campaigns with these seasonal landing page best practices.

What is a seasonal landing page?

A seasonal landing page is similar to a regular landing page, but it specifically caters to the holiday seasons. Whether it be around Christmas or Valentine’s Day, the theme of the landing page changes but its overall purpose remains the same.For example, after clicking on social media links or Google ads, you will land on this holiday landing page, just as you would with a regular landing page.

The importance of seasonal landing pages

Creating a seasonal landing page is similar to designing a regular landing page, but just includes a specific seasonal look and exclusive holiday promotions. Here are a few benefits to implementing seasonal landing pages into your marketing campaign strategies:

• Drive more conversions. More content in front of your target audience brings more chances to convert. 
• Increase opportunities for personalization and segmentation. Personalized and segmented assets work to build customer trust and loyalty long term. 
• Improve SEO visibility. Seasonal keywords will allow your assets to pop up more frequently. 

6 Seasonal Landing Page Best Practices to Generate More Sales

While seasonal landing pages are similar to regular landing pages, there are noteworthy differences. That’s why we’ve compiled the top 6 best practices for how to create the best holiday landing page.

Implement seasonal visuals

Design your seasonal landing pages to suit the time of year, season or holiday that you’re promoting. Use festive images, GIFs and stickers to draw your audience in. Also, include a compelling CTA and copy that is commonly used around that holiday to support your landing page design.Template: This seasonal landing page template includes gold bows, gifts and mini pine tree visuals to promote the Christmas season.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Give seasonal promotions

Showcasing promotions is oftentimes what gets customers to click. Make sure to get straight to the point when designing your seasonal landing page by making your deals prominent and clear for customers to see.Template: This seasonal landing page template includes a bold promotion right when you click in. The clearly displayed 15% off is clear for customers to see which will lead to conversions faster since they know exactly what deals they’re getting for the back to school season.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Include additional resources

Provide customers with additional resources and details in your seasonal landing pages to explain why they should buy from your brand. Give a shopping guide, additional products that go along with the collection they’re searching or even try influencer marketing to showcase video reviews or promotions to persuade customers to purchase.Template: This seasonal landing page template includes seasonal colors and animated graphics along with a couple additional resources. The video tutorial, brief guide on how to decorate eggs and the CTA that leads to the blog are all helpful resources for your audience.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Optimize your seasonal landing page for mobile

Make sure your landing page is set to render perfectly on mobile and desktop view. BEE Pro offers a Mobile Design Mode feature where you are able to toggle between desktop and mobile view during the editing process for a faster mobile optimization process.Template: This seasonal landing page template includes neon copy and coloring for a unique draw-in. Customers are intrigued by the visuals and will easily view the landing page in mobile view the same as it would show up for desktop. A busy Cyber Monday has people checking sales from all their devices, so it’s necessary to have your landing pages optimized for mobile.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Keep converting simple

Make it easy for your customers to convert by simplifying your processes. Include links to Stripe or PayPal payment systems in your landing page for an easy checkout process. Holiday seasons are busy, and simplifying the process with the help of your landing page is the perfect way to drive more conversions.Template: This seasonal landing page template includes “Buy Now” and “+” add to cart CTAs so customers head right purchasing. This reduces the friction of the busy holiday shopping time and simplifies the process overall. This template is perfect for the Valentine’s Day season.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Showcase reviews and testimonials

A convincing holiday landing page should include clear social proof and reviews so customers are convinced to buy from your brand over the competition. Seeing good reviews front and center on a seasonal landing page is a sure way to win customers over.Template: This seasonal landing page template provides reviews of what other customers are saying about certain items the brand sells. This New Years themed page is convincing customers with transparent social proof.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Create Your Seasonal Landing Page with BEE Pro

Good seasonal landing pages are a solid way to increase conversions during this insanely profitable season. They serve your target audience by providing quality visuals, promotions and more to draw attention in and boost sales.Designing a landing page doesn’t have to be a time-consuming task. With BEE Pro, you’ll design faster with features like branding kits and mobile design mode to optimize processes to get your landing pages as festive as possible. This will help your business sustain momentum throughout the whole holiday season.

Providing the best customer experience includes developing a strong e-commerce presence. Whether you’re a large or small business, every detail from your website to your email should be intact and meet customer needs to sell more products.Do you understand the values of your in-person and online customer base? Does your business have a strong in-store and online presence?Keep up with e-commerce marketing trends to make sure you’re answering yes to these questions. This will also help your business see some major growth and stay ahead of the increasing online competition.

In 2021, holiday sales are expected to increase between 8.5% and 10.5% over 2020 (NRF, 2021)

Email E-Commerce Statistics

• About 61% of consumers prefer brands contact them via email (Statista, 2021)
• The average open rate for abandoned cart emails is 45% (Moosend, 2021)
• Shopify claims that in 2018, e-commerce email marketing was responsible for 24% of holiday sales (and this has only continued to grow) (Optinmonster, 2019)
• In 2020, 60% of e-commerce, retail, and consumer goods and service companies personalized emails based on former purchases, compared to the 38% in 2019 (Litmus, 2020)
• About 64% of small businesses use email marketing to reach customers (Campaign Monitor, 2021)

Social Media E-Commerce Statistics

• Having active social media accounts is important for your business. Online retailers with at least one active social media account make about 32% more sales than online retailers that don’t have social media accounts (Bigcommerce, 2021)
• About 55% of Gen Z-ers that are active on social media claim that their clothing purchases are influenced by posts they saw on social media platforms (eMarketer, 2019)
• E-commerce promotion on social media is encouraged, in fact, TikTok users are able to add e-commerce links in their bio (TechCrunch, 2019)
• In 2021, worldwide ad spending on Facebook and Instagram combined will reach nearly $95 billion annually (eMarketer, 2019)

Shopping Cart E-Commerce Statistics

• About 69.57% of shopping carts are abandoned (FreshRelevance, 2021)
• The top reason shoppers abandon carts is due to high extra costs (Baymard Institute, 2021)
• The average open rate for abandoned cart follow-up emails is 42.3% (Barilliance, 2021)
• About 23% of people will abandon carts immediately if you require account creation during the checkout process (Baymard Institute, 2020)
• Optimized checkout design would help e-commerce sites gain a 35% increase in conversion rates (Baymard Institute, 2020)
• Having an exit-intent popup has helped recover 53% of abandoning visitors (Optinmonster, 2019)

Online Shopping Statistics

• Over 2.14 billion people worldwide are expected to buy goods/services online in 2021. This is up from 1.66 billion global digital buyers in 2016 (Statista, 2021)
• 40% of online shoppers affirmed that the preferred payment method amongst online shoppers worldwide is PayPal (Statista, 2021)
• Retail e-commerce sales worldwide amounted to 4.28 trillion US dollars in 2021 and are projected to grow to 5.4 trillion US dollars in 2022 (Statista, 2021)
• One of the most popular online activities worldwide is online shopping (Statista, 2021)
• In 2021, it’s estimated that there will be about 2.14 billion global digital buyers (Oberlo, 2021)
• Free delivery is the number one reason people shop online (Oberlo, 2021)
• 50% of customers will stop visiting an e-commerce website if it isn’t mobile friendly, even if they like the business (Truelist, 2021)

Mobile Shopping Statistics 

• Smartphones accounted for about 70% of all retail website visits worldwide in 2021 (Statista, 2021)
• Of the total US e-commerce sales, 45% are mobile e-commerce sales (Insider, 2020)
• About 57% of customers won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile website (Sweor, 2021)
• 56% of in-store shoppers used their smartphones to shop or research items while they were in a store in the past week, says a global survey (Google/Ipsos, 2019)

In-Store Shopping Statistics

• By 2024, in-store sales are expected to reach $21.4 trillion globally (Statista, 2021)
• Now in 2021, retail sales have exceeded $4.4 trillion (NRF, 2021) 
• During Q2021 in the US, 86% of total retail sales were non-e-commerce sales (USE Census, Bureau, 2021) 
• About 58% of customers have said to be interested in attending in-store retail events in the future (Score, 2019) 
• In-stores, about 81% of customers discover and evaluate new products (Salesforce, 2019)
• Almost 63% of customers buy more than what initially intended during in-store shopping (Salesforce, 2019)
• While returning a product, about 67% of customers admit that they bought something else (Salesforce, 2019)

Small Business Retail Statistics

• About 37% of small businesses don’t have a website (Visual Objects, 2020)
• 98.6% of all retailer firms in the US are small retailers (Score, 2019)
• $22,341 is the average monthly revenue reported by small retailers (Score, 2019)
• The average gross margin of small and medium-sized retailers is 51% (Score, 2019)

Global E-Commerce Statistics

• In 2021, e-commerce sales are expected to makeup 18.1% of retail sales worldwide (Oberlo, 2021)
• By 2023, e-commerce sales are projected to makeup 22% of retail sales worldwide (Oberlo, 2021)
• China is the leading country by retail e-commerce sales (Statista, 2021)
• Retail e-commerce sales worldwide amounted to 4.28 trillion US dollars in 2020 and by 2022, e-retail revenues are projected to grow to 5.4 trillion US dollars (Statista, 2021)

Bonus E-Commerce Statistics

• The largest group of digital buyers in the United States are millennials aged 25 to 34 (Statista, 2021)
• Many online consumers read up to 6 product reviews before making a purchase (Statista, 2021)
• Amazon is the largest consumer internet/online service company worldwide. As of June 2021, they have a market cap of approximately 1,735 billion U.S. dollars (Statista, 2021)
• In Q3 of 2020, about 2.17% of global e-commerce website visits were converted into purchases, which is down from 2.25% from the previous quarter (Statista, 2021)
• Customers shopping in fashion view approximately 32 pages before making a purchase (Statista, 2021)
• Roughly 45 percent of global e-commerce payment transactions were made by digital and mobile wallets, making the digital wallet the most popular online payment method worldwide. And this is set to increase to over 50% by 2024 (Statista, 2021)

Keep Up With The Latest E-Commerce Trends

Stay on pace with the latest trends so your business will succeed through the busy seasons. While the industry is ever-changing, it is worth your time to study up so you can get creative with your marketing strategies to stay ahead of the competition. Leverage some of these current trends to better connect with your target market this season.

Originally published on April 8, 2016. Last updated Nov 2, 2021.

Email continues to reign as the most powerful communication channel for your marketing campaigns. With ROIs at nearly $42 for every dollar, reaching your audience through email is your best move right now.

But many marketers still shy away from email because they don’t seem as time-efficient as social media posts.

How can you scale your email marketing campaigns faster? The answer lies with a quick, reliable design system called modular design.

What is modular design?

In email, modular design is a system of creating content-filled building blocks to stack and arrange in your emails. Its flexibility gives you the freedom to customize your email template without changing your blocks. This is what makes modular designs so appealing. Creating modular emails accelerates and scales your entire email marketing campaign.

In fact, it’s like playing a game of Tetris. In the game, you try to match tiles within the playing field to eventually win the game. With modular email design, you stack content filled blocks within an email template to ultimately scale your email marketing campaigns.

In order to reach our desired outcome of scaling, we need to understand what our building blocks are and what purpose they serve:

• Template: A compilation of modules that are tactically placed to design an email campaign. Templates may change depending on the goal of each email. A newsletter email may look different than a feature launch email, and so on. Think of the template as your base of the email, or the playing field in Tetris.
• Module: The module is where the content lies. These blocks will contain HTML text, videos, CTAs, and other content. They will serve different purposes and be rearranged or stacked in specific ways depending on the purpose of the email being sent. With this in mind, plan to use one for your header, footer, primary content, social media links and other necessary content.

Utilizing modules will allow you to drag and drop content blocks to quickly form your desired template. This system will level-up your emails, lighten your workload and get you up to speed.

Out with the old: Traditional email design is outdated

Traditional email templates aren't commonly used anymore. Using these templates throws more work on your plate. With a traditional template you will need to add, delete and reposition elements in your emails which makes your entire design process error-prone and slow-paced.

In fact, their lack of brand consistency gives off an unprofessional appearance, and that messiness could lead your emails straight to spam. With 45% of all emails sent being considered spam, this outdated email design style is not worth the risk.

Even rendering for mobile becomes more of a concern with this design style. Adding, deleting and repositioning your content will toy with how your email renders on all devices. This will also require more testing each time you tweak your content. This is another extreme, risk seeing as 42.3% of people will delete an email if it’s not optimized for mobile.

Modular design will cut your design time in half by standardizing module components so you can rearrange and use them over and over again in your emails. Plus they will be perfectly optimized for mobile due to their regulated structure.

Benefits of modular design

A modular email design reigns over traditional design styles due to its simplicity, flexibility, and other fundamental benefits including:

Brand consistency

Keeping your image, logo, brand colors and other brand components consistent from email to email is difficult if you’re starting from scratch every time you create a new email. Modular design breezes past this complex rebuilding process by allowing you to set and save brand assets to reuse with each new email. Using consistent brand elements in your emails helps subscribers learn your brand. Keep your brand consistent with standardized email modules.

Reuse your modules and tweak text or images within them if needed. This will ensure consistency while also giving freedom and time to be more creative with your designs.

Personalization

Modular design provides the right mix of images and text in emails. This gives room for more personalization. Each module can include personalized copy to better connect with your audience. Also, 82% of marketers have reported an increase in open rates through email personalization, which means designing modular emails will undoubtedly increase your email open rates. Flexibly personalize your header, live text or send-off directly in your modules.

Easier design process

The modules you create are easily stackable. Think of them as Tetris blocks - you can drag and drop them into each template you create. This simplified designing gives you more time to focus on other elements that might need more attention.

You are essentially creating a design library filled with modules that you will reuse and place into templates. Modular design allows you to throw modules into your template without a worry on how they will render. It’s like an email puzzle where you have all your pieces set and you just need to think about where they fit together to achieve that responsive email.

Saves time

A traditional layout often requires an extensive email brief. As a result, these can take hours to create leaving no time to implement new, bold creative elements or time to run multiple A/B tests.

With modular design, you will flexibly arrange modules and quickly tweak blocks for each new email. Send emails out to your subscribers that are personalized and segmented with this time-efficient, standardized method. Modular email design is a consistent way to quickly scale your email marketing campaign.

Low cost

Traditional email templates need to be purchased since they are unique to each campaign. Meanwhile, the modular email templates provide flexibility to rearrange its components, so you only need to purchase one of those and apply it to every campaign. To avoid all costs, try a free template from the BEE template catalog.

Switch to a modular design for email

Creating modular email templates for future campaigns is a fast and flexible process. Get started here:

Brainstorm your module library

An easy way to start outlining your library would be to categorize your modules by primary, secondary, and tertiary content, depending on where they sit in your modular email template.

The modules will be filled with very specific content that you will reuse and recycle depending on each campaign you choose to send.

• Primary modules. Contain the table of contents and header.
• Secondary modules. A subscriber's main focus for clicks. Contain the headline, main text, main images, CTAs.
• Tertiary modules. Contain the social links, quotes, event announcements, emojis, surveys and other closing components.

Creating an organized library will streamline your email design process where you can select and stack modules to create the email you need.

Categorize by campaign

Take your outline a step further and plan where modules will fit in each upcoming email campaign. To begin, ask yourself a couple questions to better understand how you want your module library to be organized.

• How can I categorize these emails? Are they for my newsletter, a feature launch or a welcome series?
• How do I want to personalize modules for each campaign?
• What do subscribers love about my current emails and what sections need improvements?

Answering these questions will help you arrange your module library to simplify your design process. The ready-made modules will be ready to place into your template while changing a couple text blocks or images if needed to fit the desired campaign.

Implement a modular design strategy

Knowing which modules go where is key to creating the best email experience for your subscribers. Make the module design process more efficient by thinking about:

• Standardizing your brand specifics: logo, colors, images.
• Determining if it’s an image-heavy or text-heavy email
• Optimizing for mobile design
• Knowing your purpose for sending the email
• Understanding which sections will be personalized to subscribers

Speed up your modular template designing by standardizing some of these elements and ideas into your premade modules.

Create email modules

As we now know, producing a library of modules will fast-track your design process. It’s a design system that will pay off long term and allow you to really leverage your email campaigns. Follow your outline and fill your modules with content that suits your needs.

Test your modular designs

The ready-to-go module library you created will also give you more time to test your emails. When ready, initiate multiple A/B tests and gain feedback faster. Once you receive that feedback, you can tweak elements within modules and send it out again to decide on what works best for your subscribers.

Try out modular design in BEE Pro

Adopting a modular email design strategy is undoubtedly the most efficient way to create responsive emails. Test your designs on your audience and implement a core set of modules to reuse and rearrange for each email campaign you send.

Try it in BEE Pro. Our drag-and-drop editor gives you the creative flexibility to quickly design and save your modules. Create email templates from scratch or try a free template from our catalog. Save time and create stand-out modular email designs for your next campaign.

Thoughtful content connects with your target audience and guides them to complete a specific action. Whether that action is to subscribe, purchase or review a product or service, a landing page serves as one of the best content forms to truly drive home conversions.At the core of a landing page is one defined intention. This intention or goal is more specific than only driving sales, it’s typically how you want to demonstrate value for each specific campaign: How can you show up for your customers and guide them towards a genuine solution to their problem? Once you narrow in on your goal, build a persuasive strategy and design the landing page to support that strategy: Why does your solution matter and how do you get customers to trust that it does?Understanding customer needs is the first step to creating an optimized landing page. Once you solidify that knowledge, you will be able to design and piece together your landing page elements that are geared towards customer personalities and interests.Let’s take this step-by-step so you can successfully craft a high-converting landing page.

What is a landing page?

A landing page is a standalone web page that serves one focused goal. In digital marketing, this is where your visitors end up or “land” after clicking on a link from your emails, social ads, or digital promotions. The best landing pages are campaign-specific and guide your visitors towards a CTA button.While normal web pages and your website showcase several different goals and allow visitors to explore,landing pages stay laser-focused on one goal: pushing visitors into the next step of the buying cycle. Depending on the stage they are on, this may be capturing leads, converting browsers into buyers or creating repeat buys.With a single CTA and the inability to explore the web page, the landing page is your best bet to increase conversion rates and lower costs of acquiring leads due its clear and direct mission.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

What is the difference between a landing page and a website? 

While the terminology seems similar, a landing page and a website have different makeups. Deciding on which to use will ultimately depend on your objective for creating the page.A landing page has one focused goal, and that is to convert visitors into customers. It will have the visitor fill out a sign up form, or simply click on a specific CTA. It partners a website but is used for a specific promotion, event or offering.However, a website is what finalizes the conversion. It gives visitors an opportunity to explore the offer in depth through other offerings and explanations. Here’s a quick breakdown of the differences:

Landing page vs. Website

(Website)

(Landing Page) 

Benefits of a high-converting landing page

Landing pages that convert are highly valuable for your business. They work to advance your visitors along in their buying journey. Some benefits of effective landing pages include:

• Driving conversion rates
• Providing actionable data tracking
• Building credibility
• Increasing search traffic

These are only a few of the reasons why you should develop landing pages for your campaigns. Keep reading to find out how to create a high-converting landing page.

What are the key components of a landing page? 

Developing a high-converting landing page comes down to a clear formula. Honing in on your landing page development, design and follow up that will make or break the momentum of your landing page. Depending on the type of page you plan to design, your elements will vary from each form. Follow along with this list to develop a page that increases those conversions:

A solid CTA

• One/few CTAs
• Visibility - clear, it stands out
• Placement - above the fold

To-the-point copy

• Compelling/catchy header and descriptive subheaders - aligned with other copy
• Short, concise, informative and customer-centric
• Considerable offer that communicates value 
• Emotional triggers
• Benefits and pain points - write content with your goal in mind
• Strong grammar and spelling

Optimized design

• Align the elements
• Use white space to your advantage - spread out your content, and make it easy for customers to find your CTA
• Add brand personality but don’t overload
• Zero distractions - simple, focused design
• Bullet point copy for a lighter design appearance

A single defined goal

• Understand the purpose and intention of your landing page - clear message and defined goals
• Customers come first - focus on the offer not who you are as a company. Speak and design for your target audience

Eye-catching imagery

• Engaging imagery - images/multimedia
• Videos 

Reviews/Testimonials

• Customer feedback and support
• Credentials and promises

Unique value proposition

• What do you stand for?
• What makes your company, product or service different from the crowd?

What are best practices for a high-converting landing page? 

Keep forms short

• Know what specific information you want from potential customers
• Showcase your data security badges so customers trust your brand

Promote on social media

• Take advantage of PPC ads
• Leverage your social media and post landing pages to those platforms

Automate

• Ease the day-to-day by automating your landing page shares from the get-go

A/B test

• A/B test your design components and personalized copy on each landing page you create
• Check your metrics - pay attention and measure to know what to change and how to improve for more conversions on your next landing page

Follow up

• Thank your customers
• Give access to your other marketing channels 
• Follow up by letting customers know how to reach you

7 Types of Landing Pages that Convert

With one set intention, landing pages cut out all distractions and lead your customers step-by-step through the buying process. Each page you use throughout your sales funnel plays such a crucial role that works not only to drive the final sale, but to also genuinely help your customers face their challenges and find their solutions alongside them.Kath Pay, CEO at Holistic Email Marketing, explains that our drive should be to help customers not just sell to them. She says that, “Good marketing is helpful marketing. Customers are subscribed to you for a reason, so make their conversion as easy as possible. Don’t put barriers in front of them.”A 404 landing page is just as important as a lead capture page because they all direct customers towards content they need. Include each of these landing page types to effectively help your customers and remove any barriers from their buying experience.

Lead capture page

A lead-capture landing page is created to collect leads through a data capture form. This page encourages or incentivizes customers to fill out the form with their information to gain some sort of reward in return. It’s a win-win, your customer gets something they want and you get the conversion.When to use this page: Mid-sales funnel —Where your customers have learned about your product and are now evaluating if what you have to offer is a right fit for them.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Squeeze page

Similar to the lead-capture page, the squeeze landing page is another form-based page to collect data. They are used to gather email addresses from potential customers. A squeeze page needs to quickly get straight to the point with a bold headline, a clear CTA, an exit option and links to next steps if they decide to move forward.When to use this page: Top of sales funnel—Where you gather leads through bare minimum information (the email address) to create an email list.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

 (Easily delete content to simplify the landing page) 

Splash page 

A splash landing page is a simple version of a landing page where an announcement or special offer is provided. There’s no data collection, it's simply about giving potential customers information. The splash landing page should have a clean layout with a clear CTA, minimal copy and few images.When to use this page: Any time in your sales funnel—Where you provide customers with general information before they end up on your main website.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

 (Easily delete content to simplify the landing page) 

Sales page

The sales page is a landing page where you convince your customers to make a purchase. These pages are often touchy with design because it’s best to thoroughly understand your customers before finalizing any of the copy or design elements. If you push too hard or not hard enough, you could lose the sale. Your page length will depend on the details of the product or service you’re providing. Whether it be a small push with quick bullet points of benefits or a page filled with extensive info, make sure your push is backed by your intentions and clearly represents your value proposition.When to use this page: Bottom of sales funnel—Where you push visitors to become customers and make that purchase. Convincing people to buy from you is difficult so design with clear intentions.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

404 page 

A 404 page is a safety landing page and pops up when the page customers landed on was not found. The error, “Page not found,” should be stated and then should offer a solution. That way, customers won’t simply exit your page, the solution will guide customers to an alternate form of assistance or page. Focus on keeping the mood light here by using funny copy, memes or other humorous content that your customer base will respond well to.When to use this page: Any time in your sales funnel (safety net)—Where you give customers the option to head to your website or other pages that will assist their needs. This shows that you care for their experience as a customer and want to help them in ways you’re able to.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

(Customize design to fit 404 page standards) 

Unsubscribe page 

An unsubscribe page is a landing page where customers are able to opt-out of receiving your emails. It’s considerate to set this page up to show customers that you care about how you engage with them. Don’t feel discouraged by an unsubscribe page. Use this page as an opportunity to re-engage. Provide options to understand how frequently customers want to receive emails from you, or offer something of value like a tutorial on how to work with your product.When to use this page: Any time in your sales funnel (safety net)—Where you have the opportunity to gain insight and survey your customers. Try to understand the reason as to why they are leaving you and how you will be able to win them back and build trust.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

(Customize design to fit unsubscribe page standards)

Thank you page

A thank you landing page is a great way to show appreciation of your visitors and customers. They are perfect for creating and nurturing your leads and should include a survey, customer feedback box or where you simply thank customers for making a purchase.When to use this page: Any time in your sales funnel—Where you thank your customers and then incentivize them to come back and purchase more or click further to learn more details.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

(Customize design to fit thank you page standards)

Landing pages that convert: Expert insights with Emily Ryan

Now that you understand the importance of landing pages to support and drive conversions for your marketing campaigns, let’s open the conversation to an expert in the field.Emily Ryan, MailChimp PRO Partner and Digital Strategist, shared her thoughts on landing page best practices to thoughtfully drive conversion rates. Follow along with Emily to nail down your high-converting landing page for future campaigns:

Considerations before creating your landing page

Before you start designing your page, you need to understand what your main goal is for the page.

• Is it to get more subscribers or clicks on your product?
• Or offer a discount? 

Nail down your goal and then start to work backwards on how to get to that goal.You always want to consider your Audience too. 

• Who is your landing page for? 
• What do they like and want? 

If you understand your ideal customer then you can build a great page for them. Keep the tone natural and not too salesy. Write your headings/sub-headings as if you're writing to one person in your audience. 

Best landing page design elements 

A great landing page has a few important elements. Most importantly, it has to be easy to read and understand. Think 8th-grade reading level. You should have:

• A strong headline
• Simple body text/copy
• Great images

You also want your landing page to flow naturally and not feel like you're selling. The simpler, the better. A great headline with a beautiful image and a big button can do wonders! 

Benefits of  landing pages that convert 

The benefits of a great landing page are that it increases conversions — whether that's more sales or more subscribers. A landing page is a simple and effective way to reach your goal without having to build an entire website. I often say that a landing page is like a one-page website. They take little time to create and can have massive ROI. They're also incredibly useful when you have a simple offer and a strong CTA. A single page lets you focus on one goal instead of many. 

Key takeaways

Simple is always better. Make it super easy for people to understand your offer and then click on your button. Landing pages do not need to be long or have a lot of copy. A great image and strong headline can do the trick -- so don't overthink it. Stay clean and simple and remember to make that CTA button stand out!

Design landing pages that convert with BEE Pro

An effective landing page will ultimately do two things:

1. Focus in on one focused goal 
2. Turn visitors into customers

When designing your landing page, think about how you want your customers to engage with your content. Follow along with the key design best practices and get creative in a way that’s going to intrigue your distinct customer base. BEE Pro offers a collection of professional landing page templates to customize to fit your specific brand needs.Adapt different elements to optimize landing page conversions, and be sure to take advantage of extensive features like Mobile Design Mode, co-editing and more. Try it out here.

Digital marketing is a dynamic playing field. It’s constantly evolving with new best practices to implement and technology to test.To stay ahead of your competitors, it’s crucial to keep up to date with the latest marketing statistics. For everything from email marketing to SEO, we’ve curated a fresh list of marketing trends to help your business stay up to speed. Use these statistics to better reach your customer base.

Content Marketing Statistics

Content is top priority for most marketers because it plays a crucial role in the success of entire digital marketing campaigns. These are the top trends when it comes to content marketing:

• A group of bloggers were surveyed in 2019 and it was found that 32% of respondents always checked the analytics of their blog posts (Statista, 2020) 
• 56% of businesses have claimed that they want to increase their content creation spending (Content Marketing Institute, 2019)
• In 2020, 89% of content marketers used blog posts in their content creation strategy (Content Marketing Institute, 2020) 
• About 70 million new posts and 77 million new comments are produced by WordPress users each month (WordPress, 2020) 
• The “ability to measure and analyze their marketing impact” is ranked as a vital priority for improvement by 61% of marketers (Demand Generation Survey, 2018)
• About 51% of the businesses that invest in content marketing, publish content daily (The Manifest, 2018)
• Most popular content amongst companies: videos (72%), blog posts (69%), and research and original data (60%) (The Manifest, 2018)
• The top content marketing methods B2B marketers use to nurture their audience are email campaigns (87%) and educational content (77%) (Content Marketing Institute, 2019)
• About 63% of marketers use their content strategy to build loyalty with their existing clients (Content Marketing Institute, 2020)
• 300 B2C marketers were surveyed and it was found that 45% don’t tailor their content to a specific buyer’s persona or stage of the buyer’s journey (Conductor, 2018)

Email Marketing Statistics

Email marketing is one of the most effective channels for connecting with your audience and driving results. Take note of these email marketing statistics to see how your business could maximize their ROI and build sturdy customer relationships.

Subject line and open rate statistics

• 47% of email recipients open email solely based on the subject line (AWeber, 2019) 
• Out of 1,000 email subject lines, only 6.9% incorporated emojis (AWeber, 2019)
• Average open rates soar above 80% for Welcome emails, making them the single most effective message you can send (GetResponse, 2021) 
• The average open rate for email newsletter across all industries is 21.33%  (Mailchimp, 2021)

Clickthrough rate statistics

• 2.6% is the average email clickthrough rate (CampaignMonitor, 2020)
• The highest click rate is 5.01% which is sent by hobbies entities (Mailchimp, 2019)
• Responsive email templates get higher click-through rates regardless of device (Mailchimp, 2020)
• Click-throughs increase to 28% when marketers use a CTA over just a text link (CampaignMonitor, 2019)

Mobile email marketing statistics

• If an email is not optimized for mobile, 42.3% of people will delete it (SaleCycle, 2021)
• Accounting for 29 percent of email opens iPhone email app is the most popular email client (Statista, 2018)
• 66% of all emails opened on mobile are read for more than eight seconds (Litmus, 2019)
• Mobile readers who open emails a second time from their computer are 65% more likely to click through (Campaign Monitor, 2019)
• About 1 in 5 email campaigns is not optimized for mobile devices (Hubspot, 2021)

Email spam statistics

• 69% of email recipients report email as spam just based on the subject line (Optinmonster, 2021)
• 47.3% of all emails in 2020 were spam (Statista, 2020)

Email personalization and segmentation statistics

• Segmented campaigns are noted to increase revenue by 760%, according to some marketers (Campaign Monitor, 2019)
• About 30% of marketers surveyed said they use audience segmentation tactics to improve email engagement (HubSpot, 2020)

Email engagement statistics

• 60% of email recipients said they are likely to engage with an interactive email (Dyspatch, 2020)
• Over 50% of email recipients hope to interact with content in their email (Dyspatch, 2020)  
• iPhone Mail (34.2%) and Gmail (30.7%) are the two most popular ways to read email (Litmus, 2020)

Social Media Statistics

Social media marketing is a great opportunity to build your brand and drive website traffic. Use these statistics to learn how marketers are using social media to boost their business.

• Facebook Groups are currently used by 18% of marketers (HubSpot, 2020) 
• In April 2020, social network via any kind of mobile phone was accessed by over 98% of Facebook's active user accounts worldwide (Statista, 2020) 
• LinkedIn's number of users in the U.S. reached 160 million, in April of 2020, making it the country with the most users in the world (Statista, 2020) 
• The social channel with the second-highest ROI among marketers is Instagram (HubSpot, 2020) 
• By 2023, Instagram is projected to hit 120.3 million monthly active users in the U.S., which is up from 107.2 million users in 2019 (Statista, 2020) 
• In 2021, 82 percent of the population in the United States had a social networking profile (Statista, 2021)
• The number of worldwide social media users reached 4.2 billion in January 2021 (Statista, 2021)
• Compared with one year ago, 61% of B2B marketers increased their use of social media for content marketing purposes (Content Marketing Institute, 2019)

SEO Statistics

SEO helps explain how your customers or prospects are finding out about your brand and purchasing your product. Optimizing your SEO strategies are the key to driving those conversion rates. Take a look at the statistics on how businesses are leveraging SEO.

• Google currently has 86.86% of the search engine market (Statista, 2021)
• According to 49% of marketers, organic search has the best ROI of any marketing channel (Search Engine Journal, 2018)
• The #1 result in Google gets about 32% of all clicks (Backlinko, 2019)
• Google organic search is responsible for 59.2% of the world’s web traffic (Sparktoro, 2018)
• About 25% of small business websites don’t have an H1 tag (Fresh Chalk, 2019)
• Over 5.5 billion searches are performed daily on Google (Ardor SEO, 2021)
• Nearly 91% of pages receive no traffic from Google (Ahrefs, 2020)
• 48% of consumers are using voice technology for general search queries (Search engine land, 2019)
• About 43% of voice-enabled device owners use their device to shop  (Narvar, 2018)
• 27% of the online population worldwide is using voice search on mobile (Google, 2018)
• The first 5 organic results in the SERPs account for 67.6% of all clicks (Zero Limit Web, 2021)
• Over 29% of keywords with over 10K+ monthly searches consist of 3+ words (Ahrefs, 2021)
• The first 5 seconds of page load time have the highest impact on conversion rates (Portent, 2019)

Advertising Statistics

Advertising generates revenue through increasing the visibility of your brand. Use these statistics to find what advertising tactics will work best for your business.

• 44% of respondents say they use ad blockers because they don't want their online behavior to be tracked (Statista, 2020) 
• 45% of people in the U.S. ages 15 to 25 say they use an adblocker  (Statista, 2020)
• Ad Blocking costs advertisers billions of dollars and the losses are growing annually worldwide (Statista, 2019)
• $3.33 is the average cost-per-click (CPC) in the marketing industry and the most expensive marketing industry keyword CPC is $165 (Ahrefs and WordStream, 2020) 
• Mobile advertising is expected to slow down to about 10.4% by the end of 2022  (Statista, 2021) 
• By 2022, Mobile advertising spending is expected to surpass $240 billion dollars (Statista, 2021) 

Video Marketing Statistics

Using video for your digital marketing efforts is a unique and effective way to gain more traction for your business. Keep up to speed with these statistics and implement video into your team's marketing efforts.

• Since 2016, the number of businesses using video in their marketing efforts has increased from 61% to 86% (Wyzowl, 2021)
• About 78% of video marketers said they believed video to be a crucial part of their marketing strategy in 2015, and now in 2021 that number has increased to 93% (Wyzowl, 2021)
• Marketers have reported great ROI that is consistently increasing from video. A third said they got a good ROI, in 2015. By 2021 that number increased to 87% (Wyzowl, 2021)
• 94% of marketers feel they increased understanding of their product or service using video (Wyzowl, 2021) 

Lead Generation Statistics

Lead generation is the process of reeling in and converting people that are interested in your brand. These lead generation statistics will share how important it is to nurture this step of the customer journey and how marketers are doing that.

• On average 51% of companies are currently using Marketing automation. More than half of B2B companies (58%) plan to adopt the technology (EmailMonday, 2021)
• Research and Markets anticipated the global marketing automation market size to reach USD 8.42 billion by 2027 (Research and Markets, 2020)
• 90% of businesses are already using content marketing to generate inbound leads (Gist, 2019)
• 73% of organizations focus on lead quality over lead quantity (Demand Generation Survey, 2018)

Bonus Statistics

• For every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $42 (DMA, 2019)
• 45% of internet users reported that they avoided opening emails from unknown email addresses (Statista, 2019)
• Over 306 billion emails are sent and received each day (Statista, 2021)
• This figure is projected to increase to over 376 billion daily emails in 2025 (Statista, 2020)
• In 2020, the number of global e-mail users amounted to four billion and is set to grow to 4.6 billion users in 2025 (Statista, 2020)
• 45% of small businesses with effective or very effective email copy have average open rates of 26% or higher (AWeber, 2020)
• 86% of small businesses send emails at least once per month (AWeber, 2020)
• Less than 7% of small businesses have more than 50k email subscribers (AWeber, 2020)
• Apple iPhone accounts for 37% of email opens (Litmus, 2021)
• Apple Mail accounts for 9% of email opens (Litmus, 2021)
• U.S adults spend an about 3 hours and 10 minutes per day on their smartphones (Emarketer, 2019)
• 4 out of 5 marketers said they’d rather stop using social media than email marketing (Litmus, 2020)

Keep up with the Latest Trends

Staying up to speed with the ever-changing marketing trends is crucial to the success of your business. Although the industry is constantly evolving and developing new methods, it is worthwhile to spend time studying up. Being in the know with how trends are moving will help you better connect with your target audience and allow you to drive more conversions.

Big, beefy open rates are a badge of honor in the email marketing biz. But open data has always been a tad unreliable—“noisy” is the word data nerds use to describe those fuzzy numbers—and thanks to the rollout of Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) this week, open data will be noisier than ever before.The timing kinda sucks. Just as brand marketers are finalizing their plans for the 2021 holiday season, they have the added burdens of sorting out how to handle reporting with less exact data, how to achieve a more accurate read on engagement, and how to adapt strategies and tactics that are reliant on open pixels (RIP countdown timers!).One MPP-related conundrum in particular keeps popping up on my radar in email marketing communities: “How am I going to prune my email list of non-openers now that all Apple Mail users will register as opens? ?”But here’s the thing: Aggressive list pruning was never a great idea. And “what’s the workaround?” is the wrong question to ask.MPP presents an opportunity for us to look at our objectives through a fresh lens, challenge what we think we know, and conceive more effective solutions.

Boo, You’ve Been Lied To: List-Pruning Myths

The only brands who should be purging non-openers in 30 or 60 or 90 days are those who are using shady acquisition tactics. And there’s a name for that—it’s called spamming. And you’re not a spammer, right?If your subscriber acquisition strategy is on the up and up, then aggressive pruning is counter-productive. And you’re leaving money on the table if you’ve bought into these three list-pruning myths.

Myth 1: Increased Engagement

Everyone who holds fast to aggressive list-pruning practices likes to cite their open rate as evidence it’s effective and necessary. I’ve heard accounts of open rates doubling with deletion of the disengaged.And I’m unsurprised. Because math. And logic. Of course you’re going to produce a lift in open rates if you only send to folks who are showing high interest in your brand in that moment in time. But list pruning artificially inflates vanity metrics, and marketers conveniently ignore more important KPIs.So while list pruning can show a positive correlation to open rates, it’s often associated with declines in open volume. And click volume. And conversion volume.When you slash away at subscribers—with no changes to your campaign strategy—do you see a positive ripple effect all the way to your bottom line? Do you generate more revenue by sending fewer emails? Is it possible to produce more engagement by initiating fewer engagement opportunities?Spoiler: No.Because the problem isn’t your list. The problem is your strategy.

Myth 2: Deliverability Best Practice

Deliverability is absolutely a priority when it comes to email marketing. A campaign that’s banished to the spam box is certainly not going to convert. And one of the factors spam algorithms are evaluating to determine inbox-worthiness is subscriber engagement.If you have a deliverability crisis, it’s standard practice to suppress your less-engaged segments and rehab your reputation by sending to your most-engaged segments (along with ceasing any sort of sketchy activity that contributed to the problem). But ultimately, the goal is to get you back on your feet, sending to your entire list.It’s never been a deliverability best practice to simply trash a chunk of your list after a handful of campaigns go unopened.That’s not to say you shouldn’t ever delete subscribers. Long-term disengagement can be problematic, but heavy-handed pruning is usually overkill. And if your engagement is so low that it’s threatening your ability to inbox, the problem isn’t your list. The problem is your strategy.

Myth 3: Cost Savings

Email marketing platforms typically charge based on send volume and/or database size. So it’s true that deleting the disengaged can shave a few bucks off your ESP bill.But who’s responsible for replacing those subscribers? Who’s ensuring the list grows faster than it shrinks?It typically costs a fraction of a penny to send a marketing email. So even if you send every subscriber an email every single day, you may not spend more than a dollar per subscriber for an entire year.Do you know how much it costs your brand to acquire a subscriber? $3 $7? $12? $30? More?Retention is always cheaper than acquisition. And aggressive list pruning may not actually be saving you any money at all. There’s even a chance your brand is wasting budget on an endless loop of acquiring and deleting exactly the same subscribers, over and over.Because the problem isn’t your list. The problem is your strategy.

So how do you engage the disengaged?

MPP means it’s tougher than ever to even know who’s engaged, so our work is certainly cut out for us. But the secret to email engagement is unchanged: Send emails your subscribers actually want. Deliver engagement-worthy campaigns.How do you do that? Well, it’s not something that can be explained in a single blog post.But the perfect starting point is your re-engagement strategy. Rather than deleting the disengaged, target them. Grab the attention of your non-openers, non-clickers, and other folks who just aren’t advancing through your customer lifecycle.Re-engagement is one of my favorite email marketing topics, and it’s the theme of the next BEE webinar, Re-Imagine Re-Engagement. I’ll be presenting some of my top re-engagement tips and favorite campaign examples along with brilliant email strategists Adeola Sole and Natalie Jackson on October 4. And we’ll be sure to discuss the implications of MPP on re-engagement strategies as well. Register here so you can catch the session live or on demand.

Visual design is all about making things pretty, right? Not quite. When it comes to digital content like emails and landing pages, design brings much more to the table than superficial aesthetics.Designing for conversions has the power to turbocharge KPIs like open rates, click through rates and, ultimately, revenue. In one A/B test conducted by Hubspot, just changing the CTA button color from green to red boosted conversions by 21%. Talk about low-effort, high reward.Of course, designing for conversions goes much deeper than choosing the right color. It’s an almost psychological practice that starts with deeply understanding your customer and ends with...well, it never really ends.

Principles for designing for conversions

At its core, strategic design is a dynamic process that builds on user research and response. There are no one-size-fits-all rules and no such thing as a perfectly optimized campaign. In other words, just because Hubspot’s audience prefers red CTA buttons over green, doesn’t mean yours will. And even if green wins out in one of your campaigns, that doesn’t mean it’ll work for every campaign moving forward.There are, however, best practices for optimizing design for conversion. Strategically design your emails from header to footer using these three principles.

Determine your purpose 

Like most good things in life, designing a good email starts with defining a goal. “If you can’t answer the question, ‘Why am I sending this email?’, then don’t send it,” says email marketing consultant Jordie van Rijn.After all, it’s impossible to design for conversion if you aren’t exactly sure what it is you want to convert your audience to. Visual hierarchies, imagery and CTA buttons can only be determined after you decide on an end goal.Before you start creating something new, ask yourself what action you want your audience to take. Be careful about assuming that every email is about selling. The customer journey consists of many steps and sometimes the action that you need your customer to take is more nuanced than “buy now”.Reasons for sending an email (that aren’t selling): 

• Nurture your audience
• Re-engage your email list
• Prevent churn 
• Onboard customers
• Confirm transactions

Even if your primary goal is to sell, your email’s function is to get the customer to a landing page where they can learn more about your product or service. That may seem like a small shift, but it provides the clarity needed to streamline your design process.

Know your audience (and your competition)

It’s great to stand out in the inbox, but sending an email that feels too unfamiliar will result in confusion.Audiences convert when they understand what’s going on. For that reason, it’s vital to do your due diligence to find out what they already receive in their inbox. Is it mostly image-based or text-heavy? Minimalist or bold? Short and sweet or multiple scrolls?Knowing which design elements your audience is most familiar with allows you to pick and choose what to imitate and where you can differentiate.It’s also vital to know where and how your audience opens their emails, both in terms of mobile vs. desktop and which email service provider they’re likely to use.Responsive design guarantees that your email will render in most environments, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the email will be optimized across the board. It also doesn’t consider that consumers use different devices for different purposes.For example, while the majority of emails are likely to be open for the first time on mobile, consumers still prefer to make purchases on desktop or laptops. And if an email is read on mobile and then read for a second time on desktop, there’s a 65% higher likelihood of clicking through.What this means is different environments elicit different behaviors. So it’s vital to understand how your consumers are interacting with your emails. Since it’s likely that they’re using both desktop and mobile, use mobile design mode to optimize your design to look exactly like you intend it to on all devices.

Test design elements

Optimizing design relies on continuous feedback. But that doesn’t mean you should use a completely different design every time you send an email. In fact, consistent design will keep you out of the spam box. What you can (and should) do, is choose one design element to A/B test each time you send an email. Here are some ideas for design elements you can test:

• F vs Z pattern
• Heavier or less heavy image density
• Multi-column vs single-column sections
• Hyperlink color
• CTA button color 

In addition to quantitative data (open rate, click through rate, etc), look at qualitative data to understand how your users react to emails. At least once per year, dig deeper by conducting user surveys or interviews with active subscribers.

Designing with BEE Pro

Good email design walks a tightrope between consistency and flexibility. Headers, footers and branding elements appear throughout all campaigns. But because different emails serve different purposes, it’s vital to adapt formats, fonts and other elements to optimize conversions.When emails and landing pages take days or weeks to create, going through design best practices like A/B testing or mobile design is tedious at best. Our team created BEE Pro with features like co-editing, branding kits and mobile design mode to give teams ultimate design freedom and the ability to optimize processes that get your email as close to perfect as possible. Check it out here.

The Email Service Provider (ESP) arena is booming, with more than $10 billion in deals within the industry and a host of new capabilities that allow today’s ESPs to do a lot more than send emails. For email marketers, ESPs have a number of beneficial features that can help streamline your email marketing process, helping you create more impact in less time. Let’s take a look at some must-know tips for email design when using an ESP.

ESPs have a number of beneficial features that can help streamline your email marketing process, helping you create more impact in less time.

What is an ESP?

ESPs, or email service providers, are platforms that allow you to send bulk emails. These tools often include other features, too, such as the ability to track your engagement or set up trigger campaigns. Mailchimp, Constant Contact and Active Campaign are all examples of ESPs. Benefits of ESPs include:

• Batch sending
• Spam regulations compliance
• Building subscriber lists
• Segmenting subscriber lists
• Sending automated trigger email campaigns
• Whitelisting services
• Monitoring analytics and engagement
• A/B testing

Most ESPs are also capable of integrating with other platforms. BEE Pro connects with all of the most popular ESPs — including those that use legacy HTML (like Outlook). With BEE’s ESP connector option, you’re able to design your emails using the BEE Pro editor and then seamlessly transfer the final design over to your ESP. Click here for a full list of the ESPs that integrate with BEE.

Email design for ESP

Before you can start sending out batch emails using your favorite ESP, you need to have your marketing emails (or email newsletters!) ready to go. Email design for ESP is about more than making your messages look pretty: The design decisions you make can help inbox filters recognize that the messages you’re sending aren’t spam, and the look of your email campaigns can build and reinforce the brand awareness you need to create conversions.

Select on-brand fonts

Choose fonts to use in your email that are on-brand and easy to read. If your email is off-brand, it has a higher likelihood of being marked as spam. Intentionally branding your emails improves deliverability and builds trust with your email list. That’s why it’s essential that every design choice is made with your branding in mind. When consumers feel like they truly know your brand, it helps to build trust and, eventually, conversions. Staying consistent with your fonts is one of the most effective ways to do this.We recommend selecting one font to use for headings and another to use for body text. Tools like Fontjoy or Fontpair can help you find fonts that look good together. Check out the easy-to-read font in this newsletter from Elysium Health:Subject line: Ending soon: Your best offer of the year!

Picking the perfect font won’t do you any good if your subscribers can’t see it on their devices. That’s why It’s also a good idea to use web safe fonts —default fonts installed on virtually every device. Web safe fonts include:

• Arial
• Courier
• Georgia
• Times New Roman
• Verdana

By using these web safe fonts, you can make certain that all of your subscribers will be able to read your text.

Choose the best layout

Your email should be as easy as possible for people to navigate and read. The structure of your message will depend on what type of email you’re sending. A marketing email with product photos may call for a different layout than an email newsletter sharing recent blog posts. Try choosing from these popular email layouts for your next message:

Inverted pyramid

An inverted pyramid email layout looks like an upside-down triangle. It does three things: First, it grabs your reader’s attention with a bold header. Second, it builds the anticipation using supporting copy or other design elements. And finally, it narrows in on the CTA.Template: World Meditation Day by Nore Potera 

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Zig zag

The zig zag email layout is a good choice for text-heavy messages. Since we naturally skim in a zig-zag pattern, this email structure helps readers take it all in. See how the bottom half of this apology email creates a Z? Place your finger on the “Best exercises for your brain” text and trace it out:Template: Sorry for the empty email! by Navid Nosrati

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

One column

A simple single-column email is easy to design and equally as easy to read. We love this example from BITE Beauty that utilizes user-generated content to show off various products one at a time.Subject line: Vibrant lips never looked so good ? ? ? 

Create an attractive header

Your email header helps people get oriented before they read the rest of your email. Use this space strategically to set the tone for your brand. In this email newsletter from The Afro Hair & Skin Co, the header includes the brand’s logo and shares an additional piece of information as well: The products are handmade in England.Subject line: New goodies just in time for your spring glow-up.

If relevant, your header can also include a navigation menu to help readers navigate the email:Template: Only Love Can Conquer Hate by Jen Schmaltz 

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Add powerful visual content 

Your visual content —photos, videos, GIFs and illustrations —will help define the look of your email. Custom product photographs, whether self-created or user-generated, are a great way to showcase what you have to offer. Stock images can boost impact too, as long as the pictures you select are in line with your overall branding and the message and tone of that particular email.GIFs are a good way to increase email engagement. In some cases, they can actually increase email conversion rates by 103%! This creative email from Zales uses a GIF of a relevant product to create a sense of urgency. Try incorporating GIF's into your email design for ESP.Subject line: This is for you night owls

Videos increase engagement, too. However, many email clients don’t support videos embedded in email — so you’ll want to add the video thumbnail to your email and link it to the actual video on YouTube or another platform. This email template includes a CTA to visit your website and view a video.Template: Adapting to the new normal by Jesus Albusac

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Take things one step further and design a creative email where the visuals match with the theme of the message. That might look like a “handwritten” note for an event invitation email, or something similar to this Oshkosh marketing email that’s reminiscent of a scrapbook page.Subject line: It’s a $14 shorts kind of Sunday!

Pick a complementary color scheme

Your color scheme for your email needs to be on-brand and eye-catching while still ensuring the email is easy to read. Plan your color scheme by finding complementary colors using a tool like Coolors. We recommend using a pale background color so your text stands out and then choosing a couple of accent colors that line up with your branding and give the email a pop of, well, color. For example, the lush green tones in this email from Rent the Runway reflect the shades of green in the main product photo at the top.Subject line: Introducing: The summer preview

Design a strong CTA

It’s not an understatement to say your CTA, or call to action, is the most important part of your email. The rest of your email should be strategically designed to lead directly to the CTA, whether it’s urging your readers to visit your website, make a purchase or do something else.There are three primary elements of a strong CTA: design, placement and copy. To design your CTA button, select a shape and size and use a contrasting color with empty space around it to help it stand out (like this “Shop New Arrivals” example from alice + olivia).Subject line: New summer arrivals

CTA placement is important, too. Including your main CTA above the fold (early in the email) gives readers a direct way to get what they’re looking for. Another CTA near the end of the message can grab subscribers who need a little more convincing first. In some cases you may need two CTA buttons — for example, one link to shop men’s clothes and another link to shop women’s.Finally, don’t forget about the copy! Use descriptive language that spells out the benefit(s) readers will get by tapping or clicking on that button. Try these examples on for size:

• Learn how
• Get 30% off
• Shop dresses

Include a well-designed footer

Your email footer needs to include a visible unsubscribe link and your company information to comply with privacy regulations like the GDPR. This is also a good place to add your social media links. And you can strategically use that space to promote something, too — like this Moda Operandi example that includes links to the company’s rewards program and app.Subject line: Oseree has a new ‘90s inspired bikini — and we’re obsessed 

Wrap-up: Email design for ESP compatibility

Once your customer clicks on your CTA, where will they go? BEE can help you answer this age-old question with our landing page designer —which allows you to convert your email design into a campaign-specific landing page for your website. With tools like BEE Pro and your email service provider of choice, the process of designing marketing emails can be both simple and enjoyable!

Believe it or not, we’re almost halfway through the year, making this the perfect time to plan out your email marketing calendar for the remainder of 2021. You might be tempted to rush through this part, but don’t! You’ll save yourself a lot of time and headaches later by figuring out your email marketing calendar now. Here’s your guide of what to do and when to do it for email marketing during the second half of 2021.We've also created a holiday marketing calendar to make your job even easier. From large global holidays (think Christmas and Easter) to smaller, more niche holidays that are a marketer's dream (Waffle Day or Singles Awareness Day), everything is included on this helpful marketing calendar. Click the plus sign by the "Google Calendar" text in the bottom right-hand corner so you'll never miss a holiday!

June

LGBTQ Pride Month (all month)

LGBTQ Pride Month will be celebrated around the world throughout the month of June, with LGBTQ+ communities and their allies flooding the streets — and our inboxes — with an infusion of color, pride and love. With exuberant rainbows as the defining symbol of the festivities, the design possibilities are endless! Draw on our LGBTQ Pride Month email templates to create your own rainbow-filled email!

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Father’s Day (June 20)

In the U.S., Father’s Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June every year. Get creative with your copy, colors and CTAs as you design a Father's Day email to promote your Father’s Day sales. A simple, sleek Father’s Day message like this Joe’s Jeans email can promote your products or event as the holiday approaches.Subject line: Last chance for Father’s Day

Other June Holidays

• Republic Day, June 2
• World Environment Day, June 5
• Dragon Boat Festival, June 14
• Juneteenth, June 19 (If you choose to send a Juneteenth email, make sure to be sensitive and thoughtful of the BLM conversation — and to share how you’re taking action.)
• First Day of Summer / Summer Solstice, June 21
• Social Media Day, June 30

July

Independence Day (July 4)

A patriotic email for Independence Day (July 4 in the United States) can help boost your engagement and sales this summer. Make a splash and increase your conversions like Unsun Cosmetics did with this creative, patriotic email.Subject line: Happy Independence Day!! ?? ?? ??

World Emoji Day (July 17)

World Emoji Day might not be on your customers’ calendar. But for email marketing purposes, this holiday presents a wide range of fun opportunities! Using emojis in email adds personality to your brand. Emojis also grab attention and help get your point across. Celebrate the power of the emoji with Navid Nosrati’s template Emoji World Day or with our other World Emoji Day email templates.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Other July Holidays

• Amazon Prime Day, July 12 - 13
• Bastille Day, July 14
• Olympic Games begin, July 23
• International Day of Friendship, July 30

Get to Know Your Customers Day (July 15 and October 21)

Get to Know Your Customers Day takes place every quarter — the third Thursday of January, April, July and October. It’s the perfect time to focus on creating strong customer relationships, so it's a must-add for your email marketing calendar. Get to know your customers by sending out a survey that asks for their opinion. We love this survey email from Alpyn Beauty. Check out our other Get to Know Your Customers Day email templates for more inspiring examples.Subject line: Complete our survey. $25 gift ?

August

Back to School Month (all month)

It’s that time of year again: Back to School Month (in the U.S.). Advertise your school supplies for sale and connect with parents through a smartly-designed back to school email. We love this Back to School Discount Code email from Instacart: It combines a cute infographic with convincing copy to create the perfect email advertising Instacart’s sales.Subject line: Back-to-school made easy with $10 off and Staples

Other August Holidays

• International Cat Day, August 8
• Book Lover’s Day, August 9 (Check out our Book Lover's Day email templates.)
• Muharram / Islamic New Year, August 10
• World Humanitarian Day, August 19
• Senior Citizens Day, August 21
• Women’s Equality Day, August 26 (Check out our Women's Equality Day email templates.)
• International Dog Day, August 26

September

Labor Day (September 6)

Next up on the email marketing calendar: Labor Day, a U.S. holiday that marks the end of summer. In other words, it’s the perfect time for brands to squeeze in one last summer sale. Dropps got the job done with user-generated content, a funny GIF (keep scrolling to see) and cool blue tones.Subject line: Labor Day just got even easier…

First Day of Fall (September 21)

Usher in a new season by creating a special sale or promotion for the First Day of Fall on September 21. First Day of Fall emails are a lot of fun to design — think pumpkins, GIFs and warm tones of orange and brown. If you’re launching a new collection of products, check out our New Fall Collection It’s Here template by Yorbi Barriento.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Other September Holidays

• Video Games Day, September 12 (Some people also celebrate this holiday on July 8; check out our Video Games Day email templates.)
• Oktoberfest, September 18 - October 3
• International Day of Peace, September 21
• World Tourism Day, September 27

October

Breast Cancer Awareness Month (all month)

Kick off the month of October by recognizing Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Chances are, this disease has personally touched many of your customers. Sharing a Breast Cancer Awareness Month email helps raise awareness about the disease and connect with people who have been there. Get your inspiration from MANGO to take action for a good cause.Subject line: Together we’re stronger | Breast cancer awareness monthThe image of the email is no longer available.

Halloween (October 31)

For email marketers, Halloween is a can’t-miss holiday. Combine spooky stock images, creative CTA buttons and vibrant HTML colors to share a special fall promotion or some Halloween-oriented content. Take a look at this adorable Halloween email from Carter’s to kickstart your email design:Subject line: First Halloween’s deserve spooky cute costumes! ?

Other October Holidays

• International Coffee Day, October 1 (Check out our International Coffee Day email templates.)
• World Vegetarian Day, October 1
• Cinnamon Bun Day, October 4
• Dia de los Muertos / Day of the Dead, October 3 - November 2

November

Thanksgiving (November 25)

Is your target audience based in the U.S.? Don’t forget to send a Thanksgiving email on or before November 25. When it comes to Thanksgiving email marketing, authenticity is key: Show genuine appreciation for your customers and make them feel like part of the family. Check out this Thanksgiving Day email by Andrea Dall’Ara to send a heartfelt thanks to your email subscribers.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Black Friday (November 26)

Black Friday is a major retail holiday brands can’t afford to miss. And since your customers’ inboxes will be flooded with emails, it’s your job to do everything you can to grab their attention. Black Friday email templates make your email design job easy. This sparkly Lord & Taylor email is a great way to promote products and sales.Subject line: A Black Friday deal SO good, we brought it BACK!

Other November Holidays

• Singles’ Day, November 11
• World Kindness Day, November 13
• Small Business Saturday, November 27 (Check out our Small Business Saturday email templates.)
• Cyber Monday, November 29 (Check out our Cyber Monday email templates.)
• Giving Tuesday, November 30

December

Hanukkah / Chanukah (November 28 - December 6)

We’ve made it all the way to December and it’s time for some holiday celebrations! Start with a Hanukkah email to mark the Jewish festival of lights that in 2021 runs from November 28 to December 6. Naja’s colorful and attractive Hanukkah email is the perfect way to kick off the season.Subject line: Happy HanukkahThe email template is no longer available

Christmas (December 25)

When December rolls around, it’s time to get your Christmas marketing emails out the door! Come up with a creative campaign, such as sending a holiday gift guide or offering 12 days of deals, to get your subscribers engaged. Milligram chose a wintry blue-and-silver color scheme in this Christmas email example.Subject line: Give a Milligram gift card this Christmas

Kwanzaa (December 26 - January 1) 

Kwanzaa celebrates African-American culture and heritage. Each day in this week-long festival is centered around one of the seven principles: Unity, Self-Determination, Collective Responsibility, Cooperative Economics, Purpose, Creativity and Faith. The holiday is inspired by African tradition, although individual families celebrate in different ways. It typically culminates in a feast called Karamu, which takes place on New Year’s Eve.

New Year’s Eve (December 31)

Close out your 2021 email marketing calendar by ushering in the New Year with style. Sending a New Year’s Eve email to wish your customers a Happy New Year can help ensure your brand is top of mind as your readers move into the new year. Michael Kors created a helpful lookbook for subscribers who want to ring in the New Year looking their best.Subject line: Level up your New Year’s Eve look

Other December Holidays

• Saint Lucy’s Day, December 13
• First Day of Winter / Winter Solstice, December 21
• Boxing Day, December 26

Looking ahead to 2022

Email marketers know better than anyone that the holiday grind never stops. Before you even put up your Christmas tree, it’s time to start thinking about New Year’s, and then Valentine’s, and everything starts all over again. Use these email design ideas to prep for 2022 and start off your New Year marketing on the right foot.

January

New Year’s Day (January 1)

Start the new year off strong by celebrating with a fun New Year’s Day email. Don't be afraid to pull out the glitter and fireworks for this fun holiday! Consider creating a special discount code or offering a sale for email subscribers. You could also share a year-in-review email, hitting the highlights your brand experienced over the last 12 months — like this email ClassTag sent at the end of 2019.Subject line: 2019: Year in review!

Other January Holidays

• Pizza Day, January 17
• Epiphany and La Befana, January 6
• Data Privacy Day, January 28
• Northern Lights Festival (January 26 — February 2nd)
• Fashion Week (Fashion Week takes place multiple times a year; these Fashion Week email templates can help.)

February

Black History Month (all month)

Black History Month is celebrated in the U.S. during the entire month of February. This monthlong observance is a time to honor Black Americans and everything they’ve contributed to the world. Use your email newsletters to support Black communities and share how your company supports racial justice initiatives. This free Honoring Black Stories email template, created by Derek Brumby, is a great way to highlight influential Black voices and encourage your readers to support Black creatives. You can draw inspiration from our other Black History Month email templates, too — and from real-life email examples like this Cratejoy message.Subject line: Support Black-owned business | This & every month

Valentine’s Day (February 14)

Consumers are ready to spend some serious money for Valentine’s Day. A little strategic email marketing can position your brand as the best option for the reader's gift-giving needs. Hearts, colorful pink backgrounds and elegant typography can be the best way to go if you’re designing a Valentine’s Day email. For example, this Cute Root email uses a pink background color and the code “LOVELETTER” to create a seasonal promotion for subscribers to enjoy.Subject line: Eco-friendly Valentine’s Day ideas for you and your valentine

Other February Holidays

• Waitangi Day, February 6 - 8
• Super Bowl Sunday, February 7 (Check out our Super Bowl Sunday email templates.)
• Lunar New Year, February 12 (Celebrated from February 11 to February 26; check out our Lunar New Year email templates.)
• Singles Awareness Day, February 15
• Mardi Gras / Fat Tuesday, February 16 (Check out our Mardi Gras email templates.)

March

St. Patrick’s Day (March 17)

This traditional Irish religious holiday is celebrated today with parades, music and lots of food and beer. No matter what industry you’re in, it’s a great time to get on top of some email marketing! Send a festive green and gold St. Patrick’s Day email offering a deal that will help your customers feel the luck of the Irish. If you have products to showcase, this Sur La Table email demonstrates a few great ways to highlight those items. Our other St. Patrick's Day email templates will provide you with some lucky design inspiration as well!Subject line: Get ready for St. Patrick’s Day

International Women’s Day (March 8)

International Women’s Day is a holiday designed to bring awareness to the ongoing struggle of gender equality and to celebrate the powerful women in our communities. Our Happy International Women’s Day template, created by Martin Nikolchev, is highly versatile: Use it to announce a sale, launch a fundraising campaign or simply design a thoughtful email that will resonate with readers. Or check out our other International Women's Day templates.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Other March Holidays

• Maslenitsa, March 8 - 14
• Mother’s Day, March 14 (Check out our Mother's Day email templates.)
• Father’s Day, March 19 (Some countries celebrate this holiday in March; check out our Father's Day email templates.)
• First Day of Spring, March 20
• World Water Day, March 22
• Waffle Day, March 25
• SDG Global Festival of Action, March 25 - 26
• Earth Hour Day, March 27
• Holi Festival, March 29

April

Easter (April 4)

Pull out your fuzzy bunnies, chocolate eggs and pastel email backgrounds to create a springtime Easter email for your clients. This year, Easter is on April 4, which means you’ll need to get started early with your Easter email design. We recommend using one of our Easter email templates to shorten the design process — like this Special Easter email designed by Martin Nikolchev. We’re also loving the design of this Too Faced email that popped up in our inbox this spring.Subject line: Peep this: 30% OFF Easter sale starts now!

Earth Day (April 22)

Encourage people to make the world a better place by sending a well-designed Earth Day email. Your customers care about climate change and the world they live in. Sharing an Earth Day email that outlines how you’re taking action can inspire them to do the same. Levoit uses a creative product photo, strong fonts and earthy colors to create an email sharing info about the company’s Earth Day initiative.Subject line: Happy Earth Day! ?

Other April Holidays

• April Fool’s Day, April 1 (Check out our April Fool's Day templates.)
• Tulip Festival, April 1 - 30
• Carbonara Day, April 6
• World Art Day, April 15
• Shakespeare Day, April 23

Wrap-up: Holiday email templates

We don’t know about you, but this email marketing planning template is making us excited to start designing! Check out our full catalog of HTML email templates to find the best option for every holiday — it’s simple to edit these responsive templates using the BEE Pro email editor. Take your email marketing to new heights in 2021 by using an email marketing calendar so you don't miss a beat!

Only 79% of emails sent by genuine email marketers reach subscribers’ inboxes — and as an email marketer, that’s a statistic that should concern you.It doesn’t take much for a marketing email to end up in your reader’s junk folder. Just one little mistake can doom your message to spam. And if one of your emails ends up marked as spam, the rest of them are likely to meet the same fate: When your emails go into spam, that damages both email deliverability and your sender reputation.These email marketing best practices to avoid spam will help your emails stay high and dry, making it safely to where they belong — your reader’s inbox.

Only 79% of emails sent by genuine email marketers reach subscribers’ inboxes. As an email marketer, that’s a statistic that should concern you.

What are spam traps?

Spam traps are a type of fraud management tool used by ISP’s (Internet Service Providers). Essentially, spam traps are email addresses that are created specifically to catch spammers. If one of these email addresses ends up on your email list and you send that address an email, you’ve officially hit a spam trap.What happens next? Best case scenario, your sender reputation is hurt to some degree, meaning your email deliverability goes down. But if you hit a major spam trap, your sending domain might be completely blacklisted. Your emails could struggle to get through to all ISP’s.It’s clear that you need to avoid email spam traps at all costs. You want your marketing emails to end up in your reader’s inbox, not their spam folder. Here’s how to avoid email spam filters and folders from the very beginning of your email strategy all the way down to the footer of your marketing email.

Clean your email list regularly

Cleaning your email list on a regular basis will help you avoid email spam traps. Remove any email addresses from your list that bounce back. Try to re-engage dormant subscribers with re-engagement emails, and if that doesn’t work, remove their addresses too.Never buy email addresses. Pure spam traps are email addresses that are treated as “bait.” If you purchase email addresses, you might get some of those addresses and end up on a blacklist. Not to mention, purchasing email addresses is actually illegal under the GDPR and the CAN-SPAM act.In addition to cleaning out your email list regularly, try using a double opt-in to make sure people actually want to hear from you. A double opt-in is sent after somebody initially signs up for your email list (like this example below from GoodPop).Subject line: Confirm your subscription 

Making it easy to unsubscribe also helps your sender reputation because people are less likely to mark your email as spam. This message from Essie includes an unsubscribe link in the footer.Subject line: stronger nails in 3 days

Create an email marketing strategy

Don’t send out a bunch of marketing emails just because you can. Every email you create should have a clear strategy and objective behind it. Offer valuable content your audience wants to receive so your messages won’t be marked as spam.In this example, Otherwild curated a gift guide designed for expecting moms. As an apparel store and design studio that sells family- and kid-oriented products, this piece of content was probably relevant to the brand’s email list.Subject line: great gifts for moms-to-be + new babies! ?

Choose a personal sender name

ESP’s pay attention to your sender name — and of course your readers do, too. Your sender name (displayed on the left in your subscribers’ inboxes) can make or break your sender reputation. More than 40% of readers mark emails as spam based on the sender name alone.Don’t use anything that looks spammy for your sender name, like noreply@domain.com. Using your company name and/or a personal name is best. For instance, the sender name “Carlos Watson at OZY” has a personal touch and makes it immediately clear who the message is from.

Use email subject line best practices

People will often mark an email as spam based on the subject line. Avoid this by following simple email subject line best practices. Don’t use all caps. Don’t add any exclamation points. And don’t use spam trigger words, which include phrases like:

• $$$
• Act now
• Certified
• Chance
• Click here
• Exclusive
• Giving away
• Help
• Limited time
• Miracle
• Money back
• Satisfaction guaranteed
• Winner

These words tend to trigger spam filters. Stay away from them to give your email a better chance of hitting the inbox.

Follow email design best practices

The final step to avoid email spam filters is to make sure the body of your email is optimized as much as possible. You’ll want to avoid embedding videos or media since some platforms don’t allow them to play. Don’t add any attachments, either. Since viruses are commonly concealed in attachments, ISP’s will often put emails with attachments into spam.Make sure the text of your marketing email uses correct spelling and grammar and there aren’t any broken or incomplete tags. Big images can increase load time and affect deliverability, so keep any images to a reasonable size.These email marketing best practices to avoid spam sound like a lot to remember. But if you stick to core email design best practices (as demonstrated by Alice + Olivia here), you’ll be golden.Subject line: Spring is in the air ?

Wrap-up: Email marketing best practices to avoid spam

The easiest way to design high-quality marketing emails that will avoid email spam traps is by using the BEE email editor. With this free tool, you don’t need any coding experience to create promotional emails that look great and work well. Use BEE’s email templates to quickly sketch out your message. Then export the email to your email service provider and send it straight to your subscribers’ inboxes!

Share this post with your friends! Pin it on Pinterest ?

Designing and sending marketing emails throughout the year might seem like a big job. But in reality, the real work should be happening now: This is the time of year to set goals, figure out a strategy and define your email marketing calendar for the rest of 2021.You might be tempted to rush through this part, but don’t! You’ll save yourself a lot of time and headaches later by carefully planning your email marketing calendar now. Take some time to sit down and plan out your holiday calendar this week to simplify your email design process throughout the year. Here’s your guide of what to do and when to do it for email marketing in 2021.

This is the time of year to set goals, figure out a strategy and define your email marketing calendar for the rest of 2021.

We've also created a holiday marketing calendar to make your job even easier. From large global holidays (think Christmas and Easter) to smaller, more niche holidays that are a marketer's dream (Waffle Day or Singles Awareness Day), everything is included on this helpful marketing calendar. Click the plus sign by the "Google Calendar" text in the bottom right-hand corner so you'll never miss a holiday!

January

New Year’s Day (January 1)

Start the new year off strong by celebrating with a fun New Year’s Day email. Don't be afraid to pull out the glitter and fireworks for this fun holiday! Consider creating a special discount code or offering a sale for email subscribers. You could also share a year-in-review email, hitting the highlights your brand experienced over the last 12 months — like this Best Highlights for Last Year email template by Navid Nosrati.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Get to Know Your Customers Day (January 21)

Get to Know Your Customers Day takes place every quarter — the third Thursday of January, April, July and October. It’s the perfect time to focus on creating strong customer relationships, so it's a must-add for your email marketing calendar. Get to know your customers by sending out a survey that asks for their opinion. We love this casual Got A Quick Sec?email template created by designer Jen Schmaltz. Check out our other Get to Know Your Customers Day email templates for more inspiring examples.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Other January Holidays

• Pizza Day, January 17
• Epiphany and La Befana, January 6
• Data Privacy Day, January 28
• Northern Lights Festival (January 26 — February 2nd)
• Fashion Week (Fashion Week takes place multiple times a year; these Fashion Week email templates can help.)

February

Black History Month (all month)

Black History Month is celebrated in the U.S. during the entire month of February. This monthlong observance is a time to honor Black Americans and everything they’ve contributed to the world. Use your email newsletters to support Black communities and share how your company supports racial justice initiatives. This free Honoring Black Stories email template, created by Derek Brumby, is a great way to highlight influential Black voices and encourage your readers to support Black creatives. You can draw inspiration from our other Black History Month email templates, too.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Valentine’s Day (February 14)

Consumers are ready to spend some serious money for Valentine’s Day. A little strategic email marketing can position your brand as the best option for the reader's gift-giving needs. Hearts, colorful pink backgrounds and elegant typography can be the best way to go if you’re designing a Valentine’s Day email. For example, our Valentine’s Day Offer template by Hector Titus Ruiz helps you offer a seasonal promotion for your email subscribers to enjoy.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Other February Holidays

• Waitangi Day, February 6 - 8
• Super Bowl Sunday, February 7 (Check out our Super Bowl Sunday email templates.)
• Lunar New Year, February 12 (Celebrated from February 11 to February 26; Check out our Lunar New Year email templates.)
• Singles Awareness Day, February 15
• Mardi Gras / Fat Tuesday, February 16 (Check out our Mardi Gras email templates.)

March

St. Patrick’s Day (March 17)

This traditional Irish religious holiday is celebrated today with parades, music and lots of food and beer. No matter what industry you’re in, it’s a great time to get on top of some email marketing! Send a festive green and gold St. Patrick’s Day email offering a deal that will help your customers feel the luck of the Irish. If you have products to showcase, our Good Luck To You email template designed by Andrea Dall’Ara is a great way to highlight those items. Our other St. Patrick's Day email templates will provide you with some lucky design inspiration as well!

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

International Women’s Day (March 8)

International Women’s Day is a holiday designed to bring awareness to the ongoing struggle of gender equality and to celebrate the powerful women in our communities. Our Happy International Women’s Day template, created by Martin Nikolchev, is highly versatile: Use it to announce a sale, launch a fundraising campaign or simply design a thoughtful email that will resonate with readers. Or check out our other International Women's Day templates.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Other March Holidays

• Maslenitsa, March 8 - 14
• Mother’s Day, March 14 (Check out our Mother's Day email templates.)
• Father’s Day, March 19 (Some countries celebrate this holiday in March; check out our Father's Day email templates.)
• First Day of Spring, March 20
• World Water Day, March 22
• Waffle Day, March 25
• SDG Global Festival of Action, March 25 - 26
• Earth Hour Day, March 27
• Holi Festival, March 29

April

Easter (April 4)

Pull out your fuzzy bunnies, chocolate eggs and pastel email backgrounds to create a springtime Easter email for your clients. This year, Easter is on April 4, which means you’ll need to get started early with your Easter email design. We recommend using one of our Easter email templates to shorten the design process — like this Special Easter email designed by Martin Nikolchev.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Earth Day (April 22)

Encourage people to make the world a better place by sending a well-designed Earth Day email. Your customers care about climate change and the world they live in. Sharing an Earth Day email that outlines how you’re taking action can inspire them to do the same. Our Be The Change template by Galina Grahovska uses strong fonts and a background of green leaves to create an email that works for nonprofits and other brands alike.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Other April Holidays

• April Fool’s Day, April 1 (Check out our April Fool's Day templates.)
• Tulip Festival, April 1 - 30
• Carbonara Day, April 6
• World Art Day, April 15
• Shakespeare Day, April 23

May

Cinco de Mayo (May 5)

Give your customers a little taste of this Mexican celebration with a colorful Cinco de Mayo email. Use our Cinco De Mayo Fiesta template by Martin Nikolchev to share information about the origins of this holiday and how it’s traditionally celebrated.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Or take a more promotional route with Jen Schmaltz’sTaco Bout Delicious email, telling your customers how to order and where to find you.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Mother’s Day (May 9)

Mother’s Day in the U.S. will be celebrated on May 9 this year. Add this holiday to your email marketing calendar so you can position your product or service as the perfect gift for Mom with a strategically designed Mother's Day email. This Treat Mom Like Gold email by Jen Schmaltz is perfect for fashion or cosmetics brands to share a product promotion before Mother’s Day.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Other May Holidays

• May Day, May 1
• Europe Day, May 9
• International Museum Day, May 18
• World Meditation Day, May 21 (Check out our World Meditation Day email templates.)
• Memorial Day, May 31 (Check out our Memorial Day email templates.)

June

LGBTQ Pride Month (all month)

LGBTQ Pride Month will be celebrated around the world throughout the month of June, with LGBTQ+ communities and their allies flooding the streets — and our inboxes — with an infusion of color, pride and love. With exuberant rainbows as the defining symbol of the festivities, the design possibilities are endless! Draw on our LGBTQ Pride Month email templates to create your own rainbow-filled email!

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Father’s Day (June 20)

In the U.S., Father’s Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of June every year. Get creative with your copy, colors and CTAs as you design a Father's Day email to promote your Father’s Day sales. This simple, sleek Father’s Day Electronics message (designed by Jesus Albusac) can promote your products or event as the holiday approaches.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Other June Holidays

• Republic Day, June 2
• World Environment Day, June 5
• Dragon Boat Festival, June 14
• Juneteenth, June 19 (If you choose to send a Juneteenth email, make sure to be sensitive and thoughtful of the BLM conversation — and to share how you’re taking action.)
• First Day of Summer / Summer Solstice, June 21
• Social Media Day, June 30

July

Independence Day (July 4)

A patriotic email for Independence Day (July 4 in the United States) can help boost your engagement and sales this summer. Make a splash and increase your conversions with our Independence Day Sale email template designed by Yuliana Pandelieva, or with one of our other Independence Day email templates.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

World Emoji Day (July 17)

World Emoji Day might not be on your customers’ calendar. But for email marketing purposes, this holiday presents a wide range of fun opportunities! Using emojis in email adds personality to your brand. Emojis also grab attention and help get your point across. Celebrate the power of the emoji with Navid Nosrati’s template Emoji World Day or with our other World Emoji Day email templates.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Other July Holidays

• Amazon Prime Day, July 12 - 13
• Bastille Day, July 14
• Olympic Games begin, July 23
• International Day of Friendship, July 30

August

Back to School Month (all month)

It’s that time of year again: Back to School Month (in the U.S.). Advertise your school supplies for sale and connect with parents through a smartly-designed back to school email. We love this Back to School Discount Code template made by Gaia Zuccaro: It combines quirky doodles with your unique discounts to create the perfect email to advertise your sales.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Other August Holidays

• International Cat Day, August 8
• Book Lover’s Day, August 9 (Check out our Book Lover's Day email templates.)
• Muharram / Islamic New Year, August 10
• World Humanitarian Day, August 19
• Senior Citizens Day, August 21
• Women’s Equality Day, August 26 (Check out our Women's Equality Day email templates.)
• International Dog Day, August 26

September

Labor Day (September 6)

Next up on the email marketing calendar: Labor Day, a U.S. holiday that marks the end of summer. In other words, it’s the perfect time for brands to squeeze in one last summer sale. Use this playful orange email created by Jen Schmaltz (Labor YAY Sale!) to get the job done, or use one of our other Labor Day email templates.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

First Day of Fall (September 21)

Usher in a new season by creating a special sale or promotion for the First Day of Fall on September 21. First Day of Fall emails are a lot of fun to design — think pumpkins, GIFs and warm tones of orange and brown. If you’re launching a new collection of products, check out our New Fall Collection It’s Here template by Yorbi Barriento.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Other September Holidays

• Video Games Day, September 12 (Some people also celebrate this holiday on July 8; check out our Video Games Day email templates.)
• Oktoberfest, September 18 - October 3
• International Day of Peace, September 21
• World Tourism Day, September 27

October

Breast Cancer Awareness Month (all month)

Kick off the month of October by recognizing Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Chances are, this disease has personally touched many of your customers. Sharing a Breast Cancer Awareness Month emailhelps raise awareness about the disease and connect with people who have been there. Use our Fundraising template by Andrea Dall’Ara to take action for a good cause.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Halloween (October 31)

For email marketers, Halloween is a can’t-miss holiday. Combine spooky stock images, creative CTA buttons and vibrant HTML colors to share a special fall promotion or some Halloween-oriented content. We recommend our Halloween email templates, like this No Tricks Only Treats!email by Yuliana Pandelieva, to kickstart your email design.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Other October Holidays

• International Coffee Day, October 1 (Check out our International Coffee Day email templates.)
• World Vegetarian Day, October 1
• Cinnamon Bun Day, October 4
• Dia de los Muertos / Day of the Dead, October 3 - November 2

November

Thanksgiving (November 25)

Is your target audience based in the U.S.? Don’t forget to send a Thanksgiving email on or before November 25. When it comes to Thanksgiving email marketing, authenticity is key: Show genuine appreciation for your customers and make them feel like part of the family. Check out this Thanksgiving Day email by Andrea Dall’Ara to send a heartfelt thanks to your email subscribers.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Black Friday (November 26)

Black Friday is a major retail holiday brands can’t afford to miss. And since your customers’ inboxes will be flooded with emails, it’s your job to do everything you can to grab their attention. Black Friday email templates make your email design job easy. This modern Black Friday Fashion Deals template by Gaia Zuccaro, for example, is a great way to promote products and sales.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Other November Holidays

• Singles’ Day, November 11
• World Kindness Day, November 13
• Small Business Saturday, November 27 (Check out our Small Business Saturday email templates.)
• Cyber Monday, November 29 (Check out our Cyber Monday email templates.)
• Giving Tuesday, November 30

December

Hanukkah / Chanukah (November 28 - December 6)

We’ve made it all the way to December and it’s time for some holiday celebrations! Start with a Hanukkah email to mark theJewish festival of lights that in 2021 runs from November 28 to December 6. Andrea Dall’Ara’s colorful and attractive Hanukkah Event template is the perfect way to kick off the season.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Christmas (December 25)

When December rolls around, it’s time to get your Christmas marketing emails out the door! Come up with a creative campaign, such as sending a holiday gift guide or offering 12 days of deals, to get your subscribers engaged. We’ve got you covered with over a dozen Christmas email templates to help. Pictured: Make Everyone’s Christmas Wishes Come True, designed by Yuliana Pandelieva.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

New Year’s Eve (December 31)

Close out your 2021 email marketing calendar by ushering in the New Year with style. Sending a New Year’s Eve email to wish your customers a Happy New Year can help ensure your brand is top of mind as your readers move into the new year. Navid Nosrati created this Get Your New Year’s Resolutions Off to a Good Start template to promote an event or just wish your customers a happy holiday.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Other December Holidays

• Saint Lucy’s Day, December 13
• First Day of Winter / Winter Solstice, December 21
• Boxing Day, December 26

Wrap-up: Holiday email templates

We don’t know about you, but this email marketing planning template is making us excited to start designing! Check out our full catalog of HTML email templates to find the best option for every holiday — it’s simple to edit these responsive templates using the BEE email editor. Take your email marketing to new heights in 2021 by using an email marketing calendar so you don't miss a beat!

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