It's our blog's one-year anniversary! We've rounded up our top 10 best Email Design Workshop Blog posts from our readers to celebrate this milestone.Over the past year, we'vetaken a magnifying glass to dozens of emails. We've talked aboutcolors, buttons, modules, GIFs, and so much more in our Design Inspiration series as well as gotten nerdy, analytical, and practical in our hands-on Workshops. We've even had fun! So thank you for coming back again and again for email design tips. Now, take a look back with us!
1. 10 tips for great welcome email design
One of our first-ever posts was about welcome email design. With super high open rates, welcome emails are one of the most critical messages for brands to get right.
We explored how to leverage great design to set the tone, represent your brand, show readers your gratitude, and make an all-around top-notch first impression. We even included one of our favorite animated GIFs from Warby Parker's welcome email:
2. A publisher's guide to email advertising best practices
If you want to monetize your email marketing, this post is your guide. We include examples of ad integration from top publishers, tech companies, and popular newsletters. We peel back the curtain on a few things: what AdChoices is, how to be transparent about sponsored content, and what your options are for connecting with ad networks. This post is essential reading for anyone in email advertising.
3. How to design bulletproof call-to-action buttons
We'll admit it: we have a thing for bright and bold buttons. Abig factor in getting readers torespond to your call-to-action is through eye-catching button design, which means the CTA must be bulletproof. And with the BEE editor, bulletproof design is built-in, so all your buttons will always work across any devices and email clients.
4. How Litmus built an engaging product announcement email
Email marketers use the web application Litmusto run inbox rendering previews, test for spam, and run analytics. Litmus is a must-have tool—and fittingly, the company sends must-read emails, too. We looked closely at one of their product announcement emails to see why it was effective, and we explored the question of whether videos belonged in emails.
5. Quick video: How to design an email... and not a website!
For video tutorials, we always aim to make quick videosto guide you on exactly how to do something new—fasterand easier. Our video tutorial on how to make sure your email isn't trying to be awebsite, is one of the most valuabledesign advice we've given. It's worth a watch!
6. 7 tips to send your best-ever Thanksgiving email
Thankfully, these seven tips still apply a year later. From subject lines to mobile design, this post has you covered for your Thanksgiving email campaigns.
7. 5 email newsletter templates to always have on hand
Email newsletter templates are so important—not because we're in the business of making cookie-cutter emails, but because it's critical to have a consistent, branded foundation. Without that foundation, you risk looking like an amateur to your subscribers. So make sure you have these five newsletter template layouts to start from, including a text-based template:
8. Top 4 tips for using animated GIFs in email
Who doesn't love an animated GIF? These little image files go a long way in livening up an email, demonstrating your product, and drawing readers' attention to something important. But they're not effective if they're aren't implemented with care. From the placement to the number of frames, this post walks you through how to optimize animated GIFs.
9. Best practices for email footer design
Email footers tend to bean afterthought for many marketers, so we're really happy this post has gotten a lot of attention. The reality is that footers contain important information and get plenty of action: readers look to footers for detailsabout your brand, where they can find you, and how to update their email preferences. Learn what to include in your footer (and what you have to state, legally), what to skip, and what design works.
10. Tutorial: How to add an HTML countdown timer to email
With the holiday season on the horizon again, we expect to seeplenty ofcountdown timers showing up in our inbox.Countdown timers are dynamic, attention-grabbing, and fun to use. Brands often use them to encourage subscribers to snag a last-minute deal, register for a workshop, or watch an event—but the opportunities are endless. They're incredibly useful for generating urgency, and the good news is that they're easy to create! So don't miss reading one of our best blog posts.
Thanks!
Thank you for a fantastic first year of email design workshopping. Let us know what design tips you found useful, and what you'd like us to cover for year two. Cheers, and happy emailing!SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave
