Beefree blog

5 Memorial Day Email Design Trends You Shouldn't Miss

Beefree team
Beefree team
May 23, 2017
5 Memorial Day Email Design Trends You Shouldn't Miss
5 Memorial Day Email Design Trends You Shouldn't Miss

Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of summer. We're seeing a steady supply of festive, summer-themed emails filling up in our inbox since the long weekend holiday is a great opportunity for retailers and brands to reach out to customers.Don't worry if you haven't sent an email campaign yet, there's still time to create one! Here are five Memorial Day email design trends we tracked down to motivate you.

Trend #1: Good things come in threes

As Memorial Day approaches, brands are doing their best to predict what their customers will do. Guessesrange fromgoing to the beachto gathering with family and friendsto celebrating outside. E-commerce brands, in particular, want to help their customers celebrate in style. This year, it seems that three is the lucky number in emails. Here's one example from J.Crew. The email presents "three easy outfit equations":

J.Crew memorial day email design

Pulling together outfits is a creative way for fashion brands to inspire and potentially up-sell, too. Eloquii takes a very similar approach with this three-outfit Memorial Day email design:

Eloquii memorial day email design

Eloquii organized content by a numbered list, but other brands chose to organize by theme, like in this email from Rent the Runway:

Rent the Runway memorial day email design

And Kate Spadetook a bold guess that their customers would be near water, offering three swimsuits to relax in:

Kate Spade memorial day email design

Each of these emails is a great length, providing neither too much content nor too little. Plus, grouping content into three sections also provides an opportunity to get playful with layout (think modular design and mobile-responsive photo collages). So when it comes to email design, three makes sense.

Trend #2: Single-story inverted pyramid layout

For newsletters andpublishers who aren't pushing product deals this Memorial Day, a simpler approach to email design works. We saw a few emails that follow the time-honored inverted pyramid approach: a great image, followed by a header and text, followed by a compelling CTA button. Here's an example from PureWow:

Pure Wow memorial day email design

The inverted pyramid layout highlights a single, focused piece of click-worthy content, which is the perfect way to drive readers to a website. Plus, the email is easy to put together, too. Acarefully-selected stock image, a block of text, and acustomized button are all you need. Thissponsored emailalso closes with a Smirnoff ad, which is well-placed after the CTA; it's visible to subscribres but doesn't interfere with the email organization. Be sure to check out our Publishers' Guide to Email Advertisingfor everything you need to know about ads in email.The Honest Company also uses an inverted pyramid layout, offering a photo of a mouth-watering recipe:

The Honest Company memorial day email design

If you elect to use this simple approach, having the perfect photo iskey. This vibrant, colorful, high-quality image from Honest is a great example of how the right photography can make or break the appeal of your content. But, there's some room for improvement: we would increase the font size and make sure the CTA button sounded a bit more enticing!

Trend #3: No photos? No problem!

Not all brands rely on photography for their Memorial Day email designs. Sometimes, companies that want to emphasize discounts and sales opt to forego product pictures. Instead, the biggest part of the email is the numbers themselves, andillustration and HTML background colors can go a long way in making those numbers pop. Here's an email example fromSperry. No shoes or clothing items are on display, but eyes land immediately on the number 40.

Sperry memorial day email design

This email from Wayfair takes a similar approach, though more than one discount is featured.

Wayfair memorial day email design

The message above is clear: there isa loton sale. Even if one particular item doesn't catch the eye, the message conveys the overwhelming extent of a limited-time "mega sale."

Trend #4: Grid design shows but doesn't tell

We spotted quite a few Memorial Day emails featuring an array of products. Sometimes, a long email with plentyof eye candy can engage users. (After all, you know your audience best!) To prevent clutter, content-rich emails should always be designed on a grid—and be mobile responsive. Here's an example from Jetsetter:

Jetsetter memorial day email design

A photo "collage" like this is the perfect way to advertise multiple productswhile avoiding the pitfalls of a single-image email. CampSaver uses a similar design:

Campsaver memorial day email design

Read more about designing on a grid and creating responsive infographics for email in our tutorial, How to Create a Responsive Email Infographic.

Trend #5: Interactive elements catch the eye

No holiday-themed email design roundup would be complete without emails that include interactivity. Special occasions lead to crowded inboxes, and crowded inboxes mean there's pressure in having emails stand out. So it's no surprise that more brands are taking their email design to the next level by includinginteractive elements like GIFs, countdowns, product tours, live shopping carts, and more. Memorial Day is no exception.This email from the mattress company Leesa includes an interactive countdown timer (it's no longer running, though, since this email is from last year!)

Leesa memorial day email design

Countdown timers are attention-grabbing, and they encourage subscribers to snag last-minute deals before the time's up. Plus, they're easy to include! You can add a dynamic countdown timer to your email without coding. Find out how in our tutorial,How to add a countdown timer in email.To close our round-up, here's an email fromRover, with a cute and simple animated GIF:

Rover memorial day email design
Rover memorial day email design

It's not too late to design your Memorial Day email!

Design your next email campaign in our easy-to-use, drag-n-drop BEE editor. No HTML knowledge is required, and your email will be mobile responsive. Sign-up for a BEE Pro free trial!

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Marketo Engage is a powerful tool for marketing automation, but when it comes to email design flexibility, many users find its built-in editor limiting. Creating visually compelling, mobile-responsive emails often requires custom coding or workarounds, slowing down workflow and making it harder to execute high-quality campaigns efficiently.

That is where Beefree comes in. By integrating Beefree’s no-code, drag-and-drop email design platform with Marketo Engage’s advanced automation capabilities, teams can build professional, responsive emails without coding headaches and push them directly to Marketo in just a few clicks.

This article explores:

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  • Common FAQs and troubleshooting tips

The challenges of designing emails directly in Marketo

Marketo’s built-in email editor is useful for basic templates but presents several limitations for marketers and designers.

  • Limited design flexibility – Customizing layouts, fonts, or interactive elements can be difficult without custom HTML or Marketo’s proprietary syntax.
  • Technical barriers – Advanced customizations often require HTML knowledge or an understanding of Marketo’s email template language, which may not be ideal for non-technical teams.
  • Time-consuming manual processes – Without a centralized style kit, teams may struggle to stay on-brand and often have to manually recreate headers, footers, and other reusable content blocks for each email, adding extra steps and slowing down production.

Due to these challenges, many marketing teams turn to external email builders like Beefree, FeedOtter, or Knak to improve design efficiency and automation.

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Why Beefree is the best email builder for Marketo Engage

While other external email builders like Knak and FeedOtter also integrate with Marketo, Beefree offers distinct advantages.

  • No-code drag-and-drop builder – Enables teams to design professional emails without writing any code.
  • Advanced design features – Provides more customization options beyond what Marketo’s built-in editor allows.
  • Mobile-responsive templates – Ensures emails adjust automatically for both desktop and mobile devices.
  • One-click export to Marketo – Simplifies the process of moving email designs directly into Marketo Engage.
  • Ability to update existing templates – Allows quick updates without requiring manual re-imports of HTML files.
  • Team collaboration – Enables teams to work together in real time, with built-in guardrails and approval controls to ensure error-free emails before exporting.

By integrating Beefree with Marketo, marketing teams eliminate design frustrations and manual email imports, allowing them to focus on high-performing email campaigns.

Learn more about Beefree's integration with Marketo Enagage [https://support.beefree.io/hc/en-us/articles/24837761625618-Export-Emails-to-Marketo]

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How to update existing email templates in Marketo

Instead of manually editing HTML, Beefree allows users to edit emails in Beefree and update existing ones in Marketo Engage with one click.

  1. Open the email design in Beefree.
  2. Make changes and click “Export.”
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This feature ensures that emails and templates remain up to date without requiring complex HTML edits or duplicates.

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Frequently asked questions on using Beefree with Marketo Engage

Can I use Beefree with other ESPs besides Marketo Engage?

Yes! You can connect Beefree to any ESP, MAP, or CRM including Mailchimp, HubSpot, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and others. To learn more about how to integrate Beefree to your sending platform watch the video below: 

For a full list of our native integrations visit [https://beefree.io/integrations].

Are there any limitations when exporting Beefree emails to Marketo?

Yes, there are a few important limitations to be aware of:

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Preheader text is not a native field in Marketo. However, Beefree includes it by embedding the preheader directly in the email's HTML code during export.

Additional resources and links

Why you should use Beefree with Marketo Engage

By integrating Beefree with Marketo Engage, marketing teams gain a faster, more flexible way to build high-converting, on-brand email campaigns—while leveraging Marketo’s powerful automation and analytics to track performance and optimize results.

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Ready to elevate your Marketo email marketing? Try Beefree today and streamline your entire email creation process.

Start your 15-day free Business trial today!

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Email is king when it comes to talking directly to your customers. Sure, we might send texts or share voice notes, but we all still check our emails. It’s how we keep in touch with work and the businesses we connect with. 

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SEGs use sophisticated methods to identify and block spam and phishing emails from ever entering a person’s inbox. While your email newsletters should go through, that doesn’t necessarily mean they will. That’s why businesses need to know what a secure email gateway is and how it works. Know this key info, and you’ll be able to improve the chances of your emails reaching their destination. 

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The victim could be anyone. The link could lead to a ransomware virus that holds your data captive or be the start of a data breach. It could even lead to a traditional scam that has you input your credit card details so a thief can steal them. 

For all these reasons and more, email providers consistently invest in security features to help protect their customers. One such feature is an email security gateway. 

A secure email gateway uses AI and machine learning to screen incoming emails, identify spam, and stop it from entering. If there’s any doubt, the system quarantines the email in your spam box for review. 

Why are secure email gateways important?

While we are getting better at filtering out spam emails, an estimated 45.6% of emails sent in 2023 were still spam. This poses a massive security risk for consumers, businesses, and governments alike. 

According to IBM, businesses are hit the hardest, with the global average cost of each successful phishing attack increasing to $4.88M USD. The attacks don’t just hit businesses, either, with attacks targeting individuals and even charities.

Just as phishing and spam emails have become more sophisticated, so have the tools designed to protect against them. All providers, including big names like Gmail, use SEGs to secure communications and other features, such as Gmail’s unsubscribe feature

What do SEGs flag as spam? 

SEGs continually update their parameters. This means that what they check for is constantly in flux. What SEGs look for today, for example, could include: 

  • Strange or suspicious subject lines
  • Highly urgent capitalization or excessive exclamation points
  • Strange URLs
  • Poor grammar and/or spelling
  • Generic greetings that don’t address the recipient 
  • Suspicious email addresses
  • The volume of emails sent at once
  • Attachment types 
  • Image-heavy content 

SEGs are far more advanced than just ticking boxes, but that doesn’t mean your emails can’t get blocked or sent to spam. After all, you might put together a great email campaign, but if your email is too image-heavy, it might get quarantined or sent to spam. 

The good news is that once you know what the SEGs look for, you can work to design better emails. Beefree can help you get started, with a range of templates for responsive email designs.

How to create newsletters with secure email gateways in mind 

The good news is that you can implement and send out most, if not all, of your newsletter ideas without issue. So long as the emails are well-made and are sent at a reasonable frequency, you’ll be golden. 

Start by first improving your security methods

In general, you should always look at ramping up the security measures in your business. You can use one of the top types of risk assessment matrix to understand your business's threats and how to resolve them. Then, since you already have that information, you can use it to create better newsletters and emails. 

Make sure the personalization feature works

One of the biggest red flags for an SEG is a generic greeting. Adding Dear Sir/Madam at the start isn’t going to fly in today’s world. Even if your email gets through, it’s unlikely the recipient will open it. 

That’s why you need personalization. Linking your email marketing tools to your customer relationship management system means you can offer easy personalization, like addressing your customers by name, or even offering personalized recommendations based on their order history. 

Avoid image-only emails 

Image-only emails are tempting for an email marketer. They’re striking, they look good, and you can fine-tune what they look like in Photoshop or another image editor. 

They can also be a red flag for SEGs.

Thankfully, the solution is simple: enrich your emails. The best part about this approach is that it also improves the accessibility. Improving email accessibility will help ensure that all your customers can engage with your emails on their terms. Those emails will also load faster, look great on all devices, and be more engaging. 

Align your emails with the landing pages 

SEGs look out for suspicious links. A link might be suspicious if there’s a misspelling or if the link doesn’t sound like the content in the email. So, how do you ensure that SEGs don’t see any of your links as suspicious? 

You make them predictable. 

An easy way to do this is to create a landing page from an email. On top of aligning the landing page with the content of the newsletter, you’ll want to: 

  • Make a custom URL for every link that matches the content of the page 
  • Ensure there’s no misspelling
  • Don’t use urgent language around your link

Use 2FA to boost security

Do you need 2FA to get past SEGs? No, but it’s a great way to help protect you and your customers. 

You can protect sensitive data by adding user identity verification. For example, a customer may get an order confirmation email but wants to cancel or change the delivery details. Including a two-factor authentication step ensures only the customer can request changes. 

Building in extra security features puts your customers at ease. It also protects your endpoints and, in turn, your business. So, no, you don’t need 2FA to get past SEGs, but it’s worth looking into for you and your customers’ protection. 

Avoid urgency 

Urgency can be a flag for SEGs. So: 

  • DON’T WRITE IN ALL CAPS
  • Minimize the use of exclamation points

Think of the copy in your newsletter as a chance to win over your audience, not scare them into clicking the link. Doing this will improve your relationship with your customers since they’ve come to you on their terms. It’s also essential to get emails past the SEG.

Key takeaways 

Secure email gateways are a primary defense against spam and phishing attacks, but they can pose a problem for email marketers. By working to understand the security risks associated with email scams, you can then understand what your email needs to make it into inboxes. 

From there, you’ll want to make your emails more personable, accessible, and secure. Once you’ve found that sweet spot, your newsletters will be more likely to get past the secure email gateway and into your audience’s inboxes. 

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