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How to Build Effective Event Reminder Emails

Beefree team
Beefree team
Apr 13, 2020
How to Build Effective Event Reminder Emails

You’ve been using every trick up your sleeve to market an event for your business or your client, and you’ve watched the RSVPs pour in. But the day of the event arrives, and only a fraction of those RSVPs show up. What in the world happened? The blame probably lies with your event reminder email…or lack thereof.An effective event reminder will do wonders for your attendance rate, and we have all the secrets to building one that works. Keeping your email out of spam filters, getting noticed by attendees, hyping up attendees so they come to the event engaged - we’ll help you do it all. Read on for the how-to guide you didn’t know you needed.

Why Are Event Reminder Emails Important?

When was the last time something slipped your mind, like a task you needed to do or somewhere you were supposed to be? We’re busy people, and this happens often - and it happens to your company or client’s event attendees too. The most important reason to send reminder emails is to ensure that attendees remember the event so they’re more likely to show up. In addition, event reminder emails confirm for attendees that the event is still on, and this email is a helpful place to offer additional details like a map of the location, parking information, and so on.

How Many Event Reminder Emails Should I Send?

The rule of thumb for event reminder emails is to send a total of three reminder emails:

  • One week before the event
  • One day before the event
  • On the day of the event

This gives your attendees multiple opportunities to remember and plan for the event and ensures that they have all the details they need. Note that this doesn’t include the confirmation email, which they should receive immediately after they sign up for the event.As with any rule, there are exceptions. You may want to send more reminder emails if the event RSVPs were needed long before the event. If someone registers for an event six months ahead as opposed to one month ahead, you’ll need some earlier emails to keep the event in their minds for such a long time. You may also want to send more reminder emails if the event requires attendees to make other accommodations, like booking flights and hotel rooms for a nationwide or global event.

What to Include in an Event Reminder Email Message

For most events, there’s a centralized page that has all the information attendees will need and that they can return to at any time. Still, you want essential details to be clear and easy to spot because this improves the attendee experience. To that end, your event reminder emails should include:

  • Event title and hostname
  • Date and time
  • Event location
  • Anything attendees need to do in advance or bring to the event
  • Any further details attendees will need, like where to park, what floor or room of the building to go to, etc.
  • A brief thank-you note to attendees

Let’s take a closer look at these and other helpful bits of information to include in reminder emails.

1. Tell the Audience What the Event Is

People are bombarded with emails. We can’t assume that people will know what event we’re talking about when sending out an email. Make sure to include what the event is. Include the event title, tagline, and the name(s) of presenters, if relevant.

2. Include the Date & Time

It is essential to share the date and time, and especially the timezone for web events. This should be clear and easy to view in the email. You don’t want registrants looking everywhere for this information.

3. Share the Event Location for Both In-Person and Online Events

Make sure to provide an address for in-person events, along with relevant transit and parking information. If the event is online, make sure to include how people will be able to join it - whether it’s Zoom, Google Meets, or another platform.

4. Explain How To Sign Up Or Share

If your event reminder email is nudging audience members who haven’t committed yet, make sure it’s still easy to sign up (hint: think optimized CTA button).If you’re contacting those who have already RSVP’d, make it easy for them to share the event signup with friends. This could include adding social media links, for example, and inviting them to forward the email.

5. Make It Easy to Get More Information

Reminder emails are short so that audiences can get the information they need quickly without being distracted by other information. Make sure to link to a landing page with more details.

6. Offer a Way to Get in Touch or Ask a Question

What if someone wants to change an RSVP, invite a friend, or ask questions about the venue? Include contact information and/or a link to your FAQ page.

Additional Tips for Event Reminder Emails

Want more ways to make your event reminder emails stand out? Check out these tips from the pros.

#1. Be concise

This friendly reminder email from General Assembly is the perfect example of how simplicity can improve communication. The message is startlingly simple, but it includes all the information that a registrant needs.The great thing about this email is that it’s likely an event reminder email template. The extra-large header text, illustration, and footer information can all be recycled from one reminder to the next. Simply update the event time and location, and the email is ready to go for the event after the event. Having a template like this available is definitely a smart way to streamline your workflow — equaling extra time to invest in other parts of your business.

General Assembly event reminder emails

Punchbowl, the digital invitation site, also relies on a clean-looking template for its reminder email system. Like General Assembly, the email’s legibility is aided by a simple layout, live text that’s used sparingly, and the inclusion of only the most important information.For attendees who are already signed up and ready to go, think of your event reminder email as a friendly nudge. You don’t need to include a lengthy event description in the email; just make it easy for interested readers to click for more info.

Punchbowl event reminder emails

#2. List Key Info Above The Fold

An effective event reminder makes it impossible to overlook key information, so details like the event name, date, and location should always be listed in the live text and shown on separate lines (not lost in the body of a paragraph). Social Media Week did just that in the example below. But what makes this event reminder email format so effective is that the details were presented over a background image. The tactic allowed SMW to show key details “above the fold” instead of beneath an image, making the important information as visible as possible.Brands use text overlay all the time with images. What’s crucial here is that SMW’s design includes live text over an image, along with a bulletproof CTA button. This way, details will still show up, even if a reader has image viewing turned off or if the image doesn’t load. We don’t see this technique used very often in email, but it’s a powerful way to optimize your message. Learn how to use this tactic in our tutorial, How to Add Background Images in Email.

Social Media Week event reminder emails

#3. Write an Attention-Grabbing Event Reminder Email Subject Line 

Write an Attention-Grabbing Event Reminder Email Subject Line 

Any email can only do its job if it gets opened, and that largely depends on your subject line. Attendees are skimming their inboxes to see what’s worth their attention, so how do you get that coveted click?Your event reminder email subject line needs to be exciting and eye-catching but also accurate about what the email contains. Here are a few key tips:

  • Include the word REMINDER in the subject line. It’s transparent and clear.
  • Name the event—and the name of the featured guest—when applicable.
  • Make the subject line pop by bracketing text and/or using all caps.

Want some inspo for your subject line for a reminder email? Here’s a sampling of event email subject lines sourced from our inbox:

  • You have a class coming up!
  • Reminder for Introduction to Project Management Workshop
  • Reminder for Women’s March in NYC
  • Event Reminder: An Evening with Ray LaMontagne
  • Reminder: Seth’s Birthday Safari!
  • Reminder — You’re Invited! Book Party with Lori Weitzner
  • Live Podcast: The UnSpammy Awards
  • Save your spot in the Launch a Design Career Summit
  • Reminder: Event Submission Deadline is Dec. 2nd for #SMWNYC

HTML vs. Plain Text: Which Is Best for an Event Reminder Email?

You might be thinking, “If reminder emails should be concise and straight to the point, shouldn’t I just send a simple plain-text reminder?” Not exactly.HTML emails (emails that include aesthetic elements and designs) are more likely to snag and hold attendees’ attention when they click in. Visual designs also allow you to strategically guide attendees’ eyes toward the information you most want them to notice and to give them a sense of the event’s atmosphere so they can get excited and engaged. Plus, it just looks snazzier and more professional.The catch, usually, is that HTML emails involve coding and design work. However, Bee gives you the ability to create quick HTML emails from templates and with drag-and-drop designing (read: no coding). Users of any skill level can send out professional HTML emails in a snap.

More event reminder email inspiration

PRO tip: Event reminder emails don’t always have to be about your company events. Sales and special promotions totally count as events, too! Get creative and send an event reminder email about a sale you’re having, or position your products as the perfect choice for any event your reader has on their calendar.

BHLDN

Subject line: Reminder: Your RSVP is due soon!What we like:

  • The email design looks like a paper invite you might get in the mail.
  • It’s easy to shop for a specific type of event.
  • The “dress decoder” link provides extra educational content.
event reminder email example

The Contemporary Auston

Subject line: Reminder: Members’ preview & opening reception NEXT WEEKWhat we like:

  • The descriptive CTA explains exactly what you need to do
  • The simple email design focuses on one primary image
  • Only essential information is included, with a link to further info.
event email design

Tarte Subject line: You have (1) event reminderWhat we like:

  • The product photos and background images utilize a similar color scheme
  • The movement in the email catches the eye…
  • … and so does the number in the subject line!
event email subject line
event email with gif

Wrap-up: Event email template

Designing a great event reminder email doesn’t have to be complicated! The clearer and more concise you can be, the better. Event email design is simple with the easy-to-use, drag-and-drop BEE email editor. And by starting with one of our event email templates, designing an effective event reminder email can be even easier.Our set of event email templates has five design options and endless possibilities for customization! The invitation and confirmation email templates are free, and anyone with a BEE Pro susbscrition can access the graphic invitation, reminder, and follow-up templates. No HTML knowledge required — jump straight into event email design today!Editor’s Note: This post was updated on April 2023 to ensure accuracy and comprehensiveness. 

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Elevate Your Email Campaigns: Optimal Banner Size & Design Tips

Discover the perfect email banner size for your campaign with our comprehensive guide, including design tips, best practices, and inspiration to enhance your emails.
Beefree team
Apr 17, 2024

Every marketer knows that branding, visually engaging branding, matters. In a recent HubSpot survey, 20% of marketers reported to see a direct correlation between their design choices and an increase in email engagement.

In email marketing specifically, one of the first design elements a recipient views is your banner, making it crucial to grab the attention of the reader at first glance. An email banner should effectively convey your message, resonate with your audience, and be responsive regardless of what device your recipient uses to view your emails.

Let's discuss email banner best practice to follow that will ultimately lead to improve results of your email campaigns.

What is an email banner?

An email banner is a strategic design element element that appears at the top of your emails to catch the immediate attention of your reader. Sometimes called an email header, your banner is where you’ll introduce the main purpose of your email, like that amazing sale you’re advertising or the product launch of the century, and reel in customers’ so they scroll through the rest of the email.

Your email banner is your chance to make a fantastic first impression. Let’s explore the best email banner sizes and best practices to keep in mind.

Ideal email banner sizes

It is an outdated solution to automatically set all email banners to a width of 600px. With screen sized of both mobile and desktop devices varying so widely, it's important to ensure your email banner size is responsive for optimal viewing experience.

  • For desktop users, a banner 650-700 pixels wide and 90-200 pixels tall is ideal
  • For mobile users, the ideal banner is 350 pixels wide and up to 100 pixels tall

These updated dimensions follow responsive design best practices allowing email banners to render properly in a variety of email clients and devices.
Responsive design allows your email design to automatically adjust to the screen size of a customer’s device.

PRO tip: using an email design template that is already built to be responsive makes following this best practice a breeze.  

Impact of email banner size on campaign performance

A banner that’s poorly sized could become distorted when customers open it in their Gmail, Outlook, or whatever email platform they use.

This makes your email look less professional and it can also be harder to read so it doesn’t get your message across as well. A poorly sized email banner can also affect the user experience. If the banner is too wide, for example, it forces customers to scroll horizontally and it doesn’t allow them to see the entire banner in one view.

Not only do these issues affect the overall experience customers have with your email but they can also squander the excellent engagement opportunity that a well-designed email banner can be. According to Opensense's data, email banners can have 5-10% engagement rates,  a significant enhancement compared to the average click-through rate of 1.4% in emails.

Best practices for email banner design

Your banner size is an important part of designing an effective email banner, but it’s one of many. Check out these best practices to make your email banner even more powerful in garnering the engagement of your recipients.

  • File size: Any image in your email, but specifically your email banner, should be of high-quality. The ideal image should be download as a PNG at a resolution of 72dpi at 40kb or below.
  • Inverted pyramid: This "rule" in email design relates to adding the most important information at the top, working your way down to the least important information. When designing your email banner, make sure it clearly communicates the most important message in your email.
  • Brand consistency: As important as it is that your email banner makes a positive impression and communicates the main purpose of your email, it also should align with your brand. Make sure the design uses your brand colors, logo, or other aspects that make it consistent with your brand’s visual identity.
  • Text: Your banner needs to communicate your message, but less is more. Keep your copy sparse so it isn’t visually overwhelming and so the focus stays on your core intention. Ideally, 45-75 characters on a line is the sweet spot.
  • Email-friendly fonts: Make sure you use email-safe fonts that render reliably on major email platforms.
  • Accessibility: You want your banner’s message to reach as many customers as possible, and that includes customers with disabilities. Make sure to include accessibility features like using alt text so viewers with visual impairments can understand your message and using color combinations that viewers with color blindness can see.
  • Interactivity: Your email banner doesn’t have to be just a plain image or text. Consider making it interactive, such as with a GIF or a video that grabs your viewers’ attention.
  • Testing: You can follow all the rules for proper email banner size and design, but it’s still important to test it in action to make sure it shows up the way you want it to. Always send yourself a test email and see how that test email looks on different devices and platforms before you send it to your subscriber list.

For inspiration, check out these excellent email banners. This one from Beefree's template catalog clearly communicate the purpose of the email, remains consistent in branding throughout and plays with visual and text hierarchy to guide the reader's eye.

color of the year beefree email template
Use this template

This other email banner uses a navigation bar to keep the reader in the brand's ecosystem allowing readers to learn more about the marketing agency. This simple, yet effective email header communicates clearly the purpose of the email using imagery and text and has a clear CTA to lead the reader to complete the desired action without needing to scroll.

free beefree webinar email template
Use this template

Common mistakes in email banner design

When creating a strong email banner, it’s just as important to avoid doing the wrong things as it is to do the right things. Watch for these common pitfalls in email banner design:

  • Over-designing: Your email banner is prime real estate in your email, so of course you want to make the best use of that real estate. If you try to cram too much into that banner, though, you may lose your core message entirely because viewers don’t know where to look. 
  • Hard-to-read fonts: Your email banner is a wonderful place to get creative and build visual appeal, so of course you want to use fun design elements and fonts.
    But at the end of the day, the purpose is to send a message, so make sure the ornamental fonts you use are still clear enough that they’re easy to read.
  • Lack of responsive design: We’ve touched on this above but it’s also a common misstep that’s worth mentioning. Considering that 46% of emails are opened on mobile devices, every email and banner you create must be responsive to maintain its visual quality on any email platform.

Leveraging Tools for Email Marketing Banner

There’s a lot to consider as you’re designing an email banner, but we have great news: there are tools that can make it easier.

Take Beefree for example. Our extensive email template library has over 1,700 pre-built templates that already use banner design best practices like responsive design, minimal text for maximum impact, and proper sizing. Our HTML email editor makes it easy to customize these designs for your brand and messaging.

Start designing with ease and sign up for a free account today! 

Beefree's acquisition of Really Good Emails: here’s why we're excited and you should be too

As of April 15th, 2024, Beefree has acquired Really Good Emails to bridge inspiration and creation: here’s why and what’s next.
Massimo Arrigoni
Apr 15, 2024

If you’re in the email space, you’ve visited reallygoodemails.com

I’ve been a fan for years. There’s nothing like seeing fantastic messages designed by some of the world's best brands to inspire you. Perhaps as well-known as the website are the newsletters from Really Good Emails: witty, funny, and packed with great articles and best practices.

So when Mike Nelson, one of the founders of Really Good Emails (RGE), reached out to me months ago, I was all ears.

Mike and his partners had been volunteering their time on the RGE project for almost ten years and had decided that it was time to switch gears. To deliver more value to their millions of visitors, RGE needed more time, money, and full-time focus.

One thing they found in surveys is that RGE users wanted to “turn saved emails into customizable templates” and use them in any email tool. As it turns out, that’s exactly what people do with Beefree’s no-code email builder: create millions of emails monthly for all sorts of use cases in virtually every industry. They even create those emails inside hundreds of other applications where our tools are embedded. 

Mike clearly had the right idea, and I’m so glad he and his co-founders reached out. 

We started talking and sharing ideas and a vision for the future of RGE. There was a lot of alignment. We believed then—and even more strongly today—that a collaboration between RGE and Beefree could make the art and science of email creation more accessible, more inspiring, and simply, more fun.  

Our plans for the future

If you’re an RGE fan and have never heard of Beefree, our goal is to shorten your path from inspiration to creation. Over the next several months, we will work on various ways to make that happen.

If you’re a Beefree fan, we will add more inspiration to your email design process. You’ve seen the 1,700+ templates in our catalog. Now, we’ll leverage the 15,000+ designs on the RGE site to give you creative superpowers.

If you’re involved in email creation at all, the key point is this: by bringing together RGE's vast email catalog with Beefree's intuitive design tools, we will provide new ways for you to close the gap between finding inspiration and creating something valuable from it.

I've always believed that inspiration is the precursor to creation. Seeing a design that clicks with you, that sparks that "Aha!" moment, is crucial. And Really Good Emails has been that source of "Aha!" for many, including myself. Incorporating RGE's treasure trove into Beefree's ecosystem feels like a natural step toward enhancing the creative process for our community.

Bringing Beefree and RGE together

From a product point of view, you will start seeing integrations between RGE and Beefree. We’ll start small and get fancier over time. They will start shipping soon, and we’ll keep you posted. 

While that’s in the future, there are things we can deliver to you today.

  • First, the Pro features on reallygoodemails.com become FREE for all, starting immediately. At Beefree, we love removing friction and agreed with our friends at RGE to start there. So, create new collections, add your favorite emails, and use the Chrome extension. It’s all free now.

  • Secondly, Unspam is back. It was hard for an all-volunteer team to host and grow this special email event. We have zero intention of changing the nature and objectives of the event, but we’re excited to support it and help it grow. Justine Jordan - Head of Strategy & Community at Beefree - took the lead on that, co-hosting Unspam 2024 in her own, authentic way.

  • Third, I'm super excited to welcome Mike Nelson and Matt Helbig from RGE to the Beefree team. They have a lot of innovative ideas around the future of Really Good Emails, and we can’t wait to collaborate with them. Matthew Smith and Matt Cook will help as strategic advisors.

We live in a world where email continues to be the favorite channel for companies to communicate with their subscribers and for people like you and I to hear from our favorite brands (e.g., here and here). In this world, you - email creators - play such a crucial role.

You are the key stakeholders for both RGE and Beefree. Hundreds of thousands of you use our tools every month. Through Unspam and many other initiatives, we want to increase investment in email makers and creators. 

We need to do so to continue building products that make sense and are truly helpful: successful products only come from a lot of deep listening. We want to do so because we are part of the same community, and there’s no healthy RGE & Beefree without a thriving community.

I know it’s cliché to say it, but we truly believe this is a case where the whole has a real chance of being greater than the sum of the parts. Our tools - combined - will deliver a greater amount of value to you. Our efforts - combined - will have a greater impact.

Give us a bit of time to execute all of this, and keep us honest as we do so. If you have questions, we maintain a FAQ here and welcome your comments and feedback by emailing community@beefree.io

With heartfelt enthusiasm, optimism, and anticipation for what’s to come,

Massimo Arrigoni 

CEO, Beefree

Best Practices in Email Marketing for Digital Agencies

Delve into the email marketing best practices that can empower digital agencies to harness the full potential of emails. From crafting compelling content to leveraging automation and segmentation, these practices are essential for driving engagement, nurturing leads, and achieving remarkable results
Beefree team
Apr 10, 2024

For fast-paced digital marketing agencies, it's common to focus on nurturing and expanding your clients' businesses, that you leave little room to promote your own services. While this is unintentional, this oversight may be hindering your agency's growth potential.

That's where email marketing comes in as a game-changer forbusy agencies. With email creation becoming more intuitive, powerful, and 37% of brands increasing their email budgets it's clear to see that email continues to grow as an effective marketing solution.

Let's delve into the best practices that can elevate your agency's email marketing game and unlock new avenues of success.

Why email marketing benefits digital marketing agencies

With 4.3 billion email users, email continues as a sustainable, cost-effective, and high-converting solution to effortlessly balance client acquisition and client retention.

This single strategy enables targeted outreach to engage and move audiences through different stages of the buyer's journey. For new audiences, email marketing can be used to show them your work, promote services, and reasons to work with you. For customer loyalty and retention, email can be used to upsell and/or communicate the consistent value you bring to your clients.

Email marketing presents a lucrative opportunity for marketing agencies of all sizes to thrive and grow. By consistently engaging potential clients and ensuring your presence remains prominent, you establish top-of-mind recall for marketing services.

#1: Segmentation to keep the balance

As your organization grows, you will notice that your audience has a wide range of interests depending on their demographics, business, and needs. Segmentation involves dividing your email list into different groups based on specific criteria, such as industry or stage in your client acquisition journey.

Segmentation enables you to send targeted and personalized content to each group, increasing the relevance and effectiveness of your campaigns and ROI. For example, if you have a segment of subscribers who are interested in social media marketing, you can tailor your emails to provide them with valuable tips and resources in that area.

Seer Interactive, for instance, is a digital marketing agency serving a variety of audiences from digital marketers who need to stay up to date on best practices to prospective customers. You can see in the example below how Seer differs their emails based on the audience.

Email for digital marketers:

Focuses on speaking to digital marketers who are interested in learning more about how to improve their services, what's new in the industry, and new tools and solutions.


Email for potential clients:

The second email targets potential clients who are likely in the discovery phase of what an agency does. Seer provides some insights to help the reader make more informed decisions with comparisons, a checklist, and an article with what to expect. This email, while does not directly promote Seer's services, let's the reader know that this agency is here to help keeping them top of mind.

Segmenting your audience using the customer journey funnel

As mentioned earlier, one of the most beneficial aspects of email marketing for agencies is the ability to maintain balance between client acquisition and customer retainment. In our professional experience, the best way to do this is to map out your customer journey and plan out how each stage serves your audience and of course moves them through the journey. While your client’s journey may vary depending on your services, but typically it entails the following: 

  • Awareness: In this stage, prospects have heard your name but are just getting to know who you are. This is where you can create a sequence of emails for them to get to know your agency, the services you offer, and what makes you unique. 
  • Consideration: This audience is weighing their options about the best marketing agency for them. This is where you will likely begin to provide statistics about the returns you’ve achieved for other clients or share testimonials. 
  • Decision/conversion: This is the stage when prospects just need that final push to take action and sign on as clients. In this stage, you can offer incentives or a free trial of one services.
  • Loyalty: This is the stage when a business has signed on as a client or made a purchase and your goal is to retain them. You’ll want to send these clients loyalty-boosting content like announcements about new products, appreciation for their support, and informative content that is helpful to them.

Ultimately, segmentation is a great way to keep your subscribers engaged and drive client acquisition and retention. Once you have a clear understanding of your client journey and the goals at each stage, now it's time to grow your email list.

#2: Building and growing your email list

To maximize the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns, it is essential to first start building a quality list of people who are interested in what you have to offer and say.

  1. Make it easy to subscribe: Whether you're using a form on your website or a landing page, make sure that your process is simple. Only ask for only essential information, ideally only up to three. Some suggestions are name, email address, and a question that could help you segment them into groups such as "are you looking for an agency?" This simple question could help segment new subscribers to cold vs. hot leads. Don't forget to use a clear CTA that communicated what the next step is.  
  2. Leverage social media: Promote your email list on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, and Twitter/X to reach a wider audience and encourage sign-ups.
  3. Offer valuable incentives: Provide something of value, such as appealing discounts on a client’s first service or exclusive content like a guide to social media marketing in exchange for people signing up to your email list.
  4. Regularly clean your list: While building and growing your email list, it is important to regularly examine your subscribers and remove those who are not engaging. This helps maintain a healthy list and ensures that your metrics accurately reflect subscriber engagement.
  5. Don’t forget existing clients: Add your existing clients to your mailing list so they can stay up to date on your latest services and offers. Additionally create a segment of former clients who have not engaged with your agency in a while. This segment is perfect for targeted emails meant to re-engage them, like personalized information about where they left off in the process and a call-to-action button for them to jump back in.
  6. Provide compelling content consistently: Deliver content that is interesting, informative, and valuable to keep subscribers engaged and to make them more likely to tell others about your mailing list. The friends they tell may become subscribers and eventually clients.

Keep these best practices in mind to build a high-quality subscriber list who are genuinely interested in your brand. 

#3: Designing high-converting emails

The effectiveness of your email campaigns is directly influenced by the design choices you make. Research shows that visually appealing designs can significantly enhance engagement rates.

Email design best practices

Strategic design choices not only make your emails more appealing, but also drive higher conversions.

  1. Personalize your emails: HubSpot ranks message personalization as one of the most effective strategies for email marketing. Tailor the content based on their interests or past interactions with your brand, such as by including a section for recommended services. This increases engagement and makes your emails more relevant.
  2. Use professional and high-quality visual design: Use high-quality images and graphics that support your message and reflect your brand's identity. A visually appealing email is more likely to capture attention and encourage click-throughs. In fact, according to Campaign Monitor, communications with visuals receive 650% more engagement than those without.
  3. Include a clear call-to-action (CTA): Wordstream found that one CTA in your email can garner 371% more clicks and over 1600% higher sales. Your CTA should be prominent, concise, and action-oriented. Make it easy for recipients to understand what they need to do next, whether it's making a purchase, signing up for an event, or downloading a resource.
  4. Maintain consistent branding: Ensure that your email templates align with your brand's colors, fonts, and overall visual style. Consistency helps build recognition and reinforces trust with your audience, and according to GaggleAMP, customers who feel connected to your brand account for 37% of revenue and spend twice as much.
  5. Design for mobile devices: According to eMarketer, over half of emails are opened on mobile devices. Be sure your emails are mobile-friendly so they still look clean and engaging for your recipients.

Leverage email templates

Email marketing templates are a great asset for your email design. Many email marketing tools offer pre-designed emails that you can easily customize to suit your needs and brand guidelines.

By using pre-built templates, your agency can significantly reduce the time and effort required to create engaging emails, ultimately boosting your return on investment (ROI) by maximizing the impact of your email marketing efforts.

source: https://app.userevidence.com/assets/9921CTHL

Ensure responsive, mobile-optimized, HTML email design

When designing your marketing emails, designing in HTML helps ensure that your emails will be readable in nearly any email app (like Gmail, Outlook, and so on) and device. Fortunately, you don’t have to be an HTML coder to create HTML emails.

Now a days, there are many tools that offer an easy-to-use design interface so you can design your emails and export the HTML the solution builds for you. These tools, streamline and make the design process more efficient, without the need to have any knowledge on HTML or CSS.

By utilizing an HTML email design tool, such as Beefree, not only can you enjoy the peace of mind that your emails will render well, but you also benefit from a solution that helps you and your agency save time, increase productivity, and get more done with less resources.

source: https://app.userevidence.com/assets/7845FVNE

However, not all HTML email builders are made equal.

#4: Choosing the right email marketing software for your agency

A stellar email campaign starts with effective and productive email marketing software. When choosing email marketing software, it's important to consider factors such as ease of use, customization options, integration capabilities with other tools, and more.

Factors to consider when choosing email marketing software

How do you determine which of the many email marketing tools is the best fit for your agency’s needs? Here are some important factors to consider while you weigh your options:

  1. Check out the features: Every software has its own collection of features like scheduled sending, automated options for sending a series of emails, personalization, design capabilities, and so on. Compare tools and their features against your list of must-haves.
  2. Examine the pricing: Cost matters in your ROI. Pick a service that fits your budget.
  3. Consider other capabilities: Some tools offer email marketing along with other helpful services like social media ads, website analytics, and so on. Consider whether there are email marketing tools that will also replace some of your other software.
  4. Try A/B testing: If you’re able to try out multiple email tools at the same time, consider sending a few campaigns with each tool to see if one performs better than the other.
  5. Weigh the integration capabilities: Consider email marketing platforms that may integrate with some of the other tools you use, like your client management system. This applies to email tools that integrate with other email tools too, like BeeFree which provides a user-friendly way to design your emails and smoothly send them with nearly any email sending platform
  6. Preview emails: Check out examples of what other businesses have created using each email tool.
  7. Read reviews and research: See what other businesses (and especially other marketing agencies, if possible) have to say about each tool.

Recommended email marketing tools

Here's a quick rundown of some recommended email design tools that can help maximize your ROI:

HubSpot

  • Key features: AI-driven marketing automation, built-in analytics, advanced segmentation, customizable templates.
  • Benefits: Targeted emails improve ROI and overall marketing strategy. HubSpot's AI can help with segmentation and crafting tailored emails for each recipient.

MailChimp

  • Key features: Easy usability, broad template selection, robust automation, analytics.
  • Benefits: Good for beginners and seasoned marketers alike, MailChimp offers an intuitive platform with high flexibility.

Constant Contact

  • Key features: User-friendly interface, diverse template library, event management tools, social media integration.
  • Benefits: Great for small to midsize businesses. It offers a range of features that can help streamline and automate your email marketing processes.

GetResponse

  • Key features: All-in-one platform, landing page builder, advanced analytics, webinar hosting
  • Benefits: If you're looking for more than just email marketing, GetResponse offers a suite of tools including landing page and webinar solutions.

ActiveCampaign

  • Key features: Advanced automation, CRM integration, messaging features, customer behavior tracking
  • Benefits: ActiveCampaign is ideal for businesses with a focus on customer relationships. It offers extensive automation and tracking capabilities for a more personalized approach.

Beefree

  • Key features: Specializing in HTML email design, with an extensive catalog of email templates to use and a drag-and-drop email editor for complete customization
  • Benefits: While emails cannot be exported via Beefree like the above, Beefree integrates with all major email sending platforms for easy use with your favorite software. Additionally, the application offers free and cost-effective plans to help you get started.
source: https://app.userevidence.com/assets/2327OLKA

To ensure you're choosing the right tool, consider your organization's unique needs, the tool's capabilities, and how well it integrates with your existing marketing tech stack.

#5: Automating Your email marketing efforts

Leveraging automation in your email marketing strategy can significantly enhance your outreach efforts and improve your email marketing ROI. By automating certain aspects of your email campaigns, you can ensure timely and targeted communication with potential clients, increasing the likelihood of engagement.

Automation allows you to schedule emails to be sent at optimal times and personalize content based on user behavior. This not only saves time and resources but also maximizes the impact of your emails. There are several ways that your agencies can incorporate automation, but here are some:

  • Sending an email to clients who started but didn’t complete your inquiry process.
  • Automated welcome series for new clients that introduces them to your work process.
  • Automated follow-ups for webinars, events, or meetings.

Benefits of email marketing automation

  1. Increased efficiency: With automated emails, you can reach a larger number of clients or reach clients more reliably without having to manually send individual emails.
  2. Engagement and lead nurturing: Marketing automation sometimes offers advanced features like lead scoring and nurturing. You can segment your audience based on their behavior or interests, ensuring that they receive relevant content tailored specifically for them.
  3. Advanced user segmentation: Automation allows you to segment your email list based on various criteria such as demographics, purchase history, or engagement level. This enables you to send personalized messages that resonate with each segment of your audience.
  4. Increased conversions: By sending targeted and timely emails through automation, you can significantly improve conversion rates. Whether it's encouraging a purchase or promoting an upcoming event, automated emails can help drive more conversions for your agency.

#6: Tracking and measuring for success

To ensure the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts, it is crucial to track and measure key metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. This data helps you recognize trends, such as what designs or content resonate the most with your clients, and help make informed decisions for your next campaign.

Important metrics to track

Here are some key metrics that you should track throughout your agency’s email marketing campaigns.

  1. Open rate: Shows the percentage of recipients who opened your email out of those who received it. It gives insight into the effectiveness of subject lines and sender names.
  2. Click-through rate: Measures the percentage of recipients who clicked on a link within your email. It helps you evaluate the effectiveness of your email content and call-to-action.
  3. Conversion rate: Tells you how many recipients took the desired action after clicking through your email. In the case of a marketing agency, that action could be filling out your website’s contact form.
  4. Bounce rate: Tracks the percentage of emails that were not delivered to recipients' inboxes due to invalid or non-existent email addresses.
  5. List growth rate: Allows you to assess how quickly your email list is expanding so you can adjust your acquisition strategies accordingly.
  6. Email sharing/forwarding rate: Measures how often recipients share or forward your emails to others. It can indicate whether your content resonates with your audience and has potential for increased reach.
  7. Unsubscribe rate: Monitors the percentage of recipients who unsubscribe from your emails after receiving them. High unsubscribe rates may indicate issues with targeting, content relevance, or frequency.

To learn more about how to measure and make informed decisions based on each metrics read: 8 Email Metrics That Actually Matter in 2024

Unlocking the power of email marketing for agencies

Digital marketing agencies have a unique business model and a unique use for email marketing. Unlike many businesses, you aren’t trying to use your email marketing to make a quick sale or appeal to impulse buyers. You’re trying to establish a genuine and ongoing connection with potential clients and show them the concrete value you can bring to their businesses. Agency-specific strategies like those above can help you make the most of every email you send.

Want a more efficient way to create compelling marketing emails? The Beefree "Business" plan is the perfect solution for growing agencies to scale their email marketing processes and campaigns. Start your free 15-day Business trial today

source: https://app.userevidence.com/assets/2651YKEJ


Frequently asked questions for agencies

1. How can email marketing help digital agencies maximize their ROI?

Email marketing helps digital agencies maximize their ROI by allowing them to reach a targeted audience, build relationships with clients, and drive traffic to their website or landing page.

2. What are some best practices for email marketing in digital agencies?

Some best practices for email marketing in digital agencies include segmenting the audience according to interests or needs and other factors, personalizing emails, creating compelling subject lines and content, optimizing for mobile devices, and analyzing campaign data to make improvements.

3. How often should digital agencies send emails to their subscribers?

The frequency of sending emails will depend on factors such as the industry, target audience, and goals of the campaign. However, it is generally recommended to maintain a consistent schedule that provides value without overwhelming subscribers.

4. What metrics should digital agencies track to measure the success of their email marketing campaigns?

Digital agencies should track metrics such as open rates, click-through rates (CTRs), conversion rates, bounce rates, and unsubscribe rates to measure the success of their email marketing campaigns.

5. Are there any legal considerations when conducting email marketing for digital agencies?

Yes, there are legal considerations when conducting email marketing. Digital agencies need to comply with anti-spam laws like the CAN-SPAM Act in the United States and GDPR in Europe by including clear opt-in/opt-out options, providing accurate sender information in each email sent, and following other guidelines.

Elevate Your Email Campaigns: Optimal Banner Size & Design Tips

Discover the perfect email banner size for your campaign with our comprehensive guide, including design tips, best practices, and inspiration to enhance your emails.
Beefree team
Beefree team
17 Apr
2024

Every marketer knows that branding, visually engaging branding, matters. In a recent HubSpot survey, 20% of marketers reported to see a direct correlation between their design choices and an increase in email engagement.

In email marketing specifically, one of the first design elements a recipient views is your banner, making it crucial to grab the attention of the reader at first glance. An email banner should effectively convey your message, resonate with your audience, and be responsive regardless of what device your recipient uses to view your emails.

Let's discuss email banner best practice to follow that will ultimately lead to improve results of your email campaigns.

What is an email banner?

An email banner is a strategic design element element that appears at the top of your emails to catch the immediate attention of your reader. Sometimes called an email header, your banner is where you’ll introduce the main purpose of your email, like that amazing sale you’re advertising or the product launch of the century, and reel in customers’ so they scroll through the rest of the email.

Your email banner is your chance to make a fantastic first impression. Let’s explore the best email banner sizes and best practices to keep in mind.

Ideal email banner sizes

It is an outdated solution to automatically set all email banners to a width of 600px. With screen sized of both mobile and desktop devices varying so widely, it's important to ensure your email banner size is responsive for optimal viewing experience.

  • For desktop users, a banner 650-700 pixels wide and 90-200 pixels tall is ideal
  • For mobile users, the ideal banner is 350 pixels wide and up to 100 pixels tall

These updated dimensions follow responsive design best practices allowing email banners to render properly in a variety of email clients and devices.
Responsive design allows your email design to automatically adjust to the screen size of a customer’s device.

PRO tip: using an email design template that is already built to be responsive makes following this best practice a breeze.  

Impact of email banner size on campaign performance

A banner that’s poorly sized could become distorted when customers open it in their Gmail, Outlook, or whatever email platform they use.

This makes your email look less professional and it can also be harder to read so it doesn’t get your message across as well. A poorly sized email banner can also affect the user experience. If the banner is too wide, for example, it forces customers to scroll horizontally and it doesn’t allow them to see the entire banner in one view.

Not only do these issues affect the overall experience customers have with your email but they can also squander the excellent engagement opportunity that a well-designed email banner can be. According to Opensense's data, email banners can have 5-10% engagement rates,  a significant enhancement compared to the average click-through rate of 1.4% in emails.

Best practices for email banner design

Your banner size is an important part of designing an effective email banner, but it’s one of many. Check out these best practices to make your email banner even more powerful in garnering the engagement of your recipients.

  • File size: Any image in your email, but specifically your email banner, should be of high-quality. The ideal image should be download as a PNG at a resolution of 72dpi at 40kb or below.
  • Inverted pyramid: This "rule" in email design relates to adding the most important information at the top, working your way down to the least important information. When designing your email banner, make sure it clearly communicates the most important message in your email.
  • Brand consistency: As important as it is that your email banner makes a positive impression and communicates the main purpose of your email, it also should align with your brand. Make sure the design uses your brand colors, logo, or other aspects that make it consistent with your brand’s visual identity.
  • Text: Your banner needs to communicate your message, but less is more. Keep your copy sparse so it isn’t visually overwhelming and so the focus stays on your core intention. Ideally, 45-75 characters on a line is the sweet spot.
  • Email-friendly fonts: Make sure you use email-safe fonts that render reliably on major email platforms.
  • Accessibility: You want your banner’s message to reach as many customers as possible, and that includes customers with disabilities. Make sure to include accessibility features like using alt text so viewers with visual impairments can understand your message and using color combinations that viewers with color blindness can see.
  • Interactivity: Your email banner doesn’t have to be just a plain image or text. Consider making it interactive, such as with a GIF or a video that grabs your viewers’ attention.
  • Testing: You can follow all the rules for proper email banner size and design, but it’s still important to test it in action to make sure it shows up the way you want it to. Always send yourself a test email and see how that test email looks on different devices and platforms before you send it to your subscriber list.

For inspiration, check out these excellent email banners. This one from Beefree's template catalog clearly communicate the purpose of the email, remains consistent in branding throughout and plays with visual and text hierarchy to guide the reader's eye.

color of the year beefree email template
Use this template

This other email banner uses a navigation bar to keep the reader in the brand's ecosystem allowing readers to learn more about the marketing agency. This simple, yet effective email header communicates clearly the purpose of the email using imagery and text and has a clear CTA to lead the reader to complete the desired action without needing to scroll.

free beefree webinar email template
Use this template

Common mistakes in email banner design

When creating a strong email banner, it’s just as important to avoid doing the wrong things as it is to do the right things. Watch for these common pitfalls in email banner design:

  • Over-designing: Your email banner is prime real estate in your email, so of course you want to make the best use of that real estate. If you try to cram too much into that banner, though, you may lose your core message entirely because viewers don’t know where to look. 
  • Hard-to-read fonts: Your email banner is a wonderful place to get creative and build visual appeal, so of course you want to use fun design elements and fonts.
    But at the end of the day, the purpose is to send a message, so make sure the ornamental fonts you use are still clear enough that they’re easy to read.
  • Lack of responsive design: We’ve touched on this above but it’s also a common misstep that’s worth mentioning. Considering that 46% of emails are opened on mobile devices, every email and banner you create must be responsive to maintain its visual quality on any email platform.

Leveraging Tools for Email Marketing Banner

There’s a lot to consider as you’re designing an email banner, but we have great news: there are tools that can make it easier.

Take Beefree for example. Our extensive email template library has over 1,700 pre-built templates that already use banner design best practices like responsive design, minimal text for maximum impact, and proper sizing. Our HTML email editor makes it easy to customize these designs for your brand and messaging.

Start designing with ease and sign up for a free account today! 

Beefree's acquisition of Really Good Emails: here’s why we're excited and you should be too

As of April 15th, 2024, Beefree has acquired Really Good Emails to bridge inspiration and creation: here’s why and what’s next.

If you’re in the email space, you’ve visited reallygoodemails.com

I’ve been a fan for years. There’s nothing like seeing fantastic messages designed by some of the world's best brands to inspire you. Perhaps as well-known as the website are the newsletters from Really Good Emails: witty, funny, and packed with great articles and best practices.

So when Mike Nelson, one of the founders of Really Good Emails (RGE), reached out to me months ago, I was all ears.

Mike and his partners had been volunteering their time on the RGE project for almost ten years and had decided that it was time to switch gears. To deliver more value to their millions of visitors, RGE needed more time, money, and full-time focus.

One thing they found in surveys is that RGE users wanted to “turn saved emails into customizable templates” and use them in any email tool. As it turns out, that’s exactly what people do with Beefree’s no-code email builder: create millions of emails monthly for all sorts of use cases in virtually every industry. They even create those emails inside hundreds of other applications where our tools are embedded. 

Mike clearly had the right idea, and I’m so glad he and his co-founders reached out. 

We started talking and sharing ideas and a vision for the future of RGE. There was a lot of alignment. We believed then—and even more strongly today—that a collaboration between RGE and Beefree could make the art and science of email creation more accessible, more inspiring, and simply, more fun.  

Our plans for the future

If you’re an RGE fan and have never heard of Beefree, our goal is to shorten your path from inspiration to creation. Over the next several months, we will work on various ways to make that happen.

If you’re a Beefree fan, we will add more inspiration to your email design process. You’ve seen the 1,700+ templates in our catalog. Now, we’ll leverage the 15,000+ designs on the RGE site to give you creative superpowers.

If you’re involved in email creation at all, the key point is this: by bringing together RGE's vast email catalog with Beefree's intuitive design tools, we will provide new ways for you to close the gap between finding inspiration and creating something valuable from it.

I've always believed that inspiration is the precursor to creation. Seeing a design that clicks with you, that sparks that "Aha!" moment, is crucial. And Really Good Emails has been that source of "Aha!" for many, including myself. Incorporating RGE's treasure trove into Beefree's ecosystem feels like a natural step toward enhancing the creative process for our community.

Bringing Beefree and RGE together

From a product point of view, you will start seeing integrations between RGE and Beefree. We’ll start small and get fancier over time. They will start shipping soon, and we’ll keep you posted. 

While that’s in the future, there are things we can deliver to you today.

  • First, the Pro features on reallygoodemails.com become FREE for all, starting immediately. At Beefree, we love removing friction and agreed with our friends at RGE to start there. So, create new collections, add your favorite emails, and use the Chrome extension. It’s all free now.

  • Secondly, Unspam is back. It was hard for an all-volunteer team to host and grow this special email event. We have zero intention of changing the nature and objectives of the event, but we’re excited to support it and help it grow. Justine Jordan - Head of Strategy & Community at Beefree - took the lead on that, co-hosting Unspam 2024 in her own, authentic way.

  • Third, I'm super excited to welcome Mike Nelson and Matt Helbig from RGE to the Beefree team. They have a lot of innovative ideas around the future of Really Good Emails, and we can’t wait to collaborate with them. Matthew Smith and Matt Cook will help as strategic advisors.

We live in a world where email continues to be the favorite channel for companies to communicate with their subscribers and for people like you and I to hear from our favorite brands (e.g., here and here). In this world, you - email creators - play such a crucial role.

You are the key stakeholders for both RGE and Beefree. Hundreds of thousands of you use our tools every month. Through Unspam and many other initiatives, we want to increase investment in email makers and creators. 

We need to do so to continue building products that make sense and are truly helpful: successful products only come from a lot of deep listening. We want to do so because we are part of the same community, and there’s no healthy RGE & Beefree without a thriving community.

I know it’s cliché to say it, but we truly believe this is a case where the whole has a real chance of being greater than the sum of the parts. Our tools - combined - will deliver a greater amount of value to you. Our efforts - combined - will have a greater impact.

Give us a bit of time to execute all of this, and keep us honest as we do so. If you have questions, we maintain a FAQ here and welcome your comments and feedback by emailing community@beefree.io

With heartfelt enthusiasm, optimism, and anticipation for what’s to come,

Massimo Arrigoni 

CEO, Beefree

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