Tag Archives: design

This is a guest post from Charles Richard at TatvaSoft UK.

When it comes to UX design, doing it well can be complex at best.

As we go along, a wide range of unexpected UX challenges begin to unfold, and unfortunately, that’s the reason why many sites aren’t very user-friendly. In fact, only 55% of companies are currently conducting any user experience testing.

But that’s no way to treat the visitors, leads, and customers that make online work possible.

In tandem with web development, user experience design is of paramount importance, a deciding factor of success or failure for your website. According to one study, every $1 invested in UX led to $100 in return.

Cracking the right UX code has been a mystery for years. The advent of new technology, tools, and techniques is definitely a boon, but even recent developments can have their fair share of problems.

Read on to discover what those UX designing challenges are, as well as how to deal with them through UX A/B testing.

Top UX designing challenges

1. Gathering data

Now, how can gathering data be an issue? Marketing and sales teams these days require tons and tons of customer data to make their strategies and campaigns successful. But collecting data isn’t always easy, especially since people now have more power than ever over how and when their data is collected.

What exactly is GDPR? Get the facts.

While data protection is crucially important, collecting relevant consumer data isn’t all bad. In fact, the right data can go a long way in providing relevant and personalized content for users.

Try using more engaging and subtle data collection methods, like interactive opportunities: quizzes, polls, or surveys.

According to sources, interactive content converts buyers 70% of the time compared to just 36% for passive content. Consider unobtrusive approaches to succeed.

These 6 interactive methods will improve your engagement.

2. Implementing personalization

Is it challenging to offer a personalized experience? At times, yes. Most of the time, personalized experiences can boost sales and customer satisfaction, but website designers are taking personalization a step further by optimizing landing pages for each specific customer, and this can be overwhelming.

Try going for smart personalization and offer things in moderation. How? Test what works and what doesn’t; Iterate when something isn’t successful.

Marketing teams and web designers must have a deep understanding of who their customers are or what it is that they want, so that, the next thing they know, they’re receiving personalized offers or coupons for related items.

Is personalization enough? Find out here.

3. Selling products online

Product showcasing is pretty common these days. One of the biggest drawbacks here is that you never really know what you’re getting until it shows up.

There are hundreds and thousands of sales options available around, and more and more brands are working to create confidence and communicate why their product is the one that customers should go with. Simply relying on product pictures and ratings from past purchases may not be enough, especially as markets become saturated.

Still, a little creativity and technology can go a long way.

With emerging disruptive tech, like augmented reality and virtual reality tools, companies can show their customers 3D models of their products for a virtual “hands-on” shopping experience (e.g. the IKEA app).

This ability to display products online in this way is a big advantage for brick-and-mortar stores.

See how 1,000+ ecommerce owners spend their time.

4. Consumer behavior code

Knowing what motivates customers to make a purchase or complete an action, as well as how to use this information to improve conversion rates has always been a challenge for web developers and designers across the globe.

Make better and more confident UX design choices that are proven to get results. The biggest advantage here is placing CTA buttons or important content along the path that a customer’s eyes will naturally fall to (left to right).

Optimize your CTAs in 10 steps.

5. A/B testing inaccuracies

A/B testing is helpful when trying to determine which ideas or designs might be the most effective with your audience. Unfortunately, many web development professionals tend to choose strategies that are limited.

Known as split testing, A/B testing is done to find out which of two versions performs better—like an ad, digital product, or email subject line. Web designing teams divide users into two groups and show each the different variants. One half sees version A, and the other sees version B. The results of the tests will determine which design was more effective.


To measure the effectiveness, one needs to delve into different criteria such as page views, clicks, or sales leads. However, the choice of criteria for measurement depends on what goals a company or a creative team has established.

A well-constructed A/B test includes:

  • Identifying the project scope
  • Isolating macro and micro metrics
  • Assessing key page elements
  • Randomly showing two different screens to users
  • Carefully evaluating your findings

A/B testing for UX improvement

Mobile app developers need to choose carefully, as well as plan a clear and pleasant interaction and navigation system to enhance user experience. However, what once worked well may not have the same effect after a while, so it’s important to update your findings periodically.

A/B testing assists web designers in making careful changes, so users won’t feel inconvenienced. All the needed data and metrics can be collected while people continue to use an app or website. Certain elements to consider when it comes to A/B testing include:

  • Placement, size, color, or copy of CTA buttons
  • Headings with their subheaders
  • Images (especially on the landing pages)
  • Presentation of clients’ form on websites
  • The entire copy (length, placement, and content)
  • Where the offer is displayed
  • Videos (presence or absence)

These tests can be performed at any time to ensure you’re always giving your users the best experience possible.

Step 1 – Data collection

The main objective of A/B testing is to optimize, irrespective of the reason—be it revenue optimization, user experience improvements, or just a product upgrade as a whole. By gathering lots and lots of data and analyzing it, you’ll know exactly which part of the UX design needs to be optimized the most.

Additional tip: do you have any pages with low conversion rates or CTA buttons with the least amount of clicks? They’re the ones that need to be taken care of first.

Step 2 – Set the objective.

To make things work in the correct order, web developers need to set goals in regard to the result. Do you wish to increase your subscriber list for the recent blog or website you’ve been working on? Check how many clicks on CTA buttons you receive and keep doing relevant changes. Setting small goals changes everything.

Step 3 – Hypothesis

After gathering all the relevant information and setting appropriate goals, it’s time to create some hypothetical situation and analyze whether things will work out or not. How will the current version hit the market, and is there any room for improvement from a client perspective?

Step 4 – Create side A and side B.

Fortunately, we have plenty of free and paid tools around. What’s more, you can also consider reaching out to a web development company featuring a skilled team of techies, designers, and QAs who make sure that everything goes as it should.

Step 5 – Analyze.

When the experiment is complete, designers work on implementing the information based on the results.

Wrap up

As you’re building and designing your site, email, and other marketing efforts, good UX may feel like a challenge. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be. Through UX A/B testing specifically, you can easily see what’s working best.

A/B tests for UX design ultimately lead to:

  • Cost-efficiency
  • Quality instead of quantity
  • User-centered design
  • Fast and easy analysis
  • Reduced scope of risk

By researching and gathering data about your user-base, personalizing their experience, and constantly testing, you can build a positive experience for subscribers, customers, and everyone in-between.


Charles Richard possesses over 10 years of experience in the business analysis profession. He also enjoys mentoring BA professionals, and his well-rounded knowledge base in engineering concepts provides an easy way to make non-technical people understand basic theories. Currently, he works at TatvaSoft UK, a leading iPhone app development company based in London.

This is a guest post from Ryan McCready at Venngage.

Keeping up with the latest graphic design trends in your email marketing can be exhausting, especially if you aren’t a designer and have other tasks that take priority.

But keeping up with new design trends is the easiest way to signal to your audience that you’re a modern, innovative, forward-thinking company. That’s why so many tech companies have great design—users expect to see a level of newness within their product.

And, while you want to keep your brand looking fresh and hip, it’s hard to tell which trends you should follow and which trends are best left on the Pinterest boards (that’s why Venngage pulled together the top 8 graphic design trends of 2020).

Read on to discover easy-to-manage, actionable ways to incorporate the newest graphic design trends in your email marketing and branding (even if you aren’t a designer).

Want some quick ways to update your look? Our design trends can help

With email being such a direct-to-consumer, instantaneous marketing method, your email design can be a great way to show your audience just how modern and innovative you are.

Plus, if a design trend doesn’t resonate with your email audience, you can easily change it in your ESP.

1. Muted color palettes

Muted color palettes are the first trend on our list for 2020, and is also the easiest trend to incorporate into your existing branding.

If your emails are word heavy with very few graphics, this trend might not be for you. But, if you use graphics and photography to help bring your newsletters to life, you can definitely get on board.

Muted colors refer to colors that aren’t vibrant. You can easily create a palette of muted colors to work with by taking your existing brand color palette and adding elements of black or white to create more toned-down shades.

Muted color palettes are one of the newest Graphic Design Trends in Your Email Marketing

Source

Creating a secondary palette from your main brand colors is doubly beneficial. Along with automatically updating your look to be completely on-trend, it’s not too dissimilar to the brand your audience already knows and loves.

A complete rebrand can be a polarizing experience for consumers, so, wherever possible, you should focus on small, continuous improvements rather than a complete design overhaul.

Goodfood email example

Source

2. Color gradients

Much like trend number one on our list, color gradients are a great way to refresh your emails without changing too much. In fact, you may have already seen this graphic design trend in your inbox.

Gradients have been back for a while, but, in 2020, expect to see much more muted, toned-down gradients (sensing a theme yet?). Instead of an all-out background gradient, you’ll start to see them used to enhance elements of designs.

Flume email example

Original link: email gallery

With this trend, less is more, so focus on updating one small element of your email with a gradient. You could update your header with a subtle gradient, or use a gradient inside of block text.

If using the gradient trend, try to keep it as simple as possible. Try to use subtle gradients in small areas, rather than automatically using a bright gradient as a color overlay.

3. Abstract and dreamy illustrations

Now, you need to be a certain sort of company to pull off trend number three, but, if you can manage it, you’ll be leaps and bounds ahead of your competitors.

The phrase “abstract and dreamy illustrations” can scare people off, but if you’re already using a hand-drawn or illustrated style in your branding, this is the trend for you. Plus, it’s one of our favorite graphic design trends to use in email marketing.

By “abstract and dreamy,” we mean un-lifelike drawings. Think strange colors, exaggerated proportions, and absurd situations.

Casper mattress illustration examples

Source

Easily update your email newsletters by replacing stock photography with one of these abstract illustrations, or consider changing up your existing bank of illustrations to be weirder.

The other bonus of creating custom illustrations, alongside them looking great, is they add a special element to your marketing. Anybody can pay for a stock image, but not everybody will go out of their way to commission illustrations unique to their business.

Creating a custom illustration for customers who’ve just completed a sale, or customers who’ve joined your loyalty program can help make people feel special, and like you’re a company who cares about them as a person, rather than just a number.

Illustrations have been popular amongst SaaS companies for a while, but, in 2020, they’ll fully enter the mainstream. Expect to see big-name brands, such as Apple, jump on the trend and use stranger and stranger illustrations.

The one thing to remember with this trend is that you need to make sure the meaning of your illustration is crystal clear.

4. Heavy but simple fonts

One of our other favorite graphic design trends to use in your email marketing? Heavy (but simple) fonts.

In 2020, heavy, simple fonts will be everywhere. With the rest of the design world getting more muted, it’ll be time for the bold fonts to shine.

By “heavy,” we mean fonts that are bold or extra bold, things that don’t look delicate or hand-drawn, which was the trend last year. These heavier fonts create a great contrast with graphics and other text and work particularly well as headers.

This is a great trend to jump on, as it’s so easy to implement. The Drake Hotel does a great job of using heavy fonts in their email newsletters.

The Drake November newsletter

Source

Try this trend out by picking a heavy or bold weight to your font and applying it to header text. Increase the size of your header text and even the color, for a really modern look.

5. Beautiful flowing shapes and lines

Beautiful flowing shapes and lines might seem like an odd choice for a top trend, but, when you start to think about it, it makes perfect sense. Alongside more muted color palettes and softer gradients, the shapes used will become softer too.

Like the abstract illustration trend, this one isn’t for every company. But, if you already use geometric shapes or find yourself with too much white space, flowing lines could be the answer here.

Ellevest uses flowing shapes and lines, one of the Graphic Design Trends in Your Email Marketing you can use

Source

I searched through my entire email inbox, as well as the Campaign Monitor email gallery, but couldn’t find any companies using flowing shapes to their full potential yet, so jump on this chance to be the first.

Using these flowing blobs as backgrounds for sections in your newsletter, or separating blocks of text with a wiggly line rather than a straight one, has a lot of potential to instantly upgrade your emails to something on brand and modern.

6. Genuine and neutral stock photos

In case you haven’t noticed a pattern yet, we’re toning things down in 2020, and your stock photos are no exception.

In previous years, stock photography has tended to lean towards the bright, bold, and colorful end of the spectrum. But say goodbye to oversaturated colors and unrealistic-looking compositions.

Changing up the stock photography you use is such a quick and easy way to modernize your emails. When choosing stock photography look for images that seem unposed, think about the sort of content your absolute coolest friend posts on Instagram.

These are stock photos, one of the graphic design trends people use in 2020 email marketing

Source

If you don’t use stock photos but do include product shots, you can get involved in this trend too. Arrange products on interesting backgrounds, in natural settings, within a muted color palette for maximum impact.

This image has a muted color palette, one of our graphic design trends to use in email marketing 2020

Source

The key to nailing this trend is by embracing authenticity, but changing up the style of photography you use in your newsletters is one of the best design tips you can use in your newsletters.

7. Minimalism

Minimalism is a great design trend for email marketers because it’s simple but effective. Being generous with your use of white space won’t be a new concept for many people, but, in 2020, it’s time to take the trend to the next level.

Minimalist email example - This is one of the graphic design trends in your email marketing for 2020

Source

In this example from fashion brand, Monki, the images are well spaced out, with plenty of breathing room between the pictures.

The CTA button is also in white, but with a simple black border, adding to the calm look. And, finally, the product shots: all the same color scheme, all shot on a white background.

It’s not a boring email at all, but it is a minimalist one.

Try this out with your own campaigns by picking one feature color to sit alongside a plain white background, and don’t be afraid to create extra space in between your text and images.

And don’t stop there; continue the minimalism through to your landing pages to create a cohesive experience for your audience.

8. Better branded animations

You’ve probably seen animations pop up in emails in the form of GIFs. Reaction GIFs are so ingrained in our visual communication that nobody bats an eye when they become part of your marketing.

But how can you stay ahead of the game when everybody’s using the same imagery? Simple: you create your own animations.

By creating your own GIFs, you can produce animations that are highly relevant to your campaign and completely unique to your company.

Asos promotional email example

It doesn’t have to be a complex animation either. In the example above, ASOS has subtly animated the background—enough to add energy to the email, but not so much that it’s overpowering.

If you do decide to bring animation into your campaigns, make sure that the motion you choose never overpowers the rest of the message.

Wrap up

Keeping on top of trends can be an easy and effective way to update the look and feel of your emails, which is why we highly encourage using these graphic design trends in your email marketing.

Especially in crowded markets, standing out from competitors is important—and having good quality, modern, and on-trend emails can be a great way to show your audience that you’re a modern company.

It’s important to keep your brand in mind when using new graphic design trends, as not every trend outlined above will be suitable for your marketing.

Ryan McCready went to the University of Arkansas and graduated with a degree in economics and international business. Now instead of studying the economy, he writes about graphic design, marketing and more at Venngage.

This is a guest post from Erica Sunarjo at TheWordPoint.

With over seven years of website localization experience, I can tell you one thing for sure.

Without localization, your ecommerce website won’t bring you even half of its potential revenue.

Besides, without proper translation, a website just looks sloppy.

If, for instance, you ship products to China and consider the region to be part of your target audience, why not localize the whole website to make navigation simpler?

Otherwise, you may have translations that don’t make sense—which can cost you visitors, conversions, and loyal customers.

Think of it this way: What kind of website would you rather shop with? Preferably, one that has easy-to-read copy in your language, pricing in your currency, and a checkout that makes sense for you.

Virtually everyone feels this way, meaning localization is vital to your process.

See our localization guide here.

Digging deeper into website translation and localization

Let’s get back to the “potential revenue” part we mentioned earlier.

When launching their online retail platforms, ecommerce companies have certain expectations regarding the revenue they’ll receive as a result. They determine when their startups will break even, taking into consideration several factors:

  • target audience outreach
  • expected net income
  • time factor

These are the constituents of ROI, but ROI isn’t always a precise number.

To calculate it, you also need to take into account the factors that can have a negative impact on it.

If you launch an international ecommerce platform, having little to no localization can negatively impact your business.

Let’s look at it from a different perspective.

According to Statista, retail ecommerce sales worldwide are expected to reach $6.5 billion by 2023. This means that the number of people shopping with ecommerce platforms in 2019 will double by 2023:

This Statista bar graph shows how global ecommerce is growing, making website translation and localization important.

The biggest ecommerce retailers understand this, which is why you see powerful players investing in web development, creating or modifying websites that deliver a seamless user experience, and doing it all with localization in mind.

Website translation and localization statistics

Don’t just take our word for it. Read some of the localization statistics below to see how localizing positively impacts businesses worldwide.

Localization is more than translation

Today, localization is no longer just a matter of website translation. Localization is now influencing digital marketing and social media marketing; it impacts target audience demographics. Multi-language marketing is a normal part of how businesses appeal to customers worldwide.

And since localization has such a big influence on web design, web development, and even digital marketing, ecommerce platforms shouldn’t neglect it.

Website translation is (and should continue to be) an important part of UX and design plans. After all, localization doesn’t just impact user experience—it has a tangible influence on the revenue, website traffic, brand exposure, etc.

1. More languages equal more visitors

When Neil Patel, the founder of KissMetrics, decided to translate his website into 82 languages, this decision was influenced by an unusual discovery.

He went over the latest internet use statistics, where he found that China and India have more internet users than the U.S. (one and two billion, as opposed to just 300 million).

He started wondering whether website translation was the solution for full traffic optimization. And it was.

Website translation helped him increase traffic by 47%. Web design and web development of an ecommerce platform should be carried out with website translation in mind from the beginning.

Even a small ecommerce startup launched in a bilingual country should have a website available in at least these two languages.

So, if you open your ecommerce startup in the U.S., consider launching your website in English and Spanish. This goes without saying for big ecommerce retailers.

2. Trust and brand perception

There are plenty of websites that aren’t fully translated, but a partial translation is possible only in a limited number of cases, like the translation of certain definitions or measures. But ecommerce websites don’t fall under this category.

Partial translation of a website undermines the trust of the consumers towards the brand and negatively impacts the perception of the brand.

When shopping online, consumers expect ecommerce retailers to provide:

  • high-quality product information
  • easy access to all pages
  • transparent and clear payment information
  • easy-to-use interface

You can invest virtually endless resources in web development and web design, but a lack of website translation will inevitably have a negative impact on your efforts.

Some consumers may forgive the absence of localized product information, but they won’t forgive a lack of clear payment instructions. If someone can’t easily make a purchase from your site, they will leave unhappy.

3. Website translation is in the UX and design code of ethics

With the high availability of translation apps and localization plugins and services, lack of website translation can no longer be excused.

However, you need to be careful with the services you employ to localize your website, since the localization of a website isn’t about word-to-word translation. It’s about making the text linguistically and culturally appropriate.

During web development and web design, you need to take into account that, with some languages, phrases and sentences will take more space on the page due to different length of words and some syntactic differences.

You can see it on the example of Booking.com in English and Hebrew:

Website translation and localization is important, but only if you do it well. This English translation is very different than the Hebrew translation in the Israel locale. Website translation and localization is important, but only if you do it well. This English translation is very different than the Hebrew translation in the Israel locale.

Website localization shares the unstated motto of UX design “Do no harm,” thus occupying a special place in UX and web design code of ethics.

Indeed, the lack of website translation can harm user experience, and you can bet many of those users won’t return.

4. Website translation is an inalienable part of UX and design

We made it clear.

Since there are so many aspects that website translation and localization impact (including user experience, website traffic, and the success of your digital marketing efforts), investing in website translation is a must.

Wrap up

If your ecommerce venue has already reached the international level, make sure you don’t repeat the partial translation mistake—localize fully.

And, if you’re just about to launch your ecommerce startup, do it with website translation and localization in mind, as it has so much impact on your success.

Erica Sunarjo is a translator with more than six years of work experience. She likes to discuss topics related to translation services, content localization, and digital marketing. Apart from working at TheWordPoint, she enjoys reading books, riding horses, and scuba diving.

Do you feel like your emails could use a makeover?

Do you think your subscribers are bored with your campaigns? Or maybe you’re bored with your campaigns.

Either way, it’s important for marketers to remember that trends change—especially design trends.

What looked stunning and modern last year simply won’t cut it today.

8 fresh email design ideas and trends to revitalize your newsletter

In this post, we’ll go over a few tips for sprucing up your email newsletters and campaigns. We’ll also provide some cutting-edge email design ideas to help you grab attention and improve conversions.

Email design tips to keep in mind

Design matters.

Over 70% of your subscribers will delete your email in under three seconds if it doesn’t look right on their device—it doesn’t matter how amazing your copy or coupon is.

Furthermore, another 15% of people will simply unsubscribe from your list entirely rather than deleting the email.

In other words, there’s an 85% chance that you’ll lose out on current and future traffic with just one poorly designed email.

Use these email design ideas to make the most out of every design you create.

Don’t sacrifice accessibility.

Remember, you aren’t designing emails to woo other designers. You’re designing emails to wow your subscribers. If it isn’t completely accessible for everyone, then it isn’t a good email design.

When designing for accessibility, keep these tips in mind:

  • Colors with a nice contrast that are easy to read.
  • Hyperlinks in proper size with decent spacing.
  • Large font sizes and clear typeface.
  • Avoiding flashing GIFs or videos that could induce a seizure or migraine.
  • Plenty of white space and non-justified text.

Mobile always matters.

Over half of all emails are opened on mobile devices, and that number is only expected to keep climbing.

Responsive design is the only way to ensure that your emails always look right on every device. If you don’t use responsive design, you’ll end up creating endless code for each email campaign.

Plus, keep in mind that your subscribers could open your emails on multiple devices: first, on mobile and, later, on a desktop to make a purchase or take action.

Focus on your CTA buttons.

According to the design research experts at Nielsen-Norman Group, people expect CTA buttons to clearly describe what’s on the other side of the link.

Don’t be vague. Phrases like “Get Started” or “Learn More” aren’t enough to build trust with your subscribers. Customers find them misleading—especially when the landing page on the other side isn’t concise.

Instead, use phrases like “Start Shopping” or “RSVP Now” and create landing pages that remove as many clicks and hurdles as possible.

Take your fallback design seriously.

Keep in mind that your carefully crafted email design may not load on your subscriber’s end for many reasons.

Maybe they’re visually impaired and rely on text-based content with voice assistance software. Maybe they don’t want to eat up their monthly data loading images, so they set their email preferences to text-only. Perhaps their email client doesn’t support GIFs, so only the first panel loads.

Regardless, a lot of users rely on your fallback information, such as alt-text, to understand what you’re trying to tell them. Create a seamless and informational experience for every user.

Put your subscribers in control.

Automation and customizable responsive templates make it easy to create and send highly personalized campaigns. Instead of guessing about your subscribers’ preferences, you can just ask them.

Include a link in each email that takes the subscriber to a page where they can adjust their email preferences.

You don’t have to put every design element in their control, but you can ask how often they’d like to hear from you, what type of content they like, and specific design factors you’re unsure about.

Test, test, test.

First, you’ll need to run accessibility tests to ensure that your emails look as intended on every device and email client. Although Gmail and Apple iPhone make up the bulk of the market share, they’re far from the only email clients out there.

Testing and responsive design are more important than ever, as Huawei—the second-largest smartphone manufacturer in the world—prepares to release their new operating system.

Second, you’ll also need to A/B test for user behavior and preferences to see which email design ideas hit and which flop.

Email design ideas and trends to grab attention and convert in 2019

The truth is that users judge your credibility based on your design. You wouldn’t create a landing page with hit counters, right? You should stay up to date on modern email design trends as well.

Integrate these email design ideas and trends into your campaigns to wow your subscribers and create stunning email newsletters that convert.

1. Interactive content

Interactive content doesn’t have to be complex or detailed to encourage action and draw attention. By simply including a few small pieces of interactive content in your emails, you can get your subscribers clicking around.

Customers who engage with your content are 7x more likely to complete a purchase. Plus, marketers say interactive content is 93% effective, compared to static content at 70%.

Adding a small touch and element of suspense like this email from PRETTYLITTLETHING can go a long way.

Adding a small touch and element of suspense like this email from PRETTYLITTLETHING can go a long way.

Source: Really Good Emails

2. Dynamic personalization

What if you could create an algorithm that designed personalized emails in real time?

By integrating with Campaign Monitor, you can set up an automated system that tracks which email design buttons, images, and elements perform best once subscribers start opening your emails.

From there, the system will choose the best-performing elements and create a highly effective design to send the rest of your subscribers before they even open the email.

3. Embrace minimalism.

Minimalism is in. Avoid crowded layouts with flashing images and overlapping elements. Instead, focus your subscribers’ attention on specific areas.

Use a single-column layout. Write concise copy that gets to the point and sparks interest.

Loeffler Randall only included a few words in this email and used delicate graphics to push attention to the copy.

Loeffler Randall only included a few words in this email and used delicate graphics to push attention to the copy.

Source: Pinterest

4. Customized GIFs and APNGs

Custom GIFs are excellent for replacing video in your emails. They load faster and you can embed them directly into your campaigns.

APNGs are even better. They’re higher quality than GIFs, load even faster, and supported by major clients like Gmail.

Use GIFs and APNGs to add a little motion to your emails without the stress of video. Keep in mind that, if your subscribers’ email client doesn’t support GIFs or their connection is slow, they’ll only see the first panel as an image.

5. Gamification

As Amazon found out, gamification isn’t appropriate for every situation. However, when used well, it can add an interesting and engaging element to your email campaigns.

With the right code, you can easily turn your so-so emails into fun games.

UNICEF recently revamped their email design and content to include some gamified campaigns. Despite the serious nature of the content, the gamification isn’t offensive and, instead, draws attention to the issue addressed in the email.

UNICEF recently revamped their email design and content to include some gamified campaigns.

Source: Gmail

6. AMP Landing Pages

You can spend all day making your emails concise, actionable, and accessible—but what happens when your users click the link and land on your site?

Many top email clients like Gmail now support in-email AMP browsing. Instead of waiting for an email browser and landing page to load, users can view the entire page directly within your email.

Emails that include AMP landing pages will load faster and reduce the chances that subscribers will drop out before taking action.

7. Monochrome and gradient emails

On the topic of minimalism, monochrome or gradient color schemes are all the rage. The simplistic colors draw attention to your content. When you limit your color choices, this forces you to get creative with copy, image content, typeface, and contrast as well.

Kettle Obsessions used a monochromatic scheme with this email. Check out the single-color pasted background with high-contrast black text and graphics. Although they used a handful of colors, only one color is displayed per scroll.

Kettle Obsessions used a monochromatic scheme with this email.

Source: Kettle Obsessions

8. Live social feeds

With advances in coding and CSS options, expect to see an increase in live social feeds this year. Integrating your marketing campaigns is crucial for building brand awareness and trust. Marketers need to make it easy for subscribers to connect with them on multiple platforms.

Notice how this Dunkin Donuts email campaign includes embedded social media posts from various platforms to encourage engagement across different channels.

Notice how this Dunkin Donuts email campaign includes embedded social media posts from various platforms to encourage engagement across different channels.

Source: Pinterest

Wrap up

Design trends change constantly. Take a look at our favorite holiday emails from 2009 and see how they compare to something from today.

  • Integrate new design trends that suit your brand and content.
  • Design for accessibility and user-friendliness, not other designers.
  • Run plenty of tests.

Outdated design can actually hurt your brand’s credibility. As marketers and designers, it’s your job to stay on top of email design ideas and trends to create campaigns that convert.

With Campaign Monitor, you can create customized responsive designs with our drag-and-drop editor. Try it for free.

Your brand’s website is your best asset because you own it and algorithms can’t affect or shift it without your consent. You want your website to work for you. In order to add value to your readers’ lives and inspire them to take action, you need to deliver a killing landing page for them.

Here we’ll explain how to design a landing page that does the legwork for you as well as the 12 best landing pages of 2018 that got the job done.

How to design a landing page your audience can’t stop drooling over

Figuring out landing page best practices isn’t rocket science but it definitely takes some work. Different market segments will respond to different aspects and features. It helps to keep a few key points in mind before you get started designing your best landing page.

Put your audience first.

At the end of the day, you want to deliver value to your audience and hopefully inspire them to take some kind of action. That’s why it’s so important to focus on your readers’ pain points as you design your landing page.

Really get inside the head of your audience and make things personal. Run surveys. Analyze email data. Look at which CTAs work on your blog posts.

Once you do that, you can develop amazing landing page designs that put your audience’s needs first. It’s really all about them anyway, right?

Focus on benefits.

No one wants to hear about how amazing your product is. They want to hear about how you can improve their lives.

Just like with product descriptions, it’s important to focus on benefits rather than features when it comes to your landing pages. This will let your audience know that you care about helping them instead of just lining your own pockets.

People’s trust in everything, including brands, has reached all-time lows and they can smell a scam from a mile away. Assume consumers will approach your landing page with a skeptical eye.

Consider your goals.

What are you hoping to achieve from your landing page? Do you want readers to view a product page? Sign up for your email list? Purchase a product?

Put considerable thought into your user’s state of mind when they reach your landing page.

Are they frustrated and searching for immediate solutions? Are they performing research or are they ready to buy?

Meet them halfway with a CTA that anticipates what your consumers want from the interaction and you’ll get much better results. You win and they win.

Don’t be vague.

There should be no confusion about what you’re trying to communicate when your customers reach your page. Devote a new landing page to solving specific problems your audience might have. They’ll be more likely to take action if:

  • The problem is relevant to them.
  • You offer a solution that appeals to them.

Have different pain points to solve? When it comes to landing page best practices, you need a new landing page for each one.

Run A/B tests.

You’re probably not going to get everything right on the first try. That’s totally fine. A big part of understanding how to design a landing page is running A/B tests.

Come up with two different landing page designs that utilize different types of imagery, visuals, words, and color palettes. Keep in mind that people respond to even subtle variances in different ways.

Run one landing page for a week or so depending on your traffic, see how it performs, then run the other landing page. Track your results and you’ll be able to know without a doubt which performs the best.

14 best landing pages of 2018

As a disclaimer, we can’t tell you how these best landing pages of 2018 actually performed but we assume they did pretty well.

Check them out and use them as inspiration for your future designs.

1. Starbucks

Kicking off the list, we have the landing page to sign up for Starbucks Rewards. Note the simple design and subtle use of color. Starbucks gets right to the point with a big and bold CTA. Scrolling down the webpage, visitors can check out some of the benefits if they still aren’t convinced.

landing page for rewards

Source: Starbucks

2. HelloFresh

It’s hard to look at this HelloFresh homepage without signing up. The high-quality graphics do a great job of displaying an average product along with the low price of $6.99 per meal.

Scrolling down, readers can check out how the meal delivery service works and browse their broad range of meal choices.

Image Source: HelloFresh

3. Luxury Retreats

This page from Luxury Retreats incorporates a high-quality image that transports the reader to the destination and makes it easy to instantly sign up. When the reader tabs away, the page provides a popup to sign up for future emails.

Source: Luxury Retreats

4. UNICEF

UNICEF knows that not everyone wants to get involved in the same way. That’s exactly why the organization’s “Take Action” landing page provides readers with opportunities to donate, volunteer, and work with the organization. Even if readers don’t feel compelled to take any concrete action, the end of the page still encourages them to stay in touch by signing up.

take action page

Source: UNICEF

5. Pizza Hut

Pizza Hut’s landing page gets right down to selling with a hot deal and a great image. It’s always a great idea to highlight anything a customer might get for free. The page also provides a big bold button to start your order and browse the menu.

Source: Pizza Hut

6. Casper

While browsing for Casper mattresses, this page offers additional, yet simple, landing pages for various products. Scrolling below, readers can check out various benefits to purchasing a Casper mattress over other brands.

Source: Casper

7. Adidas

This Adidas landing page takes a bold stance by highlighting one specific product with one high-quality image and including an actionable button to shop. Adidas also makes it easy to sign up for their email newsletter without intrusive pop-ups.

Source: Adidas

8. Huawei

This landing page for Huawei’s wearables collection makes it easy to browse high-quality images of their featured products along with key features without clicking over to any additional product pages. The copy is clear and concise, encouraging readers to make a purchase with actionable “buy now” buttons.

Source: Huawei

9. UberEATS

UberEATS doesn’t actually sell food. Instead, they sell a delivery service. Nonetheless, the company understands the importance of using high-quality graphics of food to get your mouth watering. Their service is simple and their landing page reflects that: Get the app and get your food.

Source: UberEATS

10. MeUndies

MeUndies created a subscription service for underwear. They designed a landing page that highlights their products’ killer benefits, i.e. they’re soft and comfortable. The landing page also includes plenty of GIFs to keep readers engaged and scrolling.

Source: MeUndies

11. Thrive Market

A lot of thought went into the design for Thrive Market’s landing page, but you might not realize that from its simplicity.

First, the landing page focuses on benefits so readers understand that Thrive Market can help them live a healthy lifestyle while saving money. Next, it lets readers choose if they’d prefer browsing products by diet or department. To top it off, Thrive Market uses photos of real people which A/B testing shows can encourage click-through rates.

Source: Thrive Market

12. International Committee of the Red Cross

The ICRC does a great job of using photos of real people to form a human connection with their visitors. Highlighting the different locations where they’ve helped allows readers to understand firsthand exactly where their donations are going. The ICRC also provides other landing pages to provide legal support and volunteer opportunities to their readers.

Source: ICRC

Wrap up

Understanding landing page best practices is important, but ultimately, knowing how to design a landing page is all about figuring out what works for your audience. These days, customers expect companies and brands to invest in getting to know them personally. People seek authentic connection everywhere, even in marketing.

You probably won’t get everything right on the first try but by running some A/B tests and listening to your audience, you can create something that inspires your visitors to convert.

Today, we’re excited to introduce two new Live Image Editing tools built with simplicity and speed in mind to give you a powerful live look at your edits as you work in the email builder.

New: Resize tool in Campaign Monitor’s email builder

how to edit images in email - email builder - how to use campaign monitor email builder

Located in the “Edit image” sidebar, you can now use a new Resize slider to make size adjustments to your image and see the new image size live in your email as you work.

The resize adjustments support transparent images and are even remembered as you drag and move the image between columns in your email. We’ve designed the Resize feature with ease of use in mind so you can get the perfect image in your mailing every time.

New! Crop tool in the email builder

how to edit images in email builder

Cropping images now has a brand new experience via the “Edit image” sidebar.

As you crop your image, the email builder transitions to an image cropping workspace giving you a live look into how your cropped image will display in the email—all before clicking OK.

You can also pick specific aspect ratios that keep your images more consistently sized whether they’re a square, landscape, or portrait orientation.

What’s included:

Live inline editing: The live, in-context preview right within the email builder makes it easy to experiment with image edits to get the results you want in a fraction of the time.

Non-destructive edits:

Resizing and cropping is always non-destructive, so you can always revert back to the original image without having to re-upload the image.

Retina-quality images:

All images that have been resized and/or cropped have retina (high definition) support so they look tack sharp on any device.

Transparency support:

Resize and crop transparent images (PNGs) using the new live image editing tools.

Wrap up

We’re so excited to roll out these new editing features—it’s never been easier to build and deliver the caliber of emails your subscribers expect in their inbox.

The new Resize and Crop tools are available today for all Campaign Monitor customers. To learn more about image editing, read our new Image Editing Guide.

In a world of marketing tips and tricks, where do you start? Shane Phair breaks down nine different email practices that you can either start, stop, or keep doing today. The focus of this episode points to what parts of your strategy you should keep doing.

Transcript: 9 Things to Start, Stop, & Keep Doing (Part 3)

A single search about marketing tips will result in thousands of posts. So how are you supposed to know which ones to look at? Let’s distill these tips into a few up-to-date practices that you should start doing, keep doing, or stop altogether.

I’m Shane Phair, Senior VP of Marketing at Campaign Monitor, and this is The Email Minute.

Today, let’s look at 3 things you should keep doing with your email marketing.

So first: keep segmenting whenever possible. Hopefully you’re already segmenting the basics, like demographics. Keep at it, and experiment by segmenting what was clicked, what was purchased, or what actions they took on your website or in your app. After all, segmented campaigns can lead to a 760% increase in revenue. That sounds pretty worth it to me.

Next, keep personalizing. 61% of marketers say they’re personalizing at least one in four emails – but that just means there’s plenty more personalization to go around. Connect your data sources, analyze what you have, and keep giving your subscribers a personalized experience. Your revenue will thank you for it.

Finally, keep designing for phones. Mobile usage is constantly increasing – especially when it comes to reading emails. And this doesn’t just have to do with having a mobile version of your email – make your messages easily scannable on any screen, and you’ll see a major lift in readership and click through.

 


 

Have a question or topic you want covered in The Email Minute? Tweet me @ShanePhair, or add a comment below this post.