4 ms·

Why beautiful email templates hurt your business

15 points by gavinballard 13y ago

nathanbarry 13y ago
I actually implement this in MailChimp by choosing their most minimal template, then removing all the extra design stuff. One thing I do like is a max-width on the email so that if opened in a wide browser window the line-length doesn't get too long.
- eli 13y ago
  Outlook doesn't support max-width (naturally). Here's how to do it and also support outlook by using conditional comments: https://gist.github.com/elidickinson/5525752 https://gist.github.com/elidickinson/5525752
bluedino 13y ago
I'd much rather receive an email like the example, showing giftcards that you can redeem, instead of a bunch of text. At least in that case. Am I evil?
- nathanbarry 13y ago
  Ha, no. Gift cards are nice. Though hopefully the text emails teach something valuable. Maybe a typical Best Buy advertisement would have been a better example. Also, (unrelated) you shouldn't redeem your Chase points for gift cards (as shown in that email). $1,000+ international airline tickets are a much better value. :)
  - bluedino 13y ago
    Not if you don't fly internationally ;) I'm also thinking Joe consumer would rather see some big pictures of what's on sale this week, or some new product announcement, instead of having to read
    - johnward 13y ago
      You are "thinking". Split test it and find out for sure.
eli 13y ago
Another thing not mentioned explicitly is that a huge number of emails are opened on mobile devices (some say it's close to 50%). Many of these beautiful, image-heavy email templates look awful on mobile. Edit: And another another thing is that most email clients do not load images by default so many of these beautiful templates look bad or even broken without images. The bottom line is, yes, there are a lot of reasons why a text-heavy message is likely to perform better for you. But, as always, you should test it yourself. It's super easy to A/B test an email message.
imjared 13y ago
"The true problem is that when crafting an email 95% of the time is spent getting the design just right and only 5% is spent on the subject and content." I'm curious what shop you are thinking of that has this kind of time breakdown? I know that in my previous agency (political/non-profit/corporate consulting), the team responsible for emails spent hours and hours working on crafting perfect subject lines and meaningful content. The subject and the content drove the design.
- nathanbarry 13y ago
  That's excellent that your team spent that much time on content. That's how it should be. My experience has been the amateurs do exactly the opposite.
- aalbertson 13y ago
  one could probably reasonably argue that an agency of that type is most likely going to have a larger focus on content as they aren't really "selling" anything, so much as selling their ideas, etc...
mnutt 13y ago
I find the argument compelling, but why do you suppose so many large companies send templates with lots of images? They have easy access to A/B testing, and I imagine if they saw better results with the text-heavy emails they would all switch to them.
- nathanbarry 13y ago
  It's two different kinds of markets. I'm sure those emails work well for big companies that can never hope to have a personal connection with their customers. That's not most of us on Hacker News. For everyone running educational blogs or small SaaS applications you can make all your interactions and training feel much more personal. Though you shouldn't definitely test it.
madoublet 13y ago
Big fan of your work, but here are a few things that raised red flags for me. First, I make my "read" decision based entirely on the sender and subject. If an email gets past that filter, I rarely put much thought into what it looks like. Second, when I see an overly plain email, I tend to associate it with those tricky spammers who try to circumvent filters. So, sometimes seeing a brand is reassuring that it is not spam.
bradleyland 13y ago
Isn't this a testable hypothesis? Also, like many things marketing related, there is no silver bullet. What works for one business/market may not work for another. Long copy selling is a great example. Some people find it works great; others, not so much.
ericclemmons 13y ago
Knocking designed emails has been trending recently, and I don't see that much justification for it. Yes, I prefer text when images aren't warranted, but it seems to me that presentation matters when there are competing contexts in the same message. For example, I just for a response back from a renter on AirBnB. Because of the presentation, I could tell which user it was from, which apartment it was for, exactly what their message was, a helpful hint that I was "pre-approved" and more. Design and layout introduces clarity with content by providing context and relationships. Plain vs Pretty emails are both terrible if done poorly, but I'd argue Pretty can accomplish much more than Plain when done right.

15 points by gavinballard 13y ago

I actually implement this in MailChimp by choosing their most minimal template, then removing all the extra design stuff. One thing I do like is a max-width on the email so that if opened in a wide browser window the line-length doesn't get too long.

eli 13y ago
Outlook doesn't support max-width (naturally). Here's how to do it and also support outlook by using conditional comments: https://gist.github.com/elidickinson/5525752 https://gist.github.com/elidickinson/5525752

bluedino 13y ago

I'd much rather receive an email like the example, showing giftcards that you can redeem, instead of a bunch of text. At least in that case. Am I evil?

nathanbarry 13y ago
Ha, no. Gift cards are nice. Though hopefully the text emails teach something valuable. Maybe a typical Best Buy advertisement would have been a better example. Also, (unrelated) you shouldn't redeem your Chase points for gift cards (as shown in that email). $1,000+ international airline tickets are a much better value. :)
- bluedino 13y ago
  Not if you don't fly internationally ;) I'm also thinking Joe consumer would rather see some big pictures of what's on sale this week, or some new product announcement, instead of having to read
  - johnward 13y ago
    You are "thinking". Split test it and find out for sure.

eli 13y ago

Another thing not mentioned explicitly is that a huge number of emails are opened on mobile devices (some say it's close to 50%). Many of these beautiful, image-heavy email templates look awful on mobile. Edit: And another another thing is that most email clients do not load images by default so many of these beautiful templates look bad or even broken without images. The bottom line is, yes, there are a lot of reasons why a text-heavy message is likely to perform better for you. But, as always, you should test it yourself. It's super easy to A/B test an email message.

imjared 13y ago

"The true problem is that when crafting an email 95% of the time is spent getting the design just right and only 5% is spent on the subject and content." I'm curious what shop you are thinking of that has this kind of time breakdown? I know that in my previous agency (political/non-profit/corporate consulting), the team responsible for emails spent hours and hours working on crafting perfect subject lines and meaningful content. The subject and the content drove the design.

nathanbarry 13y ago
That's excellent that your team spent that much time on content. That's how it should be. My experience has been the amateurs do exactly the opposite.
aalbertson 13y ago
one could probably reasonably argue that an agency of that type is most likely going to have a larger focus on content as they aren't really "selling" anything, so much as selling their ideas, etc...

mnutt 13y ago

I find the argument compelling, but why do you suppose so many large companies send templates with lots of images? They have easy access to A/B testing, and I imagine if they saw better results with the text-heavy emails they would all switch to them.

nathanbarry 13y ago
It's two different kinds of markets. I'm sure those emails work well for big companies that can never hope to have a personal connection with their customers. That's not most of us on Hacker News. For everyone running educational blogs or small SaaS applications you can make all your interactions and training feel much more personal. Though you shouldn't definitely test it.

madoublet 13y ago

Big fan of your work, but here are a few things that raised red flags for me. First, I make my "read" decision based entirely on the sender and subject. If an email gets past that filter, I rarely put much thought into what it looks like. Second, when I see an overly plain email, I tend to associate it with those tricky spammers who try to circumvent filters. So, sometimes seeing a brand is reassuring that it is not spam.

bradleyland 13y ago

Isn't this a testable hypothesis? Also, like many things marketing related, there is no silver bullet. What works for one business/market may not work for another. Long copy selling is a great example. Some people find it works great; others, not so much.

ericclemmons 13y ago

Knocking designed emails has been trending recently, and I don't see that much justification for it. Yes, I prefer text when images aren't warranted, but it seems to me that presentation matters when there are competing contexts in the same message. For example, I just for a response back from a renter on AirBnB. Because of the presentation, I could tell which user it was from, which apartment it was for, exactly what their message was, a helpful hint that I was "pre-approved" and more. Design and layout introduces clarity with content by providing context and relationships. Plain vs Pretty emails are both terrible if done poorly, but I'd argue Pretty can accomplish much more than Plain when done right.