The rules concerning email blast ad design have changed drastically. Watch the short (5 min.) video to see how you should approach email blast design today. (You can also see examples of email design here.)

Show Transcript
00:00:02:29 - 00:00:24:29
Hi, this is Gary Ivey from Omega Net. I wanted to take just a few minutes to do a short video about email blasts and how to design them. The rules of spam filters are always changing, so we have to change how we do email blasts. We at Omega Net used to tell you to create your email ad like you were doing a magazine ad, but that's changed big time.

00:00:25:01 - 00:00:49:16
If you send one big image in an email, most spam filters will look at it and say, well, that's obviously an ad and your intended recipient will never see it. That doesn't mean you can't have pictures, but you need to have readable copy text. Basically, the more your email ad is like a personal email that you would send to a friend or coworker, the more likely it will survive the spam filters and get to your recipients.

00:00:49:18 - 00:01:15:20
Today, it's better to have mostly text in your email blast and have a link to your website or a landing page that has all the beautiful photos and fancy fonts you want them to see. Here's a sample layout of a good email ad today. The optimum width of an email ad is 600 pixels. 60% of people view their email on their smartphone, some of which are less than 600 pixels wide.

00:01:15:22 - 00:01:38:00
I will sometimes go up to 700 pixels, but never more. I know that's not very wide, but you don't need a lot of space because you should only be communicating one thing in your email. Add what you want them to do. That may just be to click on a link to go to a landing page or your website login page, but you shouldn't throw the kitchen sink at them in your ad.

00:01:38:02 - 00:01:58:10
People are busy, and the more you try to throw at them, the less likely they are to engage at all. You can have your logo at the top for your first image. It can be linked to your website or a landing page. Below that, you can put your tagline or go right to your headline, which should grab attention and help communicate your offer.

00:01:58:12 - 00:02:22:03
That one thing you are communicating. Then have a beauty shot of your product or something that communicates the need your offer will serve. It can also link to your website or landing page. After that, you could put a paragraph, but a bullet list is better because it can be absorbed more quickly. People are busy and the quicker you can communicate what you want them to know and do, the better.

00:02:22:05 - 00:02:49:08
This should be text, not an image. Also, you can't have HTML text over a background image because most email clients don't display background images. You can have a background color because that can be done in HTML code. And the email clients will display that. What we've talked about so far should be above the fold. That is, they don't have to scroll down to see it because a lot of people won't scroll down at all.

00:02:49:10 - 00:03:10:14
It's very important to include a clear call to action or CTA, like a button that links to your website or your landing page. After that, you can put another photo or two or a photo in a paragraph. But you have to realize many people won't get that far. Then add your contact info for people who want to reach you directly.

00:03:10:16 - 00:03:29:06
I know you designers aren't going to like this, because you want to show your design chops and how beautiful your products can look, but the purpose of the email ad is to get them to click to go to your website where they can see your beautiful slideshow and product images, or to a landing page featuring the specific offer in the email ad.

00:03:29:07 - 00:03:39:18
That's where you can show what a great designer you are. Well, that's all for now. Just wanted to talk about the changes that have taken place in how we need to create email ads.