Think about image blocking and other technical constraints The vast majority of email clients will block images from displaying. The result of this is it may not be clear what the content of the email is and
the aesthetics of your email are damaged. When designing your email think what it would look like without any images - does it still make any sense? Where possible use text instead of images.

In addition encourage users to add your email address to the address book as this will mean all images will be displayed.

Apart from image blocking you also have to consider limitations of email clients at displaying HTML. Stick to pure HTML and basic CSS rather than using anything like Javascript or Flash. Then make sure you test it in each of the major email clients you send to. Maxemail enables you to preview what the message will look like in each email client as part of its Inbox Preview feature, including what image blocking does to your creative.

Layout & structure

The top of the email is always the most important part. This is what people will see first and if this does not engage with them then they will not read on. All click-thru evidence shows that more clicks occur at the top of the email than anywhere else.

If you have a long email think About using a navigation system to enable recipients to jump down to the relevant part of the message.

The other main thing to think about is how people will read the email. No-one reads emails word for word but they scan the email. Assist them in doing this by using white space and different colours.

Branding

Keep the branding as similar to the website as possible as it is always important for customers to recognise who has sent the email.

It is also important to leave your emails clean and uncluttered. Failure to do so will again make it difficult to scan.

Also ensure that the look and feel of the email sets the right tone. If the email is a B2B informational newsletter you will want a more professional feel than a B2C promotion to teenagers.