Email marketing templates are coded HTML files that have pre-defined elements such as design, layout, content, structure, and styles. Marketers use these templates to create emails by altering them based on their own requirements such as brand guidelines, messaging, images, and styles. In this article, we look at what email marketing templates are, some of the best email marketing templates and design examples to help you create successful email campaigns.
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An average person is reported to receive about 88 emails per day, making it absolutely essential for email marketers to create email campaigns that stand out. And although email marketing is a cost-effective channel to connect with prospects and customers as well as to generate maximum return on investment (ROI), building new email designs that are creative, engaging, and concise, can be a challenge. This is where proven, effective, pre-designed email marketing templates come in.
What Are Email Marketing Templates?
Email marketing templates are HTML files coded with specific designs, layouts, structures, and styles, that can be easily edited. They are also tested for rendering on most devices and email servers, ensuring higher deliverability rates and minimum errors. Marketers can use these templates by simply adding email copy, images, logos, and headers and footers as required.
Email marketing templates are a great way for marketing teams to save time and resources while building creative and engaging emails. Before we look at the top 10 inspiring email marketing templates and designs for your campaigns, let’s go over the best practices in building email templates.
Learn More: What Is Email Marketing? Definition, Tips, Best Practices, Benefits, and Examples
What Are the Best Practices in Building Email Templates?
Although you need to be bold and creative while designing your emails, it’s necessary to follow certain best practices to get optimum results from your email campaigns. We have curated a few best practices that you must follow while building an email marketing template or design.
1. Follow CAN SPAM compliance
One of the most important practices while designing your emails is to adhere to the CAN SPAM regulations. The ‘Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act’ of 2003 defines clear rules to follow while sending out mass emails, which include identifying your message as an ad, mentioning the company’s physical address, providing an unsubscription link, and avoiding spam by sending irrelevant promotional content.
2. Optimize Your Email for Brand Building
Optimizing your email designs to promote your brand is a good branding exercise. Make sure to include your company logo in the header as well as the footer of your email template. You can also include other brand elements such as colors, fonts, styles, icons, etc. to emphasize your branding.
3. Test Your Email
Email templates are coded HTML files, which may render differently across devices. There can be issues with the code, layout, structure, or even the content, which is why you must test it before executing your campaign.
4. Use Simple Layouts
While email templates allow you to be as creative as you can, it is always a good practice to opt for those with simpler layouts. Complex structures with multiple grids can create issues such as code rendering errors, complicated design, and just a bad user experience. Choose email layouts that are simple, visually appealing, and convey the right message.
5. Add Alt Text
Email templates contain multiple elements in image formats, such as logos, headers, footers, and promotional images. But in some cases, even though the email is delivered, technologies like ad blockers and spam filters may stop your image from loading in your prospects’ server. The best way to avoid a bad email experience to your users is to add a relevant alternate text which shows up in case your image does not load.
6. Optimize for all Devices Including Wearables
While mobile optimization has become imperative for marketers when it comes to digital content, they also need to keep in mind that emails are accessible even on wearable gadgets such as Apple and Android watches. Make sure your email is optimized to render perfectly on every digital device possible. This guarantees maximum output on your email marketing campaigns.
Learn More: 5 B2B Email Marketing Best Practices You Can’t Afford to Miss
Top 10 Email Marketing Templates and Designs You Need to Try
We all need a little inspiration to come up with creative and engaging email marketing campaigns. Let’s look at the top ten email marketing templates and designs to help create your next successful email campaign.
1. InVision
Example of InVision’s Newsletter
InVision is a product design platform that helps designers build better user experience. And that is what they provide to their email subscribers – a clean, sleek, and modern template design that’s attractive as well as engaging.
InVision’s marketing team makes their emails interactive with the use of creative illustrations and humorous GIFs. The email copy and the call-to-actions are brief, concise, and easy to read.
Get inspired by the use of a seamless layout and visible CTA buttons used by InVision to capture the attention of users. The template also includes social sharing icons below the footer to improve sharing opportunities. Use this email template to promote your content to your subscribers through a weekly newsletter and increase click through rates.
2. Instapage
Example of Instapage’s Email Template
Instapage is an adtech platform that helps advertisers optimize their ROI by optimizing ad spends with solutions like ad automation, personalization, landing pages, social media ads, and e-commerce sales. Instapage hosts an informative blog that publishes new content every day, which is promoted through their simple, yet engaging email designs.
This email template is ideal to promote a single piece of content, such as blogs, case studies, white papers, or infographics. As you can see below, the design has minimum distractions, with a primary focus on the email headline, a relevant image, and a brief summary of the content.
What follows the brief summary is a very compelling call to action (CTA) button. The design flow of this template ensures that the reader is compelled to click on the button to find out more.
Example of Instapage’s CTA Button and Footer
The postscript in the footer also promotes the podcast hosted by Instapage on iTunes, Google Play, and email, which is a great example of subtle content promotion.
The template also adheres to the best practices of email design, such as the logo in the header, a footer with an unsubscription link, and the physical address of the company.
Consider using a simple yet focused email marketing template while promoting your next blog to ensure maximum visitors reach your landing page.
3. Grammarly
Grammarly’s Newsletter Format
Want to promote a discount offer on your product through email campaigns? Take a look at this brilliant email template by Grammarly.
This email template is a perfect example of a promotional email for product subscriptions. It has a clear and crisp headline, summarized email copy, highlighted call to action button, and a GIF image to create a visually appealing email design.
What we admire most in this email is the inclusion of the list of product features with a comparison between the free and paid versions. This helps prospects gain a clear understanding of the benefits offered by the paid version of the product.
The email footer is complete with social sharing buttons, the company address, an unsubscription link, and a clear explanation about why the user is receiving the email. The clean and simple font only adds to the beauty of this email marketing template.
4. Sweetgreen
Sweetgreen is an American fast-food chain that serves salads and inspires healthier communities. Apart from serving delicious healthy food, the company also builds beautiful, attractive, and engaging email templates.
Take a look at this email marketing template by Sweetgreen featuring the launch of its summer product line of salads. The email design has correctly captured the essence of the products through images, and the complementing theme of green in the background only adds to the effectiveness of this email template.
Sweetgreen’s Newsletter Featuring Its Summer Product Launch
Incorporate your content into this template to highlight your product features and add your brand colors to the background to promote your next product launch.
5. J. Crew
Never underestimate the power of a high definition image. Take a look at this email template by J. Crew, which has almost no email copy, because all the attention goes directly to the high definition image of an ice cream cone. The headline compliments the curiosity of prospects with a simple actionable statement – This is worth the scroll.
Example of J. Crew’s This Is Worth the Scroll Email Campaign
The tip of the cone at the end of the image leads to the call to action, that ultimately leads users to a landing page.
This template is a classic example of minimal design, where you can explore all your creative thoughts. Use this email template to promote the next upgrade of your product with an affirmative statement and a high definition image.
6. BHLDN
BHLDN, an American women’s clothing retailer, can do more than wedding dresses, bridal accessories, and bridesmaid outfits. The retail company has come up with a creative idea to promote their bridal services through email campaigns.
Take a look at this email design that features a step-by-step guideline for brides to have an enjoyable bridal shopping experience. The use of subtle humor with the right call to actions makes this template a perfect example of product guideline promotions.
Example of BHLDN’s Step-By-Step Email Campaign
Make the most of this email template to promote product guidelines or show how easy it is to use a product or service to new users via email campaigns.
7. Groove
Groove is a customer support enhancing product company that offers solutions like shared inbox, knowledge base, reports, and integrations. And while we look for simple yet impactful email designs, Groove has nailed email marketing templates with these qualities.
Take a look at Groove’s short and sweet email design that primarily focuses on a content piece about customer testimonials. The email is an HTML template but almost feels like a personalized email with minimum email elements.
Example of Groove’s Email Campaign
The minimal use of brand colors, a postscript, and a casual signature only add to the sophisticated approach for subtle email promotion. Also, if you look closely, the outline of the email is in the shape of a chat message. Simple details like these create a great impact on the email campaign results.
8. Kate Spade
Are you conducting an email survey to measure the customer satisfaction on your product or service? Use this email marketing template to guarantee maximum survey responses.
Example of Kate Spade’s Survey Template
Kate Spade, a luxury fashion brand, knows how to engage their audience by asking a genuine question. The email template uses a large font to catch the reader’s attention and offers a reward to ensure the reader completes the required action. All this on a bright background with emojis in the font type to keep it casual. This makes it a perfect sample for survey templates.
9. AYR
AYR (All Year Round), another women’s fashion apparel company, knows how to use the dark theme in their email campaigns, which is currently a trend in design.
AYR uses a black theme to promote their Black Friday offers through email campaigns. As you can see, this email template also uses a minimalistic design approach. It has a clear and easily understandable headline, with a compelling call to action.
Example of AYR’s Solid Color Template
The focused high definition image adds to the impact of the visual appeal. Use this email template to promote your next festive offer. If you are not keen on the color black, you can always use another solid color instead.
10.Zapier
As marketers, you want to be as creative as you can when conveying your message to your audience through emails, but you also need to give users what they want – simple, useful, educating, and informative content. And that is precisely what Zapier does with this email template.
Example of Zapier’s Informative Template
The email directly addresses the prospect with a list of the top ten content pieces published by Zapier over a period of time. The headline guarantees a higher engagement rate on the email, whereas the bullets ensure a high click-rate on the hyperlinks to blogs.
Use this email template to summarize a list of your content at the end of this year and promote it to your prospects with a simple email design.
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Parting Thoughts
Email Marketing Templates are a source of inspiration and creativity for marketers. They are easily available for free on multiple email marketing tools, where you can add to it or make alterations too. Make the best out of these templates and designs to enhance your email marketing experience.
Have you discovered any more creative email marketing templates or designs? Let us know on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.