As we move towards the end of 2020, email marketing has become one of the most appreciated channels for marketers. We witnessed technical advances in the form of AMP as well as sparkling creativity this year. Both email developers and email designers are setting new benchmark for brands, and here’s some inspiration for you. In this article, I am going to discuss B2B email design trends to look forward to in the upcoming days. Updating your email marketing strategy is a must as 293.6 billion messages are received every day with the user base continuously expanding. It is also noteworthy that emails are a common link between all internet platforms, and there is no way it’s going to go dead. So buckle up for exploring upcoming B2B email design trends.
Interactive Email Templates
Interactive email templates are no longer new in the market, but their reception is now becoming mainstream. As you are in the B2B industry, most of your subscribers are likely to be technically educated for using interactive elements within emails. This was the problem a couple of years ago since users were not accustomed to using such features. The transition from plain text emails to mobile friendly HTML email templates and now towards interactivity is opening doors to new horizons for marketing strategies. Below is an example of using interactivity for catering better customer experience as the users can click on the idea of the four circles to explore the colour options for their Google Pixel Buds:
The New Inboxes: Switching To Dark Mode
When talking about 2020 for tech, dark mode is surely winning hearts. From website design to mobile apps, everyone seems to love the idea of that screen since it saves them from straining their eyes especially during the night shifts. When talking about aesthetics, dark themes are becoming more preferable over the default light themes. Major email clients, including Gmail and Apple Mail, have already vamped up the support for the dark theme and others are expected to follow soon. You can use hero images and high definition pictures as they go exceptionally well on a dark background. You should also use transparent PNG images for better visibility and go for neon colour schemes for CTA buttons. Here’s a great example from Litmus:
User-Generated Content: Combining Emails With Social Proof
Social proof is fast becoming an essential part of marketing strategies as people find user-generated content as a genuine source of information. You can include user-generated content in your emails targeted towards subscribers in various stages of your sales funnel. For instance, you can send product reviews in cart abandonment emails, and you can harness user reviews in purchase confirmation emails to reinstate the user’s decision. On the other hand, you also need to incorporate surveys and review forms within your emails to source the content. Encouraging your subscribers to be vocal about their likes and dislikes. I recommend incentivizing it to get better results.
Inclusive Email Design: Next Step To Accessibility
Accessibility deals with the technical aspects of your email design while inclusive email design is all about personalizing your messages for various cultural backgrounds and maintaining decency. For example, black colour is used on the occasion of death in many cultures, while people in India and many Asian cultures wear white colour as a symbol of mourning. Using the opposite colours in both cultures can be considered offensive. In the same way, email marketers need to understand the receiver’s culture so that the message is in line with their social norms. You can also hire a language expert if you intend to communicate extensively with your clients residing in foreign locations.
Email Infographics
Infographics are becoming popular as they are more user friendly as compared to text while they consume lesser bandwidth when compared to videos. They come handy when you have to tell a lot of things to your audience within limited space. Email infographics are a great way of describing the product specifications as well as share product reviews in the form of various statistics. You can experiment by combining it with various other design schemes like monochrome to build visually appealing infographics for your emails. Here’s an example from Handy:
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Email marketing is an ever-evolving digital marketing channel and for B2B marketers, this brings in a plethora of opportunities. You can use these brewing trends to your advantage like the dark theme emails will help you stand out among the myriad of white background emails or you can use AMP emails to complement your design with functionalities to surprise your subscribers. This may act as a catalyst for redefining email design philosophies. As we previously discussed, dark theme-based emails will require using transparent PNG images so that the message stays visually appealing. I hope that you find this article on email design trends inside for your future email marketing campaigns.
Author Bio
Kevin George is Head of Marketing at Email Uplers, one of the fastest growing custom email design and coding companies, and specializes in crafting professional email templates, PSD to HTML email conversion and free email templates. He loves gadgets, bikes, jazz and eats and breathes email marketing. He enjoys sharing his insights and thoughts on email marketing best practices on his blog.
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