How Good Design Can Create Effective And Engaging Internal Email

Design Tips for Internal Email Communication

While content may be king – a poorly designed email newsletter template can confuse the message and defeat your campaign goals.

A well-built custom template can be used over and over again to send your message so it is essential that when you design your template you create one that will have immediate impact in the inbox as well as encourage reader engagement, opens and clicks.

Create a high-impact internal email template

Email is and remains a powerful communication channel. By using the right technology, you can move from a text heavy internal email, to a beautiful high-impact internal newsletter design that can be read on any device. By adding personalized content that's targeted to specific subscriber preferences, as well as using embedded media, such as video, you can facilitate immediate two-way conversations and stimulate engagement.

Stand out in the inbox with outstanding internal newsletter design

Highly effective internal newsletter templates must:

• Align to your corporate branding
• Display well on any device
• Be easy to navigate and scan
• Be consistent in tone, look and feel
• Display a hierarchy of content
• Meet your needs, send the right message and speak to your employees.

It is important to get your message across to employees in a timely manner. Not only is the send date important but also how you structure your content. If you have a lot of content, a table of contents and side panel are useful for ease of navigation. Section titles create hierarchy and group relevant articles making it easier for your subscribers to scan and view.

Responsive design

Responsive email design allows your email to respond in real time to the screen size on which it is being viewed. It is built into your template and ideally it creates a seamless user experience across devices. However, not all devices currently support responsive. At the moment the iPhone fully supports responsive while other devices may offer partial support or no support at all.

We’re confident that, in time, this will change. Email designers the world over have been calling for increased responsive support for years and it is looking like Gmail are finally listening. They have pledged to provide support for responsive in the not too distant future...watch this space!

What to consider

Before committing to the investment of a responsive template, take into consideration whether the majority of your subscribers actually view on mobile devices or use devices that support it. It may be better to look into creating a ‘mobile first’ design instead. A mobile first design will be single column in structure and contain certain design styles that will make the most of your content on a smaller screen.

Email Design Trends and Pointers

1. Add comments and ratings to your email to increase engagement and interaction.
2. Use web-safe sans-serif fonts for increased legibility.
3. Increase the font size of your titles and keep summaries short and bite-sized.
4. Allow readers to share articles on social media.
5. Show off your best, most recent photos, infographics and video.
6. Give your content some space to breathe, don’t be afraid of white space.
7. Use colors that reinforce and compliment your brand.
8. Use the survey to gather feedback from readers.
9. Customize your CTAs, don’t just use ‘read more’.
10. Grab attention, stimulate interest and direct towards action - whether it is to read more, watch a video, visit your website or email for more information.

For examples of engaging internal emails from Poppulo customers visit our internal email design showcase page.