Today's email design creative spotlight is on the redesign of HP's Tech at Work newsletter. One of the goals of this email design was to lend a fun and engaging editorial quality to the email newsletter.  We started by making... More

Today's email design creative spotlight is on the redesign of HP's Tech at Work newsletter. One of the goals of this email design was to lend a fun and engaging editorial quality to the email newsletter.  We started by making the content larger and adding a new social section that incorporated timely content from Facebook and Twitter. For flexibility, we ensured we had a mobile-ready layout and went with single-column stacked sections. These revamp efforts would not have been possible without the help of our Partners at HP. As Scott Seiter, Designer at Yesmail said, 'One of the best B2B tech newsletters out there, HP pushed us to innovate!'


There were 3 main elements we added to HP's newsletter to achieve the engaging editorial style:

The Personalized Greeting from the editor was an easy way to give newsletter content a  human touch--a quality that goes a long way when competing with the barrage of retail messages and inbox noise.

The Jargon Watch section featured interesting industry terms and their definitions, and appeared as a kind of Easter egg item(aka fun surprise) near the end of the newsletter. This fun-yet-informative content gave readers something to look forward to, adding yet another incentive to open each month.

The Social Hub allowed for the integration of video and image posts from HP's Facebook page and tweets from Twitter, giving the tech giant a great opportunity to keep newsletter content fresh, current, and aligned with its social marketing channels.

So what do you think about this design, what do you like or what would you recommend? What newsletters have you seen that stand out in your inbox?

Want more inspiration? Be sure to check out our Email Design Look Book 2012 for more creative email inspiration. Less

Yesterday afternoon the Yesmail Creative Services team detected that a major change had just occurred within the Hotmail system.  The Windows Live Hotmail email platform had begun replacing specific ASCII symbols within the HTML and subject lines of the messages... More

Yesterday afternoon the Yesmail Creative Services team detected that a major change had just occurred within the Hotmail system.  The Windows Live Hotmail email platform had begun replacing specific ASCII symbols within the HTML and subject lines of the messages within your Hotmail email account. 

What are these ASCII characters being replaced with? Well, they are being replaced with a standard Hotmail image gif of the symbol you originally tried to type in your email creative.  The issue here is that these images display these characters in one size and one font, and this standard size and font are not set to match the size and font you used within your email.  The specific characters Hotmail is targeting and swapping out here are "©", "®", and "™" along with the spade(♠), club (♣), heart (♥) and diamond (♦).

The main issue here is the fact that these standard images stick out like sore thumbs within your Hotmail account, and they break the look of any text font or color branding a corporation uses when creating their emails.  If your email contains one of these characters within the subject line, then again these images are swapped in.

The source code of your message within the Hotmail interface will now have new HTML code embedded where your Copyright and Registered trademarks were: "http://gfx2.hotmail.com/mail/w4/pr04/ltr/emoji/emoji_000A9.gif"

The Yesmail Deliverability Team jumped in to investigate and spent several hours on the phone with the Microsoft Central Support team discussing this issue.  As it turned out, we ended up informing them that this issue was occurring within their platform.  This was especially concerning on their end as we showed them that even Microsoft's own marketing emails are showcasing this image swap, and their own branded look has been broken.  The example below is from a Microsoft XBOX marketing message:


As this problem still persists currently, we will be continuing to work with them today to understand what type of change occurred within their system, and if they will choose to roll it back, or push it forward as a new rendering standard.  For the time being, the Yesmail Creative team is replacing these symbols with either custom images that match the font face, size, color and background of your message or a simple text version within parenthesis e.g. (TM)(C)(R) etc.  This will easily help maintain the consistency and branding of your message creative until the issue is resolved. Less

Staying inspired is a tough, but surmountable challenge for creatives in the commercial world. We strive to continue innovation and end up with pride in our work, that's why we do it.That tired adage, "thinking outside the box" often comes... More

Staying inspired is a tough, but surmountable challenge for creatives in the commercial world. We strive to continue innovation and end up with pride in our work, that's why we do it.

That tired adage, "thinking outside the box" often comes to mind, but the reality is sometimes you need to just get out, see something different; go to a dive bar, go play bocce, chum it up with some old friends - really just jar your reality and get out of your comfort zone for a bit. Sitting at your desk in front of a computer doesn't do squat for creativity, and more times than not the narrow, yet admittedly glorious content we can chuckle at on the interwebs will struggle to help us either. And try telling your team you're doing this in the middle of the day, so kindly buzz off and see how that goes.

Rushing creative inevitably ends up with a crappy product. You gotta let the cake bake.

It's not just the "creatives" who should be inspired, but our friends in accounts, operations, and those finance... people (well, I think). Take this amazing study on visualization, where people were told to imagine themselves as kids, and then tasked to create ideas. They came up with significantly more ideas than if they were in their same old shoes. Amazing.

So every now and again, do something different to inspire your creative juices, skip your adulthood a bit and go play. Because that's what will bring you back to work every day and help you continue to bust out some quality product. Less

It almost goes without saying that email designers are denizens of a digital world. Everything is created on a computer, with pixels and code, powered by zeroes and ones. But before firing up Photoshop or an HTML editor there's an... More

It almost goes without saying that email designers are denizens of a digital world. Everything is created on a computer, with pixels and code, powered by zeroes and ones.

But before firing up Photoshop or an HTML editor there's an important(and to some a less glorious)stage of the design process that is often forgotten with so much abundant, cool and down right useful technology available to us - the planning and sketching phase.

Yes even email design is not completely separated from the physical world. At least not when you're doing it right. Not only is it a great way to sort out design problems with rapid prototyping, something about putting a physical pen to paper has a way of activating a chunk of the creative brain that can lie dormant when gripping a mouse (or in my case a digital pen) and manipulating elements on a glowing screen.

Sketching lets you explore ideas in greater depth, going beyond the initial, more obvious solutions into more innovative concepts. You can also take a sketchbook anywhere and be inspired by different environments. And you don't have to worry about battery life or finding an outlet. It can also help you really understand what you're designing on a deeper level, giving you a better understanding of the elements in your design and why you used them. This can really help when it comes time to explain to the client what you are presenting to them and defend it more effectively.

So to anyone who's not already doing it, get out from behind that screen and draw it out first! Less

Just as the Web has become a more enriched marketing channel with the advent of HTML5, email design has done some growing up lately. As new web technology & strategies become supported across email platforms, retailers are leaning more heavily... More

Just as the Web has become a more enriched marketing channel with the advent of HTML5, email design has done some growing up lately. As new web technology & strategies become supported across email platforms, retailers are leaning more heavily on email to connect cross-channel campaigns. For the marketer this increased engagement can translate to more conversions - for the audience it can mean inbox overload.

The call-to-action for email marketing is clear: make an impact & do it fast. Your message has a few fleeting seconds to stand apart from the rest of the inbox. If you blend in with just another sale on area rugs... straight to the trash can.

Technology is at our disposal & there's an encyclopedia's worth of email best practices out there; why are we still designing image-based layouts? While you do have total aesthetic control over the layout, you forfeit that control at the most crucial moment: first impression in the inbox.

Typical look at an image-based layout prior to loading the images:
Unless your subject line is a home run, the question mark boxes & alt tags probably won't encourage many click-throughs. The simple remedy is an integration of images & HTML text. With hybrid layouts it's possible to engage your audience even before they decide to load the images.

Good example of a hybrid layout:
To take one step further away from the trash bin, give the audience a reason to come back. Cutting a bit of entertainment in with your commerce goes a long way. On a daily basis I condemn emails to the trash without even glancing, simply based on the sender. Those marketers have trained me to that reaction by constantly trying to sell something without giving me anything else. The inbox victors have earned my attention by providing rewarding content along with the spiels.

A favorite for value-added content:
As email professionals we know there's a finger hovering over the delete button the second our product hits the inbox. This can serve to lull you into complacency or it can get those neurons popping in your right brain. The tools are out there... it's time to start making better emails. Less

Weekly creative email design series focusing on email marketing design best practices. This week we highlight Intel's 'Micro-Target' More

It's Friday, and here at Yesmail that can only mean one thing - Email Design Creative Spotlight! If this is your first visit and you want more (and of course you do), be sure to check out all of our posts on email design conveniently located in the email design section of our blog.  We continue our weekly tradition with the goal to get YOU involved with our email creative services team by showcasing another great email marketing campaign, this time developed for Intel.

So let's breakdown this week's featured email from Intel's 'Micro-Target' campaign.  Intel needed members of their Software Partner Program to download and run the Intel Power Checker - a tool that provides feedback on the efficiency of their software code. In order to incite the audience to action, we wanted to create a simple, yet-powerful layout that successfully engaged the audience. As Jack Satta, Sr. Designer at Yesmail states, "Even with images-off, this layout stands out in a crowded house.'

After we got the layout where we liked it, our next focus was to explain the concept in 3 easy steps while relating it to the correct audience segment. In order to do this we broke the campaign out into 4 distinct segments and tailored the copy and imagery to each one to encourage interaction. The result was the following:

There were 5 major components of Email Design the creative team focused on in order to make this project a success:

1. Short and Large Type
In order to stand out we used short shout-outs with large type to grab the reader's attention. The end result is a shorter, more meaningful, and scannable message that's easily digestable. Keeping this in HTML text allowed for the message to be readable with images off while maintaining the same impact.

2. Easily-defined Call to Action
We love clear-to-click buttons. After reading the headline (and possibly the copy) people should be guided to where to go next. The Call to Action becomes stronger and more effective when it is directly related and relevant to the next step outlined in the email. ("List for FREE" vs. "Read more")

3. Clean Layout
Within this design system we are able to group relevant items and use a clear hierarchy of design to make the message flow. (Postcard (includes headline and call-to-action), followed by tips and navigation)

4. Swappable Art and Copy Areas
The art along the sides, the email copy and the differing tips were easily swapped out when used in correlation with targeting.

5. Standard Header and Footer
For consistency and reiterative brand-recognition (and general aggregate clicks), we always recommend navigation that is not intrusive. It drives click-throughs to the website (or social channels) and gives the audience the ability to engage with Intel through multiple channels.

So what do you think about this micro-targeted design and campaign, what stood out to you? What didn't?

Want more email design? Be sure to check out our Email Design Look Book 2012 for more creative email inspiration.
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Design Evolution - Punk rock posters redesigned for clarity, readability, and impact. More

This week: Email Design vs. Punk Rock

In Portland, you can't throw a rock without hitting a fan of underground music: It seems like everyone plays in a band, blogs about bands, or goes to shows on a regular basis.

It also seems like most of these people are designers.

I happened across this website last month that combines both of these worlds. Swissted.com is run by a designer from NYC (Brooklyn is the east-coast Portland) who has redesigned classic (and not so classic) punk rock show flyers by applying the design aesthetics of Swiss Modernism.

It's interesting in that typical (old-school) punk flyers are often examples of what-not-to-do in design (especially in the limited space of email design): a messy melange of fonts applied in ransom-note haphazardness, torn and photocopied imagery, and complete disregard for whitespace and balance.

On Swissted.com, the messy originals are replaced with clean, geometric, and pristinely-neat versions that would nicely compliment your Eames lounge chair. (And hey, you can even order prints...)

Case in point, here is an example of a typical early '80s Dead Kennedys flyer:
Now look at a Swissted's take on a couple Dead Kennedys posters:


What the new versions lack in integrity, they make up for in clarity, readability, and impact (and which version would you rather hang up in your living room?).

Be sure to check out Swissted.com for lots of great examples from shows I wish I'd been able to attend.
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Weekly creative email design series focusing on email marketing design best practices. This week's focus is AT&T newsletter. More

Here we are at Week 4 of our Fun Friday Email Design Creative Spotlight and the creative mojo continues to flow. If you haven't read our first 3 posts on email design yet, be sure to check them out in the email design section of our blog.  As always our goal in this weekly series is to get YOU involved with our email creative services team and showcase successful designs that will hopefully inform and inspire your email marketing efforts.   

This week's spotlight is on the creative redesign of AT&T's email newsletter 'AT&T Mobile Connection.' The goal of the redesign was to make a large, multi-section newsletter that was easier to scan and click through. The Ringtone Downloads section was already a strong performer in the old newsletter design. In order to enhance this winning feature, our team added artist images and play buttons to make the Ringtone Downloads section more interactive. The change boasted a 10% increase in click-throughs.  Mike Scully, Sr. Designer at Yesmail explains the rationale behind his redesign ideas, "I like how the subtle grey border cleans up the sections, but adds whitespace to make it feel light and bright." Less

This week: A Little Art Goes a Long WayLast week I went to the Portland Art Museum to see the retrospective of Mark Rothko. Funny the things we see and relate to depending on where we are in our lives.... More

This week: A Little Art Goes a Long Way

Last week I went to the Portland Art Museum to see the retrospective of Mark Rothko. Funny the things we see and relate to depending on where we are in our lives. I have seen a few Rothko shows at other museums over the years, so it's interesting what resonated with me when viewing a Rothko last week.

I currently work on the Coca-Cola creative email marketing program and last year we redesigned the My Coke Rewards (MCR) email template to a mobile-friendly version, meaning 1 design template that displays beautifully on the browser and scales down perfectly to a mobile device. We do this by designing the template with more generous margins, larger fonts, all HTML text and minimal text. Every article is held within its own container, clearly delineated from the next. Check out the Rothko sample next to the MCR newsletter.


Both have single columns, clearly delineated containers and nice wide margins so things don't get messy and run together. Inspiration and ideas come from everywhere and anywhere but it doesn't hurt to go to the masters to glean some ideas from time to time.

What has inspired you over the last week? Less

Weekly creative email design series focusing on email marketing design best practices. This week is eBay Sellers focused. More

Welcome to the 3rd edition of our weekly Fun Friday Email Design Creative Spotlight. If you haven't read the first 2, be sure to check them out here creative email design eBay and here creative email design 'My Coke Rewards'. As always our goal is to get YOU involved with the email creative services team and get the conversation going about what designs inspire you, call you to action, or prompt you to click that dreadful "unsubscribe" button.  Please, share your thoughts.

Alright, enough with the fluffy stuff, let's shine the spotlight on this week's email design, something we developed for eBay as a part of their 'Seller Achievements' program. The idea behind these segmented email messages was to congratulate all of the active sellers on eBay once they've reached a designated milestone.

We know that thanking users through email is a great way to engage with them, so layouts reflected an über-positive, trophy-like look and feel. As Jack Satta, Sr. Designer at Yesmail said, "We wanted to shout YOU'RE THE BEST to their most active users. Like a big, warm ray of sunshine."

The milestones varied and were bucketed into 5 different categories:

• Receiving a 5-star rating
• Longevity of membership  
• Receiving positive feedback
• Having a certain success rate (sales record)
• Reaching a certain number of listings made

We wanted to focus on 4 Key Areas of Email Design for this project:

1. Bright, friendly
In order to stand out, we chose eBay's bright color palette for this series. The messaging was also large and congratulatory to evoke friendliness and accomplishment.

2. Certificate-like feel
People often print these notices, so it was important for us to design them in a way that works beautifully on the printed surface, and even more so, on a computer screen.

3. Variations for subtle changes in achievements
To avoid the "I've-seen-this-email" response (and the dreaded delete), we changed up some of the subtle details and messaging.

4. Stackable and swappable tip sections
Since the seller tips varied in relevance based on the recipient and type of category he/she belongs to, they were treated like modules in order to make the content more flexible and easily added in or swapped out.

So now we want to hear what you think about this design, what do you like or what would you recommend? How do you use saying 'Thank You' in your email campaigns?

Want more email design? Be sure to check out our Email Design Look Book 2012 for more creative email inspiration.

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