There seem to be more and more highly designed, image heavy emails coming out, and the following emails make a stunning job of it. We are forming quite the collection of well-designed emails at this end and thought we would share some of our collection with you.

1: Fancy 

This email is from Fancy. It takes the concept of Pinterest, where it lets you find and like images of things you like, and takes it one step further, by linking to where you can actually buy the item instead of simply admiring it from your chair.

I have been on the site for a few months now, and every week they send me a stunning email, dressed top to bottom with rows of the most arty, delicious, affronting, and outstanding images and products I have seen anywhere. I love the design because they are such an image heavy site, and their email reflects this. It’s basically a series of rows of images, only broken by a minimal amount of copy. There is nothing to clutter the top of the email such as an intro/contents/links or any shiny buttons or call to actions. It’s clean and simple, and really we know they know that we are all here to see the images. It’s also so compelling because you can’t help but be drawn down to see the next image… and the next…. before you know it you are at the bottom clicking on their ‘check out what else is new’ link…

Click here or on the image to view the full email.

2: American Apparel

This month’s email example is a highly designed newsletter from American Apparel.

Why did it stand out?

It is very simple, with a clean, bold design and is very image heavy.

Visually, they have their call to action at the top right corner, which means people can click to see more and are not required to scroll.  All the images are the same size and all line up perfectly which both great design-wise, and the bold images and straight lines really appeal to the eye. Each image is also a call to action, taking the recipient to their campaign online. And I found that because the images take up the whole email, I found it was hard not to click on at least a couple of images. Also having a variety of bold images like that gives people a lot to look at and take in, and I found myself drawn to look at every image from top to bottom.

Copy wise, the heading is large, and self-explanatory, and it matches the bold simple nature of the email. The little bit of copy they do have is at the bottom; however I think it works for this email. It is also easily and quickly digestible, but it still manages to tell the reader about American Apparel, and about their campaign.

Click here or on the image to see the full version. And then tell us what do you like about this campaign!
I challenge you to find more visually compelling and outstanding image-heavy emails than these. Please, go ahead. If you find any, let me know.

I know we talk a lot about following best practice, about not having emails that are too long, and not sending image heavy emails, but sometimes it’s good to innovative to go against the rules and do something unique and truly creative. So we provide to you, the following two examples, as examples of how to break the rules in the right way.

This promo email for a new 14 story high water slide at Brazilian water park Beach Park is a prime example of this, and boy does it breaks all the rules. (Click on the image to see the full version of this email)

It weighs in at a hefty megabyte, and it’s 12,000 pixels high, so i’t s lonnnnnnnng and requires people to scroll a long way, and it’s 100% image based, but for this campaign it works. Because it is a unique campaign, a one off promo, for something really crazy and fun. Also it might have something to do with the fact that as you scroll down you get to experience going down a 14story high slide yourself first hand – a bit dizzying I must say. But I scrolled back up and went down the slide 2 more times, so it obviously did the trick!

For our second example it is a great email campaign that Chad White over at Retail Email Blog recently posted about. This campaign also breaks all the rules, but it does it in style, and as a result it really stands out from the crowd. (Click on the image below to see the full version of this email)

This Brooks Brothers email campaign features a huge stack of polo shirts, about 40 of them in fact, in every imaginable color, and presents this stack of shirts as a box set. It goes against the usual ‘best practice’ rules, but in breaking the rules it makes it point. It shows the variety of it’s products, it appeals with humor, and it compels people scroll right to the bottom of the ‘everlasting stack of Polo shirts’ which I found pretty entertaining.

There’s also a lesson here about the way we think everything needs to be above the fold. I have seen a few campaigns doing recently. Instead of packing the top area with call to actions, links, and big shiny buttons, it actually draws you in and compels you to scroll right to the bottom….where you find the call to action. Surprise!

So if you have a concept you want to get across, or just want to create an email that’s out of the box, look to the water slide email, and the polo shirt email, as outstanding examples of how to do it right.

Soul Bar’s emails are always well designed; however this one was particularly great so I wanted to share this one with you.

I am not sure what appealed to me more – the color palette or the lure of wine and Tahiti?

Besides the exclusive luxurious competition offer that immediately appeals, the design is clean and simple, and the copy is brief. Both are standard for a promotional email such as this – so remember these elements when you design your next promo email.

I have just suggestion for improvement. The main image could have served well as a call to action. I actually clicked on it a couple of times however nothing happened and it took me a few seconds to find the tiny ‘book now’ in the bottom right hand corner.

Why does this matter? We generally recommend clients link from images as well, as we find that images are generally links and people know this, and they tend to click on images – so use this fact and take advantage of all possible call to actions you can.

Besides this one thing, this is a fantastic example of a great promotional email.

The email you send to welcome a new subscriber or customer is always the most read email you will ever send.

You will never send an email that is read more eagerly than the welcome email.

The welcome email is the most powerful chance you have to achieve every marketers goal of ‘customer engagement’.  Yes, I am being slightly monotone and repetitive – I’m aiming for a hypnosis effect so it gets in!

Because this email is so very important, it is the time when you should concentrate on these key aims:

• Set the tone of your ‘voice’
• Establish the terms and boundaries of your ongoing relationship
• Brief your newbie so they can anticipate your next move(s)
• Instill confidence and build credibility
• Take the newbie by the hand and ease them over towards your end goal
• Request no more than one action, but draw attention to other possibilities in the future

I’m going to look at each of these parts of the Welcome Email, and then I’ll post some examples of welcome emails that get it right.

Set the tone of your ‘voice’

Use the genuine voice of your company, some personality is preferable.  Don’t be too folksy though, this welcome is setting the tone of how your emails, your website, your call centre, and your bricks’n'mortar presence should sound.  In fact I think you should forget about ‘single view of the customer’ until you have established a single ‘tone’ of your organisation.

Establish the terms and boundaries of your ongoing relationship

Make it clear what they have registered for, and how you will use that permission.  Plain english works well here. One of the most comforting things is a phrase such as ‘we will never, ever, share your details with anyone else, or use them for any other purpose other than what you have asked for’.

Brief your newbie so they can anticipate your next move(s)

Seth Godim said it best 10 years ago: ‘Great email is personal, relevant and anticipated’.  Anticipation is key.  No one wants a rude surprise.  Every single email is greeted with a thought process that goes something like this ‘who are you, and why are you sending me this’.   Setting up the terms, and the anticiaption means that the path is clear for you to deliver the goods, and grow that permission, to paraphrase Seth again ‘from stranger, to friend, to customer, to advocate’.

Instill confidence and build credibility

If you are good at something, now is the time to quietly reinforce that. Link to testimonials and awards, use language which makes it clear they have done the deal with just the right kind of people.

Take the newbie by the hand and ease them over towards your end goal

You might like to reinforce what it is that you aim for, in line with your overarching goals for this person.  Do you want them to buy something? Offer a time limited coupon or offer.  Do you want them to advocate for you?  Give them the tools to share to their social networks or refer a friend.  And so on.

Request no more than one action, but draw attention to other possibilities in the future

If you need them to do something, remember this is DM!  Ask for it and make the action, simple, obvious and easy.  If you just want them to look around your website, or sit tight and wait for the next stage of your program, then make it clear that they can do that and entice them with some ‘easy’ steps they can take to view your content, for example.

We have written other posts on Welcome emails in the past, you will find other ideas here:

Underground tips for us – Hall of Fame (a great welcome email example)

Welcome warmly…! (basic tips)

The 1st of 3 Best No-Brainer Ways To Improve Your Email Newsletters (all about spying!)

If you have a brilliant Welcome program then please share it with us with a comment, or if you would like them, our team are ready and waiting to guide you to make the most of the incredible potential that the Welcome email offers you.

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