1. Subject Line: its makes or breaks

In this day and age, where *TRANSFER OFFER from Mr Western Union* and *MAKE $$$ ONLINE!!!* are overpopulating people’s inboxes, your subject line is the first—and sometimes only—chance to capture your recipient’s attention. If your email is never opened, it doesn’t matter how great the content inside is. A compelling subject line is a critical component of your email marketing strategy, as it directly impacts open rates and engagement. When skimming through their inboxes, it’s more than likely that the reader will barely give your subject line half a second thought, so you need to make it eye-catching and engaging. But be careful you don’t fall into the many pitfalls that can get your email flagged as spam.

Best Practices for Subject Lines

• Keep it concise – Aim for 50 characters or fewer to ensure readability on mobile devices.
• Personalise it – Using the recipient’s name or referencing past interactions makes your email feel more relevant.
• Create curiosity – Ask a question or make a bold statement to spark interest.
• Use action-driven language – Phrases like “Don’t miss out” or “Unlock your exclusive deal” encourage recipients to take immediate action.

What to Avoid

• All caps – It feels aggressive and can trigger spam filters.
• Excessive punctuation – Too many exclamation marks can make your email look like spam.
• Spam trigger words – Words like “FREE,” “LIMITED TIME,” and “CASH” can reduce deliverability rates.
• Misleading claims – If your subject line overpromises and the email doesn’t deliver, recipients may mark it as spam.

A strong subject line sets the tone for your email and plays a significant role in ensuring your email marketing success.

2. Keep it thin and top-heavy

Many recipients decide whether to engage with an email based on what they see in their preview pane. If your message isn’t clear at a glance, they may ignore or delete it. So, how much will they see? Probably only the top few inches. That’s why you need to make sure the vital information from your email is up at the top. MailChimp puts it best: Design for a 250-pixel high box because the chances are that is what the majority of your readers will see.

How to Improve Preview Visibility

• Ensure key information appears in the first 250 pixels – Most email clients display a small portion of the email in preview mode. Make sure the most important message is immediately visible.
• Keep the width between 600-650 pixels – This prevents horizontal scrolling and ensures a seamless reading experience. It might seems slim, but you can bet that it’s more than enough to get your message across.
• Use a strong preheader text – The text that appears next to or below the subject line in the inbox should complement the subject line and add more context.

A well-optimised preview increases open rates and contributes to email marketing success by making it easier for recipients to quickly grasp the value of your email.

3. When they won’t see what you sent

Ever opened up an email from someone only to see a few lines of text and lots of empty boxes? Chances are, you have, and that’s because most email clients block images by default. This means you have to be careful when using images in your email. The viewer needs to want to click that magical button “Show images”, and when they do, they’ll wonder how they ever lived without beautiful, colourful, image-based emails. However, there are a lot of users who won’t appreciate this; they just want the information – the details. You need to learn to cater to both sides of the coin.

To make things worse, different clients block images in different ways. When Gmail blocks images, it displays the Alt tags, the text that describes the hidden picture.

Now, we’re not saying you shouldn’t ever use images. A beautifully designed email will get the attention it deserves, but you need to be careful not to have all the important information and messages in your email contained within images.

But why do some email clients block images?

In case you’re confused about why email clients would turn off images by default, here’s a little perspective:

Most of them, Microsoft and Google, for instance, claim that blocking images by default is a way of protecting their users from viewing potentially harmful or offensive content.

Also, they maintain that blocking images by default makes it easy for readers with lower bandwidths to choose what they want to do with that bandwidth. Whether they use the bandwidth to download the image or not is totally up to them. But thankfully, not all email clients block images. Some, in fact, have it on by default.

4. Use alt tags: the things your readers see when they’re unable to see your colourful images

Alt text (alternative text) serves as a fallback for images and plays an essential role in accessibility. It allows visually impaired users to understand images using screen readers and helps maintain clarity when images are blocked.

Best Practices for Alt Text

• Be descriptive but concise – Explain the image’s purpose in a few words.
• Include a call-to-action in clickable images – If an image leads to a landing page, describe what the user will get when they click it.
• Use alt text to reinforce your message – Ensure it complements the surrounding content rather than repeating it verbatim.

By optimising alt text, you can improve your email marketing campaigns by making your emails more user-friendly.

5. Consistency

Brand consistency helps build trust and recognition, ensuring that recipients instantly associate your emails with your business. A consistent visual and messaging style reassures subscribers and fosters long-term engagement.

How to Establish Brand Consistency

• Use a recognisable email template – Keep a uniform layout, font, and colour scheme across all your emails.
• Incorporate your logo and brand colours – This makes your emails instantly recognisable.
• Maintain a consistent tone and voice – Whether formal or conversational, ensure your messaging aligns with your brand’s personality.

6. Use compelling CTAs

Most times, marketers send out emails to draw the attention of readers to a page, a product, or a service. If you want your email to tell the viewer something, the best way to gauge their interest is with a call to action. Somewhere in the email or at the end of it, you’ll have something like “Click here for more information” or “this message will self-destruct in 10 minutes unless you press this button”. Every email should have a clear purpose, whether it’s driving website visits, increasing sign-ups, or encouraging purchases. A strong CTA ensures recipients know exactly what to do next.

CTA Best Practices

• Use action-oriented phrases – Instead of “Click Here,” try “Get Your Free Guide” or “Start Your Free Trial.”
• Make CTAs stand out – Use bold buttons with contrasting colors for visibility.
• Keep it above the fold – Ensure the CTA is visible without scrolling.
• Test different versions – Experiment with wording, colour, and placement to find the most effective option.

Putting these calls to action in a visible place in a big button is the best way to get them clicked on. Additionally, with the aid of an email analytic service, you can find out who, why, when, and what colour top they had on when they clicked on it.

7. Give ‘em a way out

This is a biggie! Part of the CAN-SPAM requirements is that you need to give people a way to unsubscribe to your marvellous newsletter. It needs to be clear and easy for any old Joe to understand, like so:

“If you would like to unsubscribe from this newsletter, simply click here.”

Or something like…

Failing to provide an unsubscribe option, making it difficult to unsubscribe, or continuing to send them emails, even after they’ve expressed their desire to opt out, could land you on the spam list. And you don’t want to be there. Your email deliverability could take a severe nose-dive for that error.

8. Test, test, test

So you’ve designed the perfect email and are about to send it. Good, but STOP!

One of the most overlooked aspects of email marketing success is testing. Different email clients render emails differently, and a flawless email in one inbox might appear broken in another.

How to Test Your Emails Effectively

• Send test emails to multiple accounts – Check Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and Apple Mail.
• Check for broken links and missing images – Ensure all links work and images display correctly.
• Preview on both desktop and mobile – Over 50% of emails are opened on mobile devices, so mobile compatibility is crucial.
• Use email testing tools – Platforms like Litmus and Email on Acid help preview your email across multiple clients.

Are you looking to learn more?

Whether you need more practical tips for improving your email deliverability or setting up your first email marketing campaign, we can help you. At Munro Agency, we have prepared everything you need to start and run an efficient email marketing campaign. If you’re interested in creating a professional email campaign or want to know more about enhancing your e-newsletters, get in touch with us or find out more about our Marketing Services.