MY PROCESS FOR DESIGNING EMAILS
First off, there is controversy around highly designed emails on Twitter
You don't NEED to design emails
My advice? Play the ball as it lies. 🏌️⛳️
This comes down to knowing your customer, your brand's aesthetic, and the type of journey you want to take your subscriber on.
A scrappy, persona-oriented brand may not need designed emails, or a huge list pumping out affiliate products
focuses on expert copywriting, handling objections and cultivating a NEED for the product.
But an aesthetic fashion brand will want inspiring, image-heavy designs
Dog memes on a pet store brand
A girly shapewear brand may want a mix of product content with great copywriting
Ultimately, it's up to the client or the brand owner's vision, so one can PERFECTLY reflect the store's ethos, persona, and branding.
Emails directly reflect the brand on a deeper level due to the amount of content that is pumped out, constantly nurturing their loyal subscribers
One of my clients, prefers not to have designed emails and gives me the freedom to spin stories to convert his passionate list.
His subscribers love his high-quality products, and we thoroughly entertain them (and print $$$) on the back-end
I consulted w/ many people on here on processes, hiring people, what good design looks like, and how it works from start to finish.
At first, I attempted to design emails myself on Canva (not my best please don't judge)
Canva is a great option for those on a budget, with a creative eye, or who just wants to make something quick
Knowing the above wasn't going to cut it, I went through the gamut of Fiverr, Upwork, discord, etc. trying to find suitable email designers...
Most designers will not have any experience with email, if they have they will be using templates from past clients, will NOT care about the brand, and are finicky people w/ poor communication in my exp. It is up to you to provide an SOP or find someone with e-commerce experience
I hit up 10 designers and asked them to submit a sample design, paid or non-paid depending on how finicky they were.
fastest to respond, highest quality of design, and communication skills were my factors in hiring
General practices for good design on emails can be found online.
You will be combining the images, links, and product blocks on Klaviyo (my email sending platform of choice).
Inverted pyramid model, 600 px wide, hero images, header-subheader-body-cta etc.
I ripped my SOP from @beactaEM article, added my own videos, samples, and wrote it all on Notion
it was a complete overview of email design, with samples, images to use, links, resources, and more
It was very clear to me who had the best email designs, and I ended up hiring my friend from school as well as another guy. Once I settled on who I wanted to work with, I created processes for submissions and revisions.
How much $$$ should you pay for email?
standard emails go for $20-50. I know some who balk at paying anything over $50 while others say $75-100+ can be the norm.
Putting a designer on retainer will make more sense for some.
Some clients want you to work with their existing designer, which can be difficult if they are poor communicators.
You can't put a price on finding someone who "gets it" in regards to designing emails and the customer journey.
There are multiple ways to skin the cat on creating a content calendar, planning the workflow of campaigns, flows, etc., and I will throw you some methods.
Some designers can take 1-2 days per email, for 30 minutes, it all depends. Communicate with the client it can take 3-4 weeks to complete all sequences (15-20 emails for flows to START can be solid)
1. Set up a Google Drive
organize the folders by copy and content.
the copy folder includes all the flows/campaigns
content includes the client-provided images/logos etc.
Inside each flow folder, provide the copy on a google doc and any images you want the designer to specifically use. I found letting the designer take full creative control on design and image choice can be best.
Submit the copy to your client and confirm there are no revisions. If a design is made before revisions, create a new google doc titled "client revisions"and provide this to your designer so they can easily separate the two drafts.
I do not recommend revising on the original google doc, it is annoying to go to "history" and see the highlights google shows of what's changed. clearly separate drafts of copy and design.
I have an internal chat (using ) for my designers and a client chat so communication does not get crossed up.
When designs are completed, I or my designer drop them in as well as the google drive folder, organized by each flow, for an extremely easy and efficient way to showcase all designs in one place and add any design revisions by sticky notes
New revisions by the client can be submitted to the designers, simply by sharing the miro with the sticky notes, slack even gets Miro notifications
Once the designs are approved, Use Figma splice tool to cut the designs in 3-5 parts and upload them to klaviyo
Again, Designs aren't magically made. this is a process.
i am not here to opine on gestalt philosophy or the corner radius and congruency of each cta. find someone you trust who can help you create designed emails that convert and work out the processes.
Figma has some resources on designing so you may communicate more efficiently with your designer
Planning campaigns can be done in many ways. One way is using calendar that lets you add in sections for your copy and content
I have left a lot of things out, but I hope this inspires you to think about email designs in a different way.
Really Good Emails and Milled are great for inspiration
reallygoodemails.com
milled.com/brands
It is satisfying to see beautiful emails make beautiful results.
it's awesome to see a copy-only email crush.
Get your hands dirty and you'll be surprised with what comes out.
DM me for Q's on creating designed flows and campaigns for your brand that perform $$$
