emotional-design-in-email-marketing
21 January

Emotional design in email marketing: Driving engagement with visuals

Oleksii Burlakov
Oleksii Burlakov Content writer at Stripo
Table of contents
  1. The psychology of emotional design
  2. Implementing emotional design in emails
  3. Emotional design techniques to enhance engagement
  4. Common pitfalls and how to avoid them
  5. Metrics and analytics: Measuring the success of emotional design
  6. Wrapping up
1.
The psychology of emotional design

Discover how emotional design transforms email marketing by leveraging visuals, colors, and storytelling to boost engagement, clicks, and conversions.

Getting someone’s attention is tough these days, especially in their email inbox. That’s where emotional design comes into play. It’s more than just adding eye-catching visuals; emotional design creates a meaningful connection that encourages readers to engage with your message.

Why does this matter? Because emotions drive decisions. Studies show that people often rely on emotional cues when choosing what to read, click, or buy. In email marketing, employing emotional design can significantly boost engagement metrics such as click-through rates (CTRs), open rates, and even conversions.

And here’s the kicker — visuals do most of the heavy lifting. Thoughtfully crafted images, colors, and layouts not only grab attention but also align your brand identity with your message. When done right, they evoke trust, excitement, or urgency, nudging readers to take action.

The psychology of emotional design

The emotional design draws on psychological principles to create connections that influence user behavior. At its core, it uses human emotional triggers to guide engagement, foster trust, and drive action. Understanding these triggers is essential in crafting impactful visuals in email marketing.

If the emotion resonates, people open the email and engage.

Illia Martyniuk

Illia Martyniuk,

UI designer at Stripo.

As Illia explains, emotional design is about forging a connection, which underscores why incorporating emotional elements is critical in email marketing.

A study by Smaily highlights the impact of emotional triggers in email campaigns, noting that understanding and leveraging emotions such as fear, guilt, and belonging can significantly influence subscriber decisions. An EMB blog article describes the science behind emotion-driven decisions, explaining that emotions are biochemical responses that significantly influence our behaviors and decisions and thus highlighting the importance of emotional appeals in email marketing.

Colors and their psychological impact

Colors offer powerful tools for emotional design. As shown in the examples below, each hue evokes specific feelings that can influence user behavior:

  • blue: Represents trust, reliability, and calmness, making it ideal for brands prioritizing security or professionalism (e.g., banks and tech companies);
  • red: Evokes urgency, passion, or excitement and is commonly used in call-to-action buttons to prompt immediate responses;
  • green: Associated with health, growth, and eco-friendliness, appealing to sustainability-conscious audiences;
  • yellow: Conveys optimism and energy, ideal for conveying positive messaging.

Imagery and emotional engagement

A well-chosen image can evoke empathy, excitement, or aspiration. Photos of smiling people or relatable scenarios create personal connections, while dynamic visuals such as product demonstrations excite users by showcasing possibilities.

Research-backed insights

Studies show that emotional stimuli can improve brand recall by up to 70%. Additionally, emails featuring emotional visuals achieve 20% higher CTRs, demonstrating their effectiveness in driving engagement.

Examples of success

Brands including Airbnb leverage emotional design, for example by showcasing cozy homes with warm, inviting tones to evoke a sense of belonging. Similarly, Nike’s campaigns often use bold colors and action-focused imagery to inspire motivation and determination.

Nike’s emotional design

(Source: Nike’s advertising campaign on Pinterest)

According to our designer, Illia, emotional triggers are often inspired by visual trends and references: “I rely on references; visual familiarity is everything. I also use trending colors to evoke emotions effectively.”

A great campaign that uses vibrant product photos with branded backgrounds leaves a positive association with the audience. As Illia explains, “Walking past this type of product in a store, I’d notice it because of the pleasant association it left.”

Understanding these psychological principles lets you employ emotional design to create emails that truly resonate with your audience.

Implementing emotional design in emails

Implementing emotional design in emails requires a strategic approach that combines structure, visuals, and storytelling to create a cohesive, engaging experience. Here’s how you can make it work.

Structuring emails for emotional impact

Use short, impactful headlines, images that align with your brand style, and noticeable CTAs.

Illia Martyniuk

Illia Martyniuk,

UI designer at Stripo.

The structure of your email significantly influences how readers perceive and interact with it: 

  1. Begin with a compelling subject line and preheader text to immediately evoke curiosity or emotion. 
  2. Use a clear hierarchy in the email body — headline, subheadings, and concise paragraphs — that allows readers to absorb the message quickly. 
  3. Break up text with visuals and white space to make the email easy to scan. 
  4. Position key CTAs prominently, using colors and design elements that draw attention without overwhelming the overall layout.

Tips for choosing visuals

Visuals are the heart of emotional design. Select images, videos, or GIFs that align with your brand and evoke the desired emotion. For example,

  • use high-quality images featuring people in relatable scenarios to foster empathy;
  • incorporate product images in aspirational settings to inspire excitement or desire;
  • opt for visually consistent elements to maintain brand identity and build trust.

Interactive elements, such as hover effects and carousel displays, also enhance engagement and make your emails memorable.

Emotional storytelling with design

Storytelling creates a narrative that connects emotionally with your audience. Use design elements — such as sequential imagery or thematic colors — to tell your story. A travel brand, for example, might showcase a journey from planning to arrival, with each stage visually represented in the email. Pair visuals with concise, emotionally resonant text to amplify the impact.

Emotional design techniques to enhance engagement

Emotional design elements, such as animations, interactivity, and personalization, are essential to maximizing engagement. They make your emails dynamic, engaging, and tailored to the recipient’s preferences, creating a memorable user experience.

Animation and interactive elements

Animations and GIFs draw more attention because emails are inherently limited in interactivity.

Illia Martyniuk

Illia Martyniuk,

UI designer at Stripo.

Animations bring emails to life and immediately demand attention. For instance, GIFs can demonstrate product features, add humor, or effectively highlight CTAs. Use animations sparingly to enhance the message without overwhelming readers. Interactive buttons and elements — such as hover effects, click-to-reveal content, and carousels — encourage users to interact directly with the email, increasing engagement.

With these elements, designers can achieve a “wow effect” that grabs users’ attention and boosts engagement.

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Statistics on the effectiveness of animated visuals

Research highlights the impact of animated visuals on email performance:

  • emails with GIFs yield 42% higher CTRs than static emails;
  • interactive emails can achieve engagement rates up to 200% higher than traditional emails.

These statistics make clear that incorporating movement and interactivity significantly improves campaign results.

Personalization in visual design

Personalized design goes beyond adding a recipient’s name to include tailored visuals based on users’ preferences, behaviors, or demographics. For example, dynamically changing images or CTAs depending on a user’s location or purchase history can make an email more relevant. Personalized visual elements increase engagement by 29% on average, as they resonate more deeply with the audience.

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Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

While emotional design can elevate your email campaigns, missteps have the potential to undermine your efforts. Two critical pitfalls to avoid are overloading your emails with visuals and neglecting accessibility.

1. Overloading emails with visuals

An email cluttered with multiple images, graphics, and various fonts can overwhelm the reader, diluting the core message and increasing load times. Such designs often lead to higher bounce rates, as recipients may be reluctant to engage with a chaotic email.

Our designer further warns against overwhelming emails with excessive visuals:

I stand for simplicity and brand focus — less is more.

Illia Martyniuk

Illia Martyniuk,

UI designer at Stripo.

Best practices

  • prioritize quality over quantity: Use a few impactful visuals that directly support your message. This approach not only keeps the email clean but also enhances comprehension;
  • optimize image sizes: Compress images without compromising quality to ensure quick loading times, especially for mobile users. Tools like TinyPNG can help you effectively optimize images;
  • maintain focus: Make sure each visual serves a specific purpose, such as drawing attention to calls-to-action or supporting your narrative. Avoid unrelated images that may distract the reader.

2. Neglecting accessibility

Visually impaired users may struggle to read an email with low-contrast text over complex background images. Additionally, forgetting to provide alternative text for images means that screen readers cannot convey the content to users with visual impairments.

To balance visual richness and accessibility, our designer suggests using high-contrast designs and branded visuals.

Whenever possible, test designs for accessibility using external tools.

Illia Martyniuk

Illia Martyniuk,

UI designer at Stripo.

This ensures that the email resonates with everyone while staying inclusive.

Best practices

  • ensure adequate contrast: Use high-contrast color combinations between text and background to enhance readability. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) recommend a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text;
  • include alt text for images: Provide descriptive alt text for all images so that screen readers can accurately describe the content to users with visual impairments. This practice is also helpful when images fail to load;
  • use accessible fonts and sizes: Choose legible fonts and maintain a minimum font size of 14 px to accommodate readers with visual challenges. Consistent formatting and alignment further enhance readability.

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Additional considerations

Another common mistake is inconsistent branding. Emails with visuals that stray from your brand identity can confuse your audience and erode trust. Always align visuals with your established color palette, typography, and tone.

To avoid this mistake, make sure every visual element serves a purpose and aligns with the brand.

Metrics and analytics: Measuring the success of emotional design

It is essential to measure the success of emotional design in email campaigns, as it allows you to optimize your strategies and get results that align with your goals. Tracking the right metrics can offer actionable insights into how well your audience engages with your emotionally driven designs.

Key engagement metrics to track

  1. Click-through rates
    CTR is a critical metric for evaluating how well your email design drives interaction. Emotional design elements, such as vibrant CTAs, compelling visuals, and engaging animations, can significantly boost CTR. Research shows that using images in emails increases CTRs by up to 42%
  2. Conversion rates
    Conversion rates measure how many recipients took the desired action after engaging with an email. Whether it’s making a purchase, signing up, or downloading content, well-implemented emotional design (such as urgency-inducing colors or empathetic imagery) can increase conversions by connecting with users on a personal level.
  3. Time spent on email
    The amount of time recipients spend on your email indicates how engaging they find its content and visuals. High-quality animations and visually compelling storytelling keep users engaged longer, boosting the likelihood of their acting on your CTA. Tools such as Litmus or Google Analytics can track this data.

Additional insights

Monitor bounce rates and heatmaps to determine whether specific visuals or elements are being overlooked or driving users away. Pairing these metrics with A/B testing can refine your emotional design approach over time.

Bounce rates

In email marketing, bounce rates indicate the percentage of emails that could not be delivered to the recipient’s inbox. This can happen for two primary reasons:

  • hard bounces: Permanent issues, including invalid or nonexistent email addresses;
  • soft bounces: Temporary issues, such as a full inbox or server problems.

High bounce rates are a red flag indicating poor email list quality or technical issues that need to be fixed. Regularly cleaning your email list and making sure recipient data is up-to-date can reduce bounce rates.

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Heatmaps

Heatmaps are visual tools that show how users interact with your email or website; they use color-coded overlays to represent areas of high (red/orange) and low (blue/green) engagement. Commonly tracked interactions include:

  • clicks: Which buttons, links, or images are being clicked;
  • scroll depth: How far down the email or webpage users scroll;
  • hover behavior: Areas where users hover their mouse, indicating interest.

Why they matter

Bounce rates identify delivery or list-quality issues, whereas heatmaps provide insights into user engagement and behavior. Combining these metrics with A/B testing allows you to pinpoint the visual elements that resonate with your audience and optimize emails accordingly.

Wrapping up

Emotional design is a powerful tool that boosts email engagement by connecting with audiences at a deeper level. By strategically using colors, visuals, and storytelling, you can evoke emotions that drive action, such as clicking, subscribing, or purchasing.

Key takeaways 

  • colors matter: Use psychological triggers (e.g., blue for trust, red for urgency) to align emotions with your message;
  • simplify visuals: Use high-quality, purposeful images that enhance comprehension without overwhelming;
  • personalization works: Tailor visuals and messages to individual preferences for a 29% increase in engagement;
  • metrics guide improvement: Monitor CTRs, conversion rates, and heatmaps to refine your design.

Avoid common pitfalls, such as overloading emails with visuals or neglecting accessibility, as these can alienate your audience or hinder engagement. Always test and optimize your emails to ensure your design choices resonate effectively.

With emotional design, you’re not just sending emails — you’re creating impactful experiences. Implement these strategies to transform your campaigns and build stronger, more meaningful connections with your audience.

Explore Stripo’s templates and tools to bring emotional design to life
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