What is email layout, and what's its role? What elements does it include? You'll find all answers here.
What is email layout?
Email layout is not the same thing as email structure. When you create an HTML email template, the structure is about the order of content, and the layout is about visualizing your email template in general.
In other words, email layouts are different ways of organizing the content of your email message. For example, it can be plain text structured in one column or two columns. This way, you can send delivery information or other formal messages.
Also, you can create templates with graphic email design.
This option is called rich text and includes images, links, tables, etc. It can be used for promotional emails, event invitations, or achieving other business goals.
Such email layouts are created through an HTML code.
Role of email layout
Email layout is a prescription of how your template will look like.
It helps you customize what will draw the subscribers' attention and what emotions the message will stimulate. For example, any article can be hard to read without images on the screen.
However, some email designs can make the information difficult for readers to perceive on mobile devices.
Of course, we are not used to exploring online content with no image or in a boring style. Even basic knowledge of marketing and instructions from an email builder help you realize the importance of qualitative email design.
Therefore, you need to analyze the goals of your email marketing campaign and create email's layout that will benefit your business.
Email layout elements
There are different types of elements in email layouts. To create professional email templates, you need to use various features.
Let's have a closer look.
1. Headings
To better understand the information, it's essential to divide the content into a few blocks or sections.
You can add several headings depending on the topic, the amount of information, and its importance. They will also help the recipients to pay attention to those parts they are interested in.
For example, if you invite people to the event, you can add headings with the agenda, speaker descriptions, directions to the location, and so on.
If you want to send emails to new customers, you can add names of the sections of your catalog and help them quickly find the stuff they need.
2. Text
It's easy to create a plain-text email layout, even from scratch. Such email templates are also available on different screens.
Also, you don't need to make much effort: simple copy-paste from your website or landing pages can sometimes be fine.
Such templates can be useful for informative purposes. However, we still recommend adding something additional, for example, a call-to-action button.
You can also add a background color to make an email template more perceptive.
3. Images
It's probably one of the key parts of professional email templates.
With images, your email layout becomes more attractive and user-friendly. Graphic content makes the information much easier to understand. And you can provide more details without being boring.
It is also important to add alt text if you use images to ensure all readers understand the content fully.
4. Buttons
Buttons are essential for your email templates to encourage subscribers to interact with your brand. For example, you can add a link to your website or invite them to sign up for upcoming events.
With the help of Stripo, you can design all the buttons in the same style and make sure they display correctly in different ESPs, such as Outlook or Gmail.
5. Rows
Even though you might believe that columns will help you make all the email templates perfect, we think that rows are underestimated :).
Basically, they let you turn one huge piece of information into a few separate parts, which are a lot easier to read. You can combine plain-text rows with images, links, buttons, and other graphic content.
6. Single or multiple columns
Sometimes we need a single-column layout (full width), and sometimes email templates look much better with multiple columns.
A single-column email design is a good option when:
- you have a strict structure;
- your subscribers mostly read emails on mobile devices;
- you need to draw attention to the only CTA button.
At the same time, a single-column layout may be annoying for desktop users, as there is plenty of space on the sides.
Multiple columns can form your email template into a system. This email layout helps you put more information in lesser space and allows you to add several buttons.
On the other hand, you will need to spend more time optimizing email templates to make them look good on both mobile and desktop devices.
With Stripo, you can easily create responsive email layouts so that it displays well on mobile screens. There's no need to worry about details.
7. Hybrid layout
A hybrid-column layout is a mix of single- and multiple-column email designs.
It is a nice way of putting accents on different parts of the email template. For example, if you have a few landing pages or projects, you can use this layout to direct the readers to various resources.
However, customizing email templates this way can take plenty of your email marketing team's time. Also, creating a responsive email with such a layout might be difficult.
Wrapping up
With Stripo, you can create a template from scratch or use one of our free HTML email templates. Our email builder with an embedded drag-and-drop editor lets you use new features to customize our 1250+ HTML email templates.
Also, we have plenty of ideas for attractive email designs. There is no need to have any coding skills, by the way :).
You can start with a free account, do the test drive, and find out what works best for your business. And any article in our blog can be helpful if you need advice.
