Email marketing is a powerful channel for B2B marketers to distribute content, reach audiences and encourage action. As email marketing has evolved, including new technologies and platforms, the way B2B emails are designed has also evolved. What was once a commonality among B2B emails is not necessarily the case anymore. Just like other marketing trends, as new ones emerge, it is important to be ahead of the game, and understand how it impacts your organization and what to do to address it. Whether your B2B emails are designed to perfection or you are on the search for a bit more guidance, we have you covered with these B2B email design best practices and tactics for more effective B2B email marketing.

Why B2B Email Design is Important to Your Brand

Emails do much more than act as an avenue to distribute content and reach target audiences. B2B emails:

• Embodies Your Brand Identity: A marketing email should include elements of an organization¡¯s brand identity, furthering brand recognition and loyalty among audiences. The more recognition, the better.
• Promotes Engagement with Brand and Content: B2B emails include design elements as well as important content. This content, whether it is a blog or news update encourages audiences to engage with it and become more familiar with your brand.
• Capture Audience¡¯s Attention: With the email designed with brand elements and relevant content, this captures the audience¡¯s attention. As more useful content is delivered, it continues to hold the audience¡¯s attention and loyalty to the brand.
• Distributes Information Effectively: The way an email is designed determines how effectively information is spread. A more streamlined design makes content easier to consume while a jumbled design hurts the effectiveness of information distribution.

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Key B2B Email Design Features to Focus on for More Effective Emails

B2B email design is not a one-size-fits-all as brand identity elements and formatting is up to the organization. But, these B2B email design features are important to focus on for more effective emails, regardless of brand identity or messaging components.

Email Copy

• Avoid using large blocks of text, like long paragraphs. Instead, break the paragraphs up into smaller chunks like multiple paragraphs or sections.
  • Do not use the same size font for the whole email. Some sections are likely to have headers, sub-headers and main copy. Use different font sizes or headings for each of these for a better user experience.
  • Ensure alignment is consistent. Nothing is worse than reading an email and seeing the text is not aligned throughout the entire email. Formatting determines how text is aligned, so keep this in mind when designing emails.
  • Get to the point. Coinciding with bullet point number one, no one wants to read lengthy paragraphs. Get to the point and have a powerful call to action.

Email Design Structure

• Use a 600px width layout. Depending on the email builder being used, the width might vary, but a best practice is to use 600px for a width. This is important for knowing how to design the header footer and column widths.
  • Use a header that incorporates clear brand identity elements. The email header is the first thing audiences see when reading an email. This should include your logo, brand colors and anything else important for someone to know about your brand. Many organizations use the primary brand color and their logo for simplicity, but it can be worthwhile to do some testing on header design to see what resonates. But, always include brand identity elements.
  • Use a footer. A footer, just like the header, is important to tie together the email. An email footer should be designed to include your office address, contact information such as a phone number or email, social links or icons, links to resources and an option to unsubscribe. This gives audiences another option to continue their journey to get to know your brand and offerings.
  • Use a simple email design that works on desktop and mobile. It is easy to want to include many elements in a newsletter or other marketing email, but keep the email design simple so it is optimized on both mobile and desktop. Using a one-column approach typically works best so there are minimal issues with content stacking, which can look odd on mobile devices.
  • Use a clear call to action. A call to action (CTA) is one of the most important elements of a B2B email. You cannot include the whole blog you are promoting in the email and the CTA encourages action for them to read the entire blog, or other action you would like them to take. Using colorful buttons or text for CTAs makes them stand out compared to the rest of the email, pushing audiences to take the next step in their journey.

B2B Email Design Does Not Have to Be Complicated

B2B emails do not have to be complicated. The set of best practices and strategies above ensures your emails are optimized for all devices and convey the important information that is needed to include in the email. While formatting and design are ultimately decided by each organization, using the tips above will ensure your brand is recognized by audiences and they continue to engage with the content distributed.

Interested in optimizing your B2B email design for more effective emails? Contact us today or request a free marketing consultation to learn how our B2B marketing consultants can help.