Sending emails is no longer a strong channel for businesses to communicate directly with customers. Whether you are sending a promotional offer, a newsletter, or a product update type of email, one of the things that can make your email perceived in the right way is the design and color you choose. But that begs the question: should color and design be used in emails? Is it just a fluff detail, or is it deeper than that in your email marketing strategy?
In this blog we will down to why the color and design plays an pivotal role in emails, email best practices and real world example of how color can help you improve your email engagement.
Importance of Color and Design in Email
Before deciding whether or not to implement color and design in your emails, it helps to be aware of how these elements impact your broader marketing objectives. Email marketing relies on color, design, and visual appeal to either open up the possibility of an email being opened, read, and acted upon or the exact opposite.
Brand Identity: Colors strengthen your brand identity. Consider Facebook’s signature blue or Starbucks’ trademarked green. Every brand has a color palette that speaks to its audience, and emails are just the right touch to keep up with.
Emotion and Psychology: Colors influence emotions. For instance, red can instill urgency, while blue usually generates trust. Using colors appropriately contributes to the tone of the message you are trying to convey.
User Experience: Well-designed emails are more readable. They help your audience by making it easy to find and read through it.
Best Colors for Email Marketing
When designing emails, one of the most common questions that comes to mind is: What colors to use for email marketing? Use the right colors to increase readability, engagement, and action.
Here are the best colors you can use in your email campaigns:
Blue: Symbolizes trust and professionalism. It is best for brands that wish to convey reliability and competence.
Red: Creates urgency and thus great for time-sensitive promotions
Orange: Stimulates action and impulsiveness. It is capable of fitting perfectly for call-to-action buttons.
Green: Represents growth and conservation; ideal for eco-friendly or health brands.
Yellow — Bring joy and cheerfulness. Fair warning: it can get heavy in great amounts.
Depending on the message a company wants to send out, many of them use these colors. For example, a fitness brand like Nike applies high-contrast black and white with bold pops of red, communicating confidence and action. Instead, a company like Calm leans into soft pastel colors to promote relaxation.
Email Colour Etiquette
Despite the necessity of using color in your emails, it’s equally important to abide by email color etiquette. Overuse of colors and excessive use of contrasting tones can make the reader tired, increasing the likelihood of the email getting ignored completely.
Here are a few tips on color etiquette when it comes to email:
Limit Colors: Use 2–3 colors that fit your brand. Overusing Colors Can Become Distracting.
Provide Contrast: The text should contrast well with the background. Dark text on a light background is generally easier to read.
Be Careful with Brights: Using too many bright colors makes your email look spammy, though bright colors for envisaging are good.
Email Font Color Etiquettes
While we think most about background colors, email font color etiquette is just as vital. Selecting the ideal font color can help readability, improve user journeys, and bring focus to your call to action.
Black and Dark Grey: These are the most popular font colors to use since they’ll provide the best readability.
Red is Not for Text: Although red can be used for emphasis, it is not a good idea to use it for body text, as it will tire the eyes.
Use Your Brand Colors Wisely: Your brand may have unique colors; use them here and there for headings or buttons, but make body text neutral for clarity.
Spotify, for instance, uses its signature green for headings and call-to-action buttons, but keeps most of the text in dark grey that is easy to read.
Create A/B Tests to Improve Your E-mail Design
A/B testing can help if you’re not sure what color or design elements work best in your emails. Using A/B testing, you can split test non-sequential about the same reuse of no design gives better result or a color gives better result.
Here is how to make use of A/B testing:
Experiment with Color in Subject Lines: Test the color combinations in subject lines. Example Limited Offer in Red vs. Limited Offer in Blue
CTA color experimented: Try button color Which one drives more clicks? Red or green?
BG Color—Find out what background color (light vs. dark) works better with your open rates and click-through rates.
Brands have been known to A/B test email components to optimize the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns, and this is something that is common for brands like Netflix.
Brand Colors and Design Have a Relatable Feel
Setting your brand colors and design is one of the most impactful things to do when trying to build relatability with your audience. Customizing colors and designs is another wonderful opportunity to hit the right note with a design that resonates with your target demographic to create an emotional connection that breeds trust.
For example, Coca-Cola’s red color conjures up feelings of excitement and energy, which perfectly correlates with the brand’s lively, fun persona. Similarly, Mailchimp leans on its playful yellow and black color scheme to help it project a friendly, approachable image.
When you choose colors that reflect your brand’s personality, you’re creating an email design that resonates with your audience’s values and emotions.
Focus on a Relationship With Your Audience
It is not just about sending messages. It’s about connecting and engaging with your audience. With careful design and color selections, you set the connections.
An example could be Charity: Water, an NGO that uses blue tones and natural colors in their email designs. The emails inspire responsibility and the community show you the mission, supporting you to donate and be part.
Elements of a Good Email Design: Give Your Message an Eye-catching Look
If you want your message to stand out, color can help. Good design can hook readers, and raise the chances that they’ll interact with your content. Using contrasting colors, such as yellow buttons on a blue background, makes your call-to-action stand out and invites users to click.
Example: Trello (project management tool) does a good job in using an attractive shade of blue with green to show off their main features in emails, making it easy for recipients to check out the new message.
Keep Graphics to a Minimum
Load an email with graphics and colors, but the email will take time to load and lead to lost engagements. Finding the balance is the key.
Apple, for example, structures its email campaigns around clean, minimalist designs that contain one or potentially two visuals that help drive home the email’s message (rather than overstuffing readers with too much information).
Maintain Campaign Consistency
It is very important to be consistent for all your mails. Even if you choose to use color and design to improve these elements of your emails, make sure that it connects with your brand as a whole and your message as delivered.
Example: Airbnb consistently ties their email designs back to their brand colors (soft pastels and white) within their communications, ensuring relevancy with their identity as a modern, trustworthy brand.
Use Colors to Grab & Retain Readers’ Attention
So, a very potent use of color is used to draw attention and hold it. For example, you can use bold colors for messages like “50% Off Today Only” in red to capture the reader’s attention.
Companies Using Color for Attention:
Amazon frequently employs yellow and red so that sales and promotions are inescapable.
Target effectively makes use of big red for their offers..
Colors Should Be Used Smartly to Make Important Information Stand Out
In that way, intelligent usage of color can highlight the precise information in your email. Color can also guide where you want the reader’s attention, whether it’s on a CTA, a sale, or key product features.
All Email Campaigns Should Only Have White As The Color
And for as much as color matters, white does too. Doing so keeps the email cleaner and gives readers a better chance to focus on the content. White space goes beyond the blank canvas – it is an intentional design element that can help make your emails more effective.
Colors Help Grab Attention
The key is getting noticed in a crowded inbox, after all. Color may be your best asset in setting yourself apart. Strategic use of bold colors can boost your open rates.
Higher Reply Rate for Plain Emails Compared to Colored and Designed Emails
But, not every design is successful. On the other hand, an email with too many colors or using too many different fonts will lower engagement and have lower reply rates. Simplicity often works best.
Best colors for email marketing examples
The best colors for email marketing examples can make or break your email marketing campaign. Since different shades spark different feelings in different readers, there’s a particular palette that provides the functionality of increasing involvement and conversion rates.
Blue is frequently cited as one of the best colors for email marketing — it signifies trust, security, and professionalism, among other things. This is precisely why so many financial institutions and tech companies incorporate blue into their email campaigns. Red, on the other hand, evokes a sense of urgency, which is why it’s used so often in CTAs or “flash sale” promotions. The same goes for green, a color frequently seen in health, wellness, and eco-friendly brands, as it indicates growth, balance, and environmental awareness.
Email color code is necessary to make sure your email colors are consistent across all devices. Hex Codes (i.e., #007BFF as a specific shade of blue) and RGB values (i.e., rgb(0, 123, 255)) help ensure that your design renders the colors visually accurately. Applying these codes lets you have the same appearance across email clients and make sure the color you have chosen is what your subscribers see.
Final Thoughts: Including Colors and Designs in emails
The answer is quite simple — yes, you should use color and design in emails! That being said, moderation is the name of the game like anything in email marketing. Colors are also good to reinforce your brand, as well as evoke emotions and direct attention to calls-to-action and other essential elements of your design. But misuse or misuse, however, can backfire, undermining engagement.
Always remember to A/B test your emails, stay on-brand with the color palette, and make sure that the design is user-friendly. Using color wisely will help you improve your email marketing and grow better communication with your audience.
FAQ
Should coloring design be used in emails?
Yes, coloring and design can enhance emails by making them visually appealing, improving readability, and emphasizing key information. However, it’s important to use color and design elements thoughtfully to avoid overwhelming the reader.
Should color and design be used in emails on Brainly?
Color and design can be effective on platforms like Brainly, especially in email notifications or promotional content. The key is to use color to highlight important information, but avoid excessive use that could distract from the main message.
Is it unprofessional to use colored text in an email?
Colored text is not necessarily unprofessional, but it depends on the context. For business emails, it’s important to use subtle, easy-to-read colors (like dark blues or greys). Bright or overly saturated colors might appear unprofessional or hard to read.
Should color and design be used in emails on Quizlet?
Yes, on Quizlet or similar educational platforms, using color and design can help draw attention to key points, making the content more engaging and memorable. Just ensure the colors align with the platform’s overall design for consistency.
Is highlighting in emails etiquette?
Highlighting can be a useful tool in emails to emphasize important points, but it should be used sparingly. Over-highlighting can make the email look cluttered and diminish the impact. It’s best to use bold text or different font weights for emphasis instead.
