In today’s digital world, email marketing remains a powerful tool for driving sales and engaging customers. If you’re looking to up your email marketing game, you’re in the right place. This guide will walk you through the best steps for creating high-converting email templates, with a special focus on e-commerce and Klaviyo email templates.
We’ll cover everything from the basics of email design to advanced techniques that ensure your emails stand out in crowded inboxes. If you desperately need help with your email templates, the Idea Inbox, our monthly template subscription, might just be the solution you’re looking for! More on that at the end of this post.
Why Email Marketing Matters
Email marketing offers a direct line to your customers, providing a channel to create relationships, increase your customers’ lifetime value, and share news, promotions, and valuable content. Unlike social media, you own your subscriber list, which means you’re less dependent on algorithms and in control of reaching and engaging your customers.
It’s cost-effective and boasts one of the highest returns on investment (ROI) among marketing channels. Speaking of ROI, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity if you’re an e-commerce brand running paid advertising but not leveraging email marketing. Email can be a perfect compliment to your paid advertising efforts to ensure your potential customers are being retargeted, educated, and ultimately nurtured until they become quality customers.
Mastering email marketing templates can enhance engagement and drive more sales for your e-commerce business, so let’s get you on the right track.
Understanding Ecommerce Email Templates
E-commerce email templates are pre-designed layouts that allow you to repeatedly and easily create on-brand, eye-catching emails that teach, entertain, inspire, or drive sales. These templates are crucial for a few reasons: not wasting hours/starting from scratch every time you’re creating a new email, maintaining consistency in your brand image, and ensuring your emails stand out in the inbox.
Introduction to Klaviyo Email Templates
Klaviyo is a popular email marketing platform tailored specifically for e-commerce businesses. It offers advanced segmentation, automation, and personalization features. Klaviyo email templates are specifically designed to help you maximize the impact of your campaigns, making it easier to target the right customers with the right message.
Steps for Designing High-Converting Emails
Step 1: Define Your Goals
Before you start designing, clearly define what you want to achieve with your email. Some common goals may include driving sales, increasing website traffic, boosting engagement, educating about your product, promoting a sale, and more. Having a clear goal will guide your design, copy, and content decisions.
Step 2: Know Your Audience
Understanding your audience is key to creating effective emails. Use data and analytics to segment your audience based on their behavior, preferences, and purchase history. Tailor your content to meet their specific needs and interests.
Step 3: Craft Compelling Subject Lines & Preview Text
Your subject line is the first thing recipients see, so make it count. Use action verbs, numbers, and emotional triggers to grab attention. Keep it short, clear, and relevant to the content of your email.
Many people talk about the subject line but miss the importance of your preview text. The subject line and preview text are a team.
In the example below, the subject line is, ‘They’re not just light-responsive,’ and the preview text is, ‘Check out these lenses’ extra benefits.’
Make sure your subject line and preview text coordinate, make sense, and optimize your preview text just like the subject line.
Step 4: Design Above the Fold
When your email deploys to your subscribers, you have some key inbox real estate that someone sees the moment they open your email. Without them having to scroll down your email, that is your above the fold section.
This is the section you need to spend the most time on to capture your subscribers’ attention. You can do this through three simple design and copy principles: catchy/compelling headline, light intro copy (no long novels!), and a big bonus if you fit your CTA in above the fold.
The results: An email that gets the key message across right away captures the attention of skimmers and clicks from our ready-to-take-action group.
See more of our design works here!
Step 5: Design for Mobile
With the majority of emails opened on mobile devices, your templates must be mobile-friendly. Use responsive design techniques to ensure your emails look great on any device. Keep your layout simple and easy to navigate. Most email service providers give you the opportunity to preview your design via mobile. Bonus: send yourself a test email and check it from your mobile device. This is a great way to check yourself and make sure your design looks sharp no matter what device it’s being viewed on.
Step 6: Use Eye-Catching Visuals
High-quality visuals can make your emails more engaging and memorable. Use images, graphics, videos, and GIFs that support your message and brand. GIFs are a huge design trend in email marketing right now, and I think they’re here to stay. Movement captures attention and keeps your subscriber scrolling. Make sure your visuals are optimized for fast loading times.
If you need help optimizing your maximum engagement, this video tutorial will be perfect for you.
Step 7: Personalize Your Content
Personalization goes beyond using the recipient’s name to greet them in an email. You can segment audiences based on their past behavior, such as how many times they’ve purchased or what they’ve purchased. This will allow you to tailor your email design and copy specifically for what will resonate with them. When you’re nailing personalized content, you’ll see a significant increase in your engagement and conversion rates.
Step 8: Test and Optimize
Testing is crucial for improving your email performance. A/B test different elements like subject lines, images, and calls-to-action (CTAs) to see what resonates best with your audience. Use these insights and directly apply them to your future campaigns. You’ll get better with every send!
Free Template Download
Our Idea Inbox subscription is perfect if you’re looking for email templates to make your life easier each month. Each month, we drop 3 email templates that are 90% of the way done, ready to convert, designed like the big brands, and ready for you to plug and play.
You click here to grab a free Canva & Figma template and check out the Idea Inbox for making email creation 10x faster!
By following these steps, you’ll be well on your way to creating high-converting email marketing templates that drive results. Whether you’re using e-commerce email templates or leveraging the power of Klaviyo, these best practices will help you optimize your campaigns and engage your audience effectively.
PS – if you’re an email marketer trying to level up your design skills like a pro, you should definitely take a look at my email design course to design emails like the biggest brands out there.
