Email marketing is a crucial part of any business that wants to grow its digital presence. But only sending text emails with attachments is not enough to attract customers’ attention. You need to create visually attractive and highly engaging emails for your readers to stand out in the inboxes of your subscribers. All the above-mentioned features can be easily added to your template if you are using HTML email templates. Here’s everything you need to know about HTML email templates.
How to create HTML email templates?
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Creating your own email template
Creating your own email template gives you full control over the content of the email and its engagement metric. HTML and CSS are the foundational skills that you need to possess to start creating your templates. When stuck, you can also refer to YouTube videos to solve your problem. You should know that creating a template from scratch can be labor-intensive and time-consuming. On top of that, a novice HTML coder will not be able to create complex interactive emails.
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Using drag-drop feature
If you have minimal coding knowledge and want to create your own template, you can use drag and drop editors. As the name suggests, the editor provides you with a space where you can drag and drop the elements to build your templates. It’s just like playing with lego blocks. You can use the drag and drop feature to create engaging emails with ease. However, the design of your template will be limited to the elements provided by the editor. As long as you are creating standard emails, you can always opt for this route of creating HTML templates.
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Using pre-designed HTML email templates
Pre-designed email templates further simplify the drag and drop feature. All the required features will come integrated with the email template. You have the option to add other dynamic elements as well. You can easily create and deploy the template to test their engagement. The only downside to using a pre-designed email template is that you will be limited by the style of the template. But since there are thousands of email templates available online, you can easily overcome this problem.
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Outsourcing to an email marketing company
If you want custom emails with a small budget, your best bet would be to go for outsourcing the task to an email marketing company. It is well-known that hiring and setting up an email marketing department in your company consumes a significant chunk of resources. In such cases, you can outsource your email template creation. In addition to that, you can outsource most of your email marketing duties to them.
What are the advantages of using HTML email templates?
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Compatibility
By using HTML emails, you can create emails that are compatible with multiple email clients. Gmail, Outlook, AOL, and iOS mail are the major email clients that are used by most subscribers. Moreover, around two-thirds of all emails are now viewed on mobile phones. Having an HTML email allows you to create email templates that can easily be viewed on desktops and are well-optimized for mobile screens.
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Performance measurement
HTML email templates allow you to enter sophisticated coding in your emails, which allows you to track the open and click-through rate. You can track this data to identify and improve on the weak points of your marketing campaign. The data gathered through your HTML email also allows you to conduct inexpensive market experiments to track the performance of your email templates.
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Appearance
An HTML template allows you to customize your email according to the aesthetic values of your company. You use custom fonts in your emails, along with custom layouts. HTML emails also allow you to enter elements in your emails that will guide readers while they are skimming through your email. A plain text email can never compete with a visually attractive HTML email.
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Personalization
A 2021 study by Litmus suggests that the personalization of marketing emails was the top priority of more than 60% of email marketers. Often, Dynamic HTML emails easily adapt to your personalization and segmentation email strategies. Personalizing emails of small businesses allows them to start a conversation with their potential customers and gain their trust.
What are some of the challenges faced while creating HTML email templates?
HTML email templates provide throngs of useful tools and elements for your email templates. These tools can be used to generate higher engagement rates with your readers. However, it takes a long time to develop and create a custom email template. The HTML and CSS coding of these emails are usually complex and require inputs from coding experts. You can easily handle this challenge by hiring an email marketing company as they house multiple experts under their roof.
It also takes a long time to optimize the emails to work on mobile devices and on your desktops. To tackle this issue, most email marketers are focusing on creating mobile-first email templates and then optimizing them to be viewed on desktops.
Conclusion
Creating an HTML email template might seem intimidating and complex at first. But their benefits far outweigh their development complexities. While creating an email template, ensure that you are also incorporating your brand aesthetics and your brand voice to make them stand out from the rest of the emails.
Author: Kevin George is the head of marketing at Email Uplers, that specializes in crafting Professional Email Templates, PSD to Email conversion, and Mailchimp Templates. Kevin loves gadgets, bikes & jazz, and he breathes email marketing. He enjoys sharing his insights and thoughts on email marketing best practices on email marketing blog.
