Do you want to make an EDM but don’t know how to start? EDM newsletters are a highly practical tool for brand remarketing and cultivating customer relationships. This article will introduce the essential elements and considerations for EDM design, showcase some excellent examples, and recommend EDM production tools. Whether you’re a beginner or someone looking to learn how to create newsletters, it will help you build attractive EDMs from scratch.
What is EDM Marketing?
The abbreviation EDM stands for “Electronic Direct Mail,” commonly referred to as electronic newsletters in Taiwan. Electronic newsletters are a common marketing technique that involves sending brand messages, information, or promotional content to a target audience through email. EDMs can include various elements such as text, images, links, and multimedia, delivering content directly to customers’ email inboxes. It is a common method of email marketing
Why Email Marketing is Important ?
According to the KIBO e-commerce Quarterly survey report, EDM (Electronic Direct Mail) has a conversion rate of 4.29%, while social media has a conversion rate of only 1.81%. Compared to social media, email newsletters offer a higher return on investment, and the recipients of email newsletters are typically potential customers who have shown interest in your business. You can also send exclusive newsletters to existing customers, making it an excellent tool for precision marketing and customer relationship management.
The basic structure of EDM
There are countless of EDM formats and variety of templates are available online. But if you’re a beginner for EDM designing, you can start by referring to the basic structure of a complete newsletter below:
Letterhead
The letterhead of an email newsletter should include your brand logo and tagline. It’s important to let recipients instantly know who is the sender at a glance. The header design should be clean, appealing, and capable of capturing attention, ensuring immediate brand recognition.
Title & Subtitle
The title is the key to make readers continue reading your email. It has to immediately convey the purpose of the email, such as the theme of a promotion event, a membership welcome, brand news for the month, and more. Subtitle can supplement the main content of the email, helping readers into the body of the letter.
The Body and link button
The body comprises images and text, with text divided into paragraphs and supplemented with images. The key is to convey information succinctly, and avoid excessive text or images that might distract from the main points. Additionally, adding some link buttons strategically within paragraphs can increase interactions with the readers.
Call To Actions
At the bottom of an EDM (Email Direct Marketing), there will always be a CTA (Call to Action) button that directly guides readers to take the action you want them to. Therefore, the button should have a clear design, and the text on the button should evoke a sense of urgency, such as ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Click to Learn More,’ encouraging people to take action.
Email Footer
The email footer should include your contact information, social information, and an unsubscribe option. This part as a means for maintaining contact with your readers and showcases your professionalism. The footer design should not take up to much space, but essential information should be clearly visible.
Matters needing attention in making EDM
After making an EDM finally, the worst thing is that there are broken images or formatting issues in the EDM after sending it out. If you don’t want all your hard work to be wasted, take a look at the details you need to be mindful of in EDM design:
Sizes of EDM in Each Device
Your customers may read EDM on various devices such as smartphones, tablets, or computers, so it’s essential to ensure that your EDM design displays correctly on each device. Typically, the standard design width for computers and tablets should not exceed 600 pixels, while mobile screens are smaller, and it’s recommended to set the width to around 370-480px to ensure clear content display.
Color and Layout
Choose a color that represent your brand’s style and keep color consistency throughout the entire email. This can let readers leave a strong impression on your brand. For layout, due to the different sizes of smartphones and computers, you might need to use different designs. Don’t forget to make sure that text or buttons displayed on phones aren’t too small.
The Proportion of Words and Images
While images are more eye-catching, it’s advisable to use text as much as possible when creating an EDM. This is because images in email often don’t display correctly or get blocked. Using text can mitigate the risk of content disappearing. Additionally, avoid cramming too much text into images to prevent the text from becoming too small when reading on a mobile device or slowing down the loading time due to numerous images. As a general rule, it’s recommended to keep text within an image to be no more than 20% of the total content.
Good EDM design examples
Here, we’re sharing a few nice EDM design examples for your reference:
1.Uber Eats: Clearly highlight the key points of the promotions in the title, and put a conspicuous CTA button to attract readers to click.
2.Dyson: Convey product features with concise layout and brief text. Also use CTA buttons strategically between paragraphs to enhance interaction.
Tools of EDM making
Seeing this, you might be concerned that learning EDM design seems to require a lot of time. However, nowadays, there are many tools available to assist in EDM design, helping you easily create appealing newsletters. Below are several tools suitable for EDM design:
Canva
Canva is a beginner-friendly graphic design tool with a vast library of newsletter templates and design assets. It allows you to create stunning EDM images in just a few minutes.
Genape
Genape is a text AI generator with various templates, including the ‘Subject and Content for Promotional Emails’ template. It helps you craft newsletter content by generating multiple versions of the copy with just the input of product names and descriptions, saving you a significant amount of time.
Try the EDM copy generator NOW
Genape not only generates copy based on your product descriptions but also allows customization of tone and audience. This helps you save plenty of time in copywriting while maintaining high content quality. Click the link below to get a 7-day free trial now.
