Comm100 Email Marketing tells you how to optimize your use of text in email template and all of the best practices of email text.

1. Text in Email: How Much to Use and What to Say
If there's one thing that we learned in the previous sections, it's that the text in email is incredibly
important. No matter how you integrate images and even video into your email marketing, email is still
primarily a text medium. So how do you optimize your use of text in email template? This section will
summarize all of the best practices of email text.
Font Style, Color, and Size. What’s Best to Use for Text in Emails?
For the purposes of your email template, the font style, color, and size that you use only needs to meet
one criterion. It needs to be readable. In general, a font size of ten or eleven and a non-serif font such as
Arial in a traditional black color will be most readable in the smaller resolutions of many email viewing
devices (remember, these days, your email may be getting read on a tablet or even smaller mobile
device). We will talk later about the best ways to code your email templates, but if you are not using a
pre-made template then it's always best to code your fonts using tags rather than CSS. Gmail, in
particular, will force you to use inline CSS which makes it just as time and control valuable to simply use
font tags.
If your brand guidelines dictate the use of another font size or style, consider using that font size or style
for headlines. Do some testing of display and readability and remember that designing an email
template is not the same as designing a webpage or piece of print marketing collateral. You may want to
allow some flexibility with brand font guidelines to improve email display rendering and response rate.
Headlines: How Big?
As we previously discussed, headlines will be incredibly important in inciting customer action in emails,
especially when your images may or may not load in various email service providers. How big should
your headlines be? And what color? Again, the most important thing in this case may not be brand
adherence. It will be display rendering in the email as well as the ability to draw attention to the
headline. In truth, the amount and placement of the headline real estate will also matter. To a certain
degree, so will spam and email deliverability concerns.
Let's discuss the spam and deliverability concerns first as they are fairly simple. If you use too many
headlines in your email in relation to the full content of the email, then you may suffer a spam score
penalty. Additionally, the excessive use of red fonts has also been proven to be on the "spam watch list"
for several email providers. What's the importance of this? You want to use headlines, but not in
abundance. When possible (and it should always be possible), you should play it safe and not have your
headline be in a red font.
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2. Real estate in the email is also important. It's important to have at least one headline above the fold in
the top two inches of your email to ensure that the most important message gets seen in the preview
window. However, the more large headlines that you put in the top part of the email, the less overall
information that you can convey. Make sure to include a headline in the top section of your email, but
don't use so many headlines that it's not possible to give more information to your users or subscribers
than just the headline content.
In terms of size and color of email headlines, you simply want to ensure that the headline is big and bold
enough to draw attention without being so big that it becomes the only focal point in the email
template. Use your best design judgment.
How Much Text in Email Should You Use?
When deciding how much text to use in your email template, it's actually a fine line to walk. You
certainly want enough text included to engage users and incite them to either make a purchase or click
through to your website. However, the more text that you include in the body of your email, the more
you risk being flagged as spam by spam filters at various email providers.
One solution, and the one that we would recommend, is to use sections of teaser copy that then provide
"read more" or "learn more" or "read the rest of this article" links to full pages on your website. After all,
the primary goal of your email is to drive users to your website or landing page where they are
ultimately more likely to convert to purchasers or to give you a page impression. Blocks of text in email
of a hundred to a hundred and fifty words are often more than sufficient to convey the message or
information.
Remember, most users will scan your email for less than two seconds before they decide to read it or to
delete it. If you include too much text in email, they may simply decide that it's "too much to read."
Select the most enticing sales points of your text and convert them into teaser blurbs that then link to
landing pages or your website.
What Should You Say?
What should you say in your email? The basic answer to this is, "Whatever your customers want to
hear!" Of course, that's not entirely true. Determining what text will resonate with your subscribers and
cause clicks and conversions is, unfortunately, a long testing process in most cases. The more that you
can test different theories of content and find out what words, content categories, offers, and article
types get the best response from your email recipients, the better. Once you've determined that
information, you can craft a forward-looking email content plan. On a basic level, however, here are
some key points that you should keep in mind:
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3.  Seasonal content is always a good idea. If the holidays are right around the corner, incorporate
holiday messages into your content plan so that you're writing about things that are relevant
and on your customers' minds.
 The baseline for content should always be: Is this something that will be valuable to my users?
 If you are emailing an offer that has terms and conditions, make sure that the terms and
conditions are mentioned in the email. That may simply mean including a line that says, "This
offer subject to terms and conditions as listed on the website," or it could be comprehensive.
If you do not include a statement of terms and conditions, however, you're setting yourself up
for customer service phone calls and emails later on.
 The more that you can craft content that will stand out in the inbox, the better. It's a
crowded email marketing world out there. If your competitors are all emailing about advice on
toasters, be sure to email about advice on how to make the best toast instead!
 Do some competitor research to get good content ideas. Especially if you have competitors with
a well-established email program, they may have already researched what makes great
newsletter content. Taking a look at what they've done can save you time and effort.
What Should You Not Say?
What should you not say in your email text? The rules are pretty simple!
 Don't lie or mislead customers. Not only could this ruin your brand reputation and create
customer service nightmares, but in certain cases it could ultimately get you into CAN-
SPAM trouble.
 Don't say things that are offensive or hateful. While there's nothing legally preventing you from
doing so, it's just not nice!
 Don't use words that may trigger spam flags. As a general rule, if your email reads like spam
email that you've received in the past, it will likely be treated as spam email.
Other than that, you are entitled to your free speech in your email newsletter or marketing email. Be
honest, be nice and be aware of what words may get you into the spam or junk folder (hint: free!).
Using Font Styles or All Caps
Using various font styles and all caps can certainly help your email's performance. Because subscribers
and recipients will scan your email quickly, using bolded fonts and all caps fonts on key, important words
and phrases can make those words and phrases jump out at a user and make them aware that there is
something of interest to them in the email. Select the words that you know (or suspect but have not yet
tested) will engage your users. For example, pretend that you sell stuffed unicorns and you know that a
stuffed pink unicorn is very rare to find and desired by your users. In any email that you send out, the
words "stuffed pink unicorn" should be bolded and/or listed in all caps. That way, your users will see
when scanning the email that there is a reference to a product that they have a high interest in.
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4. It's best to bold some words and use all caps for other words and then, occasionally, use both. Not only
does mixing up the font styles (and in some cases colors or sizes) help to draw user attention to
important keywords and concepts, it also makes the email more visually interesting to scan. This is
especially important if you've chosen to dramatically reduce the use of images in your email template
for the purpose of deliverability or usability. Don't use the same font style technique to highlight every
instance. Mix things up to create a visually arresting email.
Don't overdo it though! If you cram stylized font treatments into every tenth word, you'll ultimately
make the email template harder to read. You'll also take away the importance of the words that are
using the stylized font, and readers will have a harder time telling what's most important to them in
your text in email.
Finally, don't rely too heavily on italicized fonts. In the context of an email template, which typically has
smaller chunks of text in smaller spaced, italicized text can actually present a readability problem.
The Call to Action
Of course, potentially the most important text in email newsletter or template will be the call to action.
Depending on the design and purpose of your newsletter or marketing email, you may have a single call
to action or multiple calls to action. Whether you're only asking users to click one link or whether you're
providing multiple opportunities for them to take advantage of offers, buy products, or click-through to
read the full version of an article, there are some basic keys that you should keep in mind with the text
in email template for your call to action.
 Keep it short. The longer you make the call to action, the more likely it is to be misunderstood or
overlooked by your readers.
 Bold your calls to action.
 Make sure that your calls to action look like a link. Don't sacrifice making it easy for readers and
users to know where to click to take the action that you want them to take from your email
for slick looking design. Blue, underlined call-to-action links will still work best.
 Separate your calls to action out from the surrounding text with a paragraph or line break.
 Don't be afraid to tell users to click! In basic web design, using the words "click here" is often
frowned upon. However, in an email template where ensuring that you drive clicks is so
critically important, the words "click here" can keep a call to action both short and effective.
As a general design rule for text in email, you want your calls to action to be highly visible, not buried
within the text and to use words that make it clear to users what you want them to do.
Should the Text in Your Text Version Email be the Same as the HTML Version
Whether you choose to only send a text-based email or whether you're sending a multi-part message
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5. that's part text and part html, you should take a moment to think about the content in the text version
of your email. In some cases, email marketers choose to simply default to the text that they used in the
html version within the text version and use text copies of links instead of coded calls to action where
there would have been html links in the html version of the email.
Given the increasing number of people who will be reading your email as text only on a mobile device,
it's worth your time to put some more effort into the text included in the text-only version of your
email. Nobody wants to look at an email of typed out links!
In general, the best practice for the text in a text based version of an email will be to write a somewhat
shortened version of the text that you used in your html email, and at both the bottom and the top of
the email provide the url where users can see the online version of your email.
It's also important that urls that you provide in the text-based version of your email are short and easy
to remember! You'll be counting on users to actually type (or potentially copy-and-paste) those urls into
a browser. In some cases, you'll be counting on users to remember those urls once they close their
email. Make urls promoted in text-based versions of your email short for optimum usage.
Best Practices for Text in Email
We just covered a great deal of information about using text in an html email or a text-based email.
Here's a summary of the best practices to remember regarding using text in emails.
Keep It Readable: No matter what your brand or font usage on websites or in print marketing
collateral, the most important thing about the text in email is that it is readable. Arial font in a ten
to eleven point size in black typically reads the easiest in most email clients.
Not Too Many Headlines: Using multiple headlines is fine, but don't over-clutter your email with
them. It will make the email less readable and may count against your spam score.
Avoid Overusing Red Fonts: Too many red fonts used in email text have been shown to trigger
spam score increases. Use an off-shade of red or an alternative color if you're using multiple
headlines.
One Headline Above-the-Fold: Try to get at least one headline in the top two inches of your email
template to excite users. However, don't make that headline so big that you can't get other
information into that extremely valuable section of the email template.
Don't Make Headlines Too Big: Don't make your headlines so big that they break the design of
your email template or otherwise clutter it and make it difficult to read.
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6. Limit the Amount of Text in Email: Include as much text in email as you need to in order to make
your point and get users excited. However, remember that the more text that you include, the
more you run the risk of going to the spam or junk folder. Consider teaser sections of text with
links to full landing pages or article pages.
Compelling Content: Seasonal content, content that competitors with successful email programs
have promoted, and content that will stand out in a cluttered inbox and should all be
incorporated into your email content plan.
Include Terms and Conditions: If you are emailing an offer that includes terms and conditions or
limitations, be sure to mention or include them in the email promoting the offer.
Don't Overuse Spam Words: Words like "free", "$" and "credit" can trigger spam filters. That
doesn't mean that you can't use them in your email, just be wary of how much and how often
you use them.
Use Font Styles, Colors and Caps: Mix up the visual presentation of your email by pulling out
"trigger" words for your users and putting them in a bolded font, a font that is a separate color,
an all-caps font or any combination of the above.
Avoid Italics: Italics in an email client can often negatively impact readability.
Calls-to-Action: Calls-to-action should be short, should be bolded, should look like links, should
be separated from the surrounding text with a paragraph break, and should clearly tell users what
you want them to do.
Text Versions of Your Email: When creating the text-only version of your email, shorten the copy
and use short-version, easy-to-remember urls to increase user return.
No matter what email marketing strategy you are taking, the first step to ensure a successful email
campaign is to choose a reliable email sending partner. Comm100, who provides this comprehensive
email marketing ebook, offers you powerful Email Marketing Software, which is both a great long-term
and short-term solution to improving your email marketing program to a new level. For more
information please visit : http://emailmarketing.comm100.com/
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