The devastatingly branded email
Here Nick Carter from The Influence of Marketing™ tells us that, where emails are concerned, you must end the love affair with your logo.
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I still get excited when I hear the soft chime of Outlook telling me I have a new message. Receiving email makes me feel important. But, as we have all experienced, there’s too much spam. In fact, in this technology age where spam is so prevalent, we as humans have begun to learn a few subconscious ways of visually filtering spam. In a fraction of a second, our highly critical eyes run all emails through a simple test: is it designed, or was it typed?
When my preview pane shows me a beautifully crafted message with a logoed banner-image spanning the top and a brand-consistent color scheme… delete — and often without even thinking. But, just as any spam filter often does, this test can sometimes create false positives. For example, I deleted the email below twice before the sender finally called asking: “didn’t you get my email?”
Outlook, in all its wonders, has actually served to propagate this problem. By use of their “themes” and “stationery” features, they have encouraged users to over-design their emails. After a rebranding project for an old client, he then tasked me with developing such a tool so that every email would show-off his new logo. The result: less responses, more confusion, and a communication breakdown — quite the opposite of the desired impact for a rebrand, wouldn’t you say?
When it comes to email design, minimalism is much more than an aesthetic principal, it’s a functional requirement. In order to get past the subconscious spam filter, you must end your love affair with your logo. In the hierarchy of the message layout, your logo doesn’t come first. Graphics don’t come first. The first thing the eye must see is a simple, unassuming text-based message.
Ironically, the most heinous spammers in the world were actually among the first to figure this out. In order to dupe our well-trained subconscious spam filters, unscrupulous email marketers would have us believe that this message was personal by appealing to the same simple test: make it look typed, not designed. There is a lesson to learn, however, even for legitimate email marketers seeking higher open and click rates: maybe branding isn’t the point? Maybe, just maybe, you’re sending that email to thousands of subscribers to communicate a message, not just imprint your logo on the reader’s memory. Design with that objective in mind and avoid the devastatingly branded email.
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Nick Carter is the creator of the database marketing methodology called The Influence of Marketing which focuses on effective list-building and email marketing practices.
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9 appreciated comments, click here to add one
Nate
I agree. Unless I subscribe to a newsletter, I don’t want to see a logo in the header of an email. I usually skim through email newsletters or just delete them. Keeping the logo in the signature can be nice though—just the logo though. It is nice to have the reminder of who you are visually, but then I’m a designer and visually oriented. Bottom line: emails should be concise and not full of fluff, including excess (and potentially distracting) images.
Aug 16th, 2010
David
Reading that was a tonic. Agreed on all counts. The message has to come first, and it has to be compelling.
If you take the approach of most companies who send mass emails and hit people over the head with your brand/logo like you’re wielding a heavy blunt instrument, guess what…. it gets manually deleted. Repeat a few times, and chances are it ends up on an auto-filter straight to the bin.
And you lose respect.
I’d say it’s less likely (as it’s more work) for someone to go the route of figuring out how to unsubscribe from your mailing list, and lots of people won’t trust that they’ll truly be unsubscribed (unless they explicitly signed up to your mailing list to begin with, and therefore put some faith in you at the beginning of the ‘relationship’) because so many unscrupulous senders in the past took a response to mean “there’s someone there! Keep them on the list! Hit them again with the lump hammer!”
If you could back up this article with some real stats on ‘overly designed emails’ vs ‘simple, compelling messages’ you’d really have something.
If you got people to listen :)
Aug 16th, 2010
Stripeyhorse
Yeah very interesting. We were thinking of adding our logo to emails just today. How do other people feel about a small logo in the signature text?
Aug 16th, 2010
Nick Carter
A logo in the signature is tactful and appropriate. The signature is designed to sign-off, saying who you are and where you come from. That is where the logo belongs.
Aug 16th, 2010
Sian
This is an interesting article David as I was just recently thinking of creating a sort of branded email (like a newsletter style) to send to possible employers. I wanted something to showcase my work and possibly set me apart from just the ordinary covering letters that get sent out by young designers (I have had no luck so far with these).
What is your opinion on this, do you think this is a bad idea and will no doubt get caught in the receivers spam?
Aug 17th, 2010
Kaysha
I agree that branded advertising emails are usually deleted without even being opened, but I think in some cases it is really important to brand emails.
For example, a branded email from Ebuyer with details of your purchase/delivery date etc (that you are expecting to receive) seems more reliable and ‘offical’ to me than an email without branding. I think it gives clients an extra level of reassurance in the sometimes uncertain world of internet shopping.
When it comes to professional one to one emails I think a small ‘signature’ logo is a good way of reminding people who you are and giving them a quick route to your website.
Aug 17th, 2010
Nick Carter
Kaysha,
It’s true from a credibility standpoint, but there is always the risk that the more images and HTML mark-up you have, the less likely it is to make it past spam filters. Then, all the branding in the world won’t help when the email never gets seen.
nick
Sep 22nd, 2010
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