Before building a new email template, there are a few things to think about so that you get the most out of your efforts. We’d like to introduce you to 8 key factors that we have found to be important in creating a powerful B2B email marketing campaign.

Decide between Plain Text and HTML

What’s the difference between plain text and HTML? Studies show that plain text emails have universal readability and higher deliverability rates.

With universal readability, you never have to worry about if it’s being rendered properly because every email client can render plain text emails. In addition, plain text messages has a slightly higher rate of deliverability because they’re smaller and have less bandwidth to deliver.

Alternatively, HTML offers the ability to aesthetically enhance your emails. Your message appeal and readability can be enriched with color, graphics, and font choices that ultimately result in better click-through rates. As we mentioned earlier, having visual storytelling can have a positive impact on your email campaigns.

If you’re wondering which are better suited for your emails, it’s important to take into account what kind of goals you’re trying to reach. Emails like newsletters and event invitation typically take the form of HTML while drip and tradeshows follow-ups might be more effective with plain text emails.

Keep this in mind when creating email campaigns as an HTML-based email will take much longer to design and optimize.

Include a compelling but truthful subject line

Don’t lie in your subject line just to get people to click. Make sure it is relevant, interesting and compelling.

Use simple design

The information in your emails should be neatly composed with zero clutter. The chances of getting your email skimmed or deleted are high if it’s hard to read and unorganized. Simple designs translate better than busy chaos. Make sure you use bullet points, sub-topics, and clean font to ensure a seamless design and customer experience.

Communicate with colors

This is a great opportunity where you get to condition your branding to your audience. Include a few splashes of your company’s colors to help your email stand out from the crowd. In essence, your email design should align with your overall brand.

Segment your copy

Make your emails easier for readers to scan at a glance. Remember that your prospects are busy at work and don’t have time to read your lengthy emails. Break down your paragraphs into legible sections so that it doesn’t look intimidating to read. If you have a list of offers or services you’re launching, be sure to break them into bullets so that you have breathing room to elaborate.

Craft your CTA

Use strong command verbs to make sure your audience know what action is expected of them. Be creative and use colors or a button to foster value and focus. Your call to action is your bread and butter, so it’s critical to put sufficient time in when creating one.

Remember to include unsubscribe links

Your email reputation relies on making sure your emails are CAN-SPAM compliant so be sure to make your unsubscribe links are easy to find. We will go into this more in the permission-based email marketing chapter, but want to make sure you have a preliminary understanding of how to utilize the unsubscribe and email preference center.

Note that Pardot won’t let you save your email template without a unsubscribe or preference center link.

Personalize your messaging

A variable tag is a string of codes that represent a specific value in a Pardot field and gives you the chance to personalize emails. You will be able to pull in codes such as %%first_name%% or %%MA_tool%% that will customize to your audience.

In addition to having strong visual storytelling to achieve high-level email effectiveness, it’s also important to keep a pulse on the most up-to-date email marketing best practices. It will not only enable you to optimize your email marketing assets but achieve the highest returns on your email investment.