The Value of Interactive Emails
Email marketing is one of the most profitable marketing channels available today. On average, businesses can make approximately $36 for every $1 invested in email marketing. One of the best ways to maximize this ROI for your business is to make your emails more interactive.
Why Interactive Emails?
Interactive emails go beyond static content by quickly capturing your audience’s attention and encouraging them to engage. Using colors, GIFs, countdown timers, and other creative methods, you can create a personalized experience for your customers and encourage them to interact with your brand. Below, we’ve shared our top 5 examples of interactivity in emails and our favorite tools to help you get the job done.
#1
GIFs
GIFs bring your emails to life and convey messages quickly. Their inherent playfulness connects with your audience faster than a static image and makes your content more memorable. They are also extremely versatile: product demos, behind-the-scenes glimpses, dynamic ads, and video sneak peeks are all examples of how GIFs can engage with your audience. For more tips on GIFs, read GIFs 101 in our recent email design and coding best practices guide.
#2
Colors
Colors are a small but effective way to evoke emotions and influence behavior within your emails. Intentionally choose colors that communicate your brand’s story, the theme of your message, and how those connect with your unique customer. Additionally, repeating the same colors over time connects customers with your brand and creates a visually appealing narrative. Note when choosing colors: stay mindful of your email’s accessibility and remain ADA compliant by choosing contrasting colors for text and background and always view your emails in both light and dark modes before approving.
Using a Color Contrast Checker can help you to quickly assess your color choices to test if they are ADA compliant. The higher your contrast ration the better!
#3
Hover and On-Click Effects
Hover and on-click effects add an extra layer of interactivity by revealing hidden content when users interact with your email. These subtle yet engaging features can be utilized for interactive menus, image reveals, or providing additional information without cluttering the initial view.
A few examples of the hover effect include the color of your CTA changing when the user’s cursor moves over the button, or a product image switching to a new angle when they hover over it. Because this method reacts to where the mouse cursor appears, this feature cannot work on mobile devices. For this reason, do not hide essential content when using the hover effect. To accomplish a similar effect that will work on any device, use the on-click effect. Also true to its name, the on-click effect is similar in that an element changes, but instead of reacting to the hovering of a cursor, something changes when it is clicked on.
#4
Countdown Timers
To create a sense of urgency and drive action: incorporate countdown timers into your email messages. It could be a banner at the top counting down to your upcoming sale, or the large focus image within your email announcing there’s only a few hours left to grab a deal. Whatever you choose to countdown to, countdown timers capture an audience’s attention and prompt an immediate response. Remember to test your timer across various devices like our last few examples to ensure a consistent experience.
#5
Dynamic Maps
Dynamic maps bring it home for your customers – literally. Provide users with a map that generates based on their geolocation. This method is great for location-based marketing. Are your products in a store near them? Are you running an event or promotion in their area? Is their package almost home to them? Interactive maps can quickly provide complex information personalized for your audience.
Top Tools for Creating Interactive Emails
One of the challenges that comes with building interactive emails is the common struggle between design and development. How do you collaborate to make interactive emails work? For this, we love our third-party tools that make implementation smoother.
NiftyImages
NiftyImages specializes in enhancing email personalization through dynamic content. They are a SaaS platform, a great fit for smaller companies, ESP agnostic, and require no integrations, so you can work seamlessly with your existing templates using merge tags. A few of NiftyImages’ features include countdown timers, personalized images, dynamic maps, and interactive polls.
For more on NiftyImages, read our recent product review.
Movable Ink
Movable Ink excels in helping marketers craft dynamic content that adapts to each recipient. They are a great choice for enterprises. Using their easy-to-use platform, you can customize your content to display what you want based on targeting rules you set such as customer language, viewing device, location, and more, even the current weather! A few of Movable Ink’s features include data-activated layered content, connecting customer data to influence displayed content such as rewards points, dynamic email designs that look completely different for each customer based on the customizations you set, and more.
Make Your Emails Interactive Today
Do you need help transforming your emails from drab to fab? Whether you have specific questions or don’t know where to begin, our experienced design and development consultants are here to assist.
Schedule a consultation today to learn how you can use personalized interactivity in your emails to make the highest ROI possible.
