Email Header and Footer Design: Dos and Don’ts

Have you ever come across an email that didn’t have a header and footer? Chances are no, you probably didn’t as emails without headers and footers are not a common occurrence due to the sheer impact they have on the reader.

Why might they be so important? Simply because these are the first and the last things that a reader will come across, and these will dictate the first impression and the experience they leave with.

Hence, Headers and footers play an important role in the core structure of an email, and if the purpose of sending out emails is digital marketing, then it is extremely important to pay special attention to the designs used for them.

Do not worry as below you’ll find a list with dos and don’ts of designing email headers and footers, and these will undoubtedly help you in lead generation as well as create an engagement with your audience.

The article will discuss the following points in detail:

1. Importance of layout
2. Importance of color palette
3. Importance of font and font size
4. Importance of content

How efficient can headers and footers be?

Before we begin with our list, it is important to point out some facts that are very common, so common in fact that even the most seasoned digital marketers will ignore the effects headers and footers can have.

As already stated, headers and footers are important for lead generation and building a community, and engaging with them. in comparison to the content, these two parts might look quite insignificant and one might wonder how can they be effective?

A quality header and a precise footer will help your readers distinguish spam mail from something that might interest them.

As far as data goes, it is highly unlikely that people will even see the header or the footer, they might simply scroll and search for the content they want. Most of the analytics done online by various agencies show that readers are more likely to reach the end of a page while scrolling than spend time engaging with the initial header section.

But this is where things get interesting, people want to save time by skipping over greetings and headings that they probably know.

Digital marketing however has evolved too with this trend, email ad campaigns now are shorter than ever with little to no detailed content. Emails instead function as a gateway to the actual content or product.

With such advertisement strategies, emails are now shorter than ever with little to no scrolling being required, creating a need for catchy titles and great footers is essential.

Now that we know how a reader will tend to scroll past content and how emails have been optimized to counteract scrolling, we can look at some dos and don’ts while designing headers and footers for your email.

1. Header and footer layout DO’s & Don’ts

Header and footer layout can affect how a reader will perceive these components.

An appealing position for these components of your email will allow for users to be more perceptive to things that you want them to pay attention to.

No one will pay attention to a layout that is not nice to look at. Thus, these are the pointers to remember when creating a layout.

Dos’

• Ensure that the header is recognizable and represents what the email is about.
• Ensure that the alignment of the header is right at the top and in consonance with the rest of the article.
• Headers should be utilized with images and texts that grab the reader’s attention.
• If a kid can understand by your header and images what the email is about, then it is a good layout. Simply put, the layout should be visually appealing as well as simple.
• Optimize your header and footnotes to be visually appealing even for mobile and handheld devices.

Don’ts

• Do not use complicated fonts and improper alignment that seem out of place for your header or footer.
• Don’t crowd your header or footer with text or images. This will lead to complex designs that are visually unappealing.
• Do not ignore mobile optimization, most users nowadays use handheld devices to browse, and coming across a badly optimized email will lead to people simply ignoring it.

2. Colour Palette of header and footer Do’s and Don’ts

Colour is very important to your emails, adding the right kind of colors can differentiate your email from the rest and create a visual engagement that a lot of emails fail to create.

Visual engagement is a concept that simply means that people are more likely to read or interreact emails that are more visually appealing and how good an email is for their eyes.

In such circumstances, emails cannot be too colorful or bright, and neither can they be just one shade. Choosing a color palette is important and choosing the right one even more so.

Headers and footers are how your email would look from the start to the finish. It is thus advisable that these too be perfectly color-coordinated.

Dos

• Ensure the colors of your header and footer represent your company or your public image.
• Use a relevant color palette as color coordination can enhance the appeal of an email unconsciously, thus increasing engagement. The email below has a lighter color palette that goes with the whole theme and persona of the company.

Source: Email Notification, The Telegraph

• Font or text Colour must be complementary to the overall color scheme.
• It is necessary that you highlight your header and footer rather than blend them. This is important as it allows for a much smoother interaction for the reader.

Don’ts

• Do not use out-of-place color for your headers and footers.
• Do not use multiple colors for a header or a footer as this will only create an appealing or noisy text. Noisy text is something that irritates or seems complex to comprehend due to its visuals.
• Do not use colors that are polar opposite to the general scheme as it creates an unappealing effect.

3. Header Font and Size

This quite basic yet necessary to address as these things will distinguish your content from your header or footer.

Dos

• For the best visual effect, both the header and footer must be in the same font. This means that from the first alphabet to the last one, stick to just one font.
• Use fonts that are simple to comprehend, If people have to turn their devices just to understand the header, it is redundant.
• The size of the font is important, as your header must stand out from your content while your footer need not eat up the space that the dedicated content needs, thus size must be adjusted. Below is an example of how different styles and sizes are used in headers and even in the content.

Source: Email Notification, Quora

• use complementary fonts. If there is a particular type of font that resonates with the rest of the text or even with your business, use it and experiment with it.

Don’ts

• Don’t use a different font for different words in a header or the footer.
• Don’t use fonts that require time to comprehend. Time is valuable and if your font requires 2-3 seconds extra, people won’t bother reading.
• Do not use huge font sizes for either the header or the footer. Moderate the size till it becomes more natural and the two segments don’t look de-attached to the middle part of the email.

4. Content do’s and don’ts

Yes, the header and footer contain content that while readers may deem unworthy of their attention, is supremely important.

Hence, if you aim to rope in an audience through an email, you too should consider the kind of content that is projected through headers and footers.

Dos

• A very rudimentary but important thing to iterate here is the significance of catchy phrases or titles in your headers. This will be the first thing people notice so better make it appealing.
• While designing your header, one important thing to do is to add your company logo/name. This is a basic method of showing your identity.
• Linking content with your header will invite a lot of traffic. If people can simply click on your header and get to a page with what they want, your email has achieved its purpose.
• The header must represent what the article holds for the reader but it should reveal the exact details. The shorter and creative it is, the more effective it will be.
• If you know the exact recipient of the email, then add a more personal touch to it by incorporating their name in the header, this will indefinitely grab their attention.
• An email footer must contain your company details. Contact info, email address, physical address, and above all links to your main website. These links can be in the form of QnA or Customer support as seen below.

Source: Email notification, Freelancer

• Add details in the footer that will further help you get subscribers, like links to your app or events. Anything that can be put behind the gates of free registration will allow you to get more engagement efficiently.

Don’ts

• Headers are meant to provide clarity, do not use vague and random headers in an email. While random clickbait titles will get clicks, they won’t increase engagement. People might instead opt for unsubscribing your emails.
• Do not leave your header as huge whitespace. Yes, whitespace is important, but leaving your header empty will not appear engaging enough.
• Do not provide all the information in the header or the footer of the email. This might be counter-intuitive but hey if your email satisfies the reader, then they do not have any reason to check out the rest of your content or website.
• The header is the gateway to your content, not adding links to it might prove detrimental to your engagement.
• Do not miss out on adding disclaimers and subscription options in the footer.
• Do not add a lot of information to your footer. Limit the links and the informational texts that are added according to relevance.

Illustrations

For example: if your email is about promoting escape rooms, then the header must signify this through the header. You can either use a catchy title or your company name separately or together in the header.

Source: Email Notification, MakeMyTrip

For example, the title can be best escape room in your area and it can be accompanied by the name and/or logo of the company. While headers can be just the company logo and name followed with highlighted content as seen above.

Source: Email Notification, Zoom

Similarly, footers are utilized to draw people to your website or content. This is where giving partial and interesting information works well, as people who want to explore more, will naturally click on links that will give them access to the complete content.

Conclusion

Imagine a sandwich, the header, and the footer are the bread while the content is the stuffing that goes in a sandwich. While most of the taste and distinction is based on the stuffing, the bread is an integral part of a sandwich and thus cannot be ignored.

As part of your digital advertising campaign, it is important that you pay attention to the details of these components and with these dos and don’ts, you can design a great combination of header and the footer.

If the header and footer can inform and satisfy your reader to a certain extent, there is a good chance people will keep coming back to it and might even check your other content or website or products, thus, paying a hefty amount of attention to them is always appreciated and rewarding.