Email Design Trends: 2017 is the Year of Interactive Emails

For about a decade, the technology behind email didn’t change much. But the last five years or so have seen a quasi-revolution in email marketing. Marketers knew that email has one of the strongest (and easiest to track) ROI and they began to see even more return when they leveraged technology that was inline with messaging being distributed across multiple channels.

The world went mobile and email got responsive. Ever since, there have been significant changes and innovations in email, for designers, developers, marketers, and end users alike. For example, brands used to send big batches of email to random customers and prospectives. In recent years, companies are opting instead to develop strategic and sophisticate email marketing campaigns in order to provide customized content for subscribers. Along with changes in technology and overall customer behaviour, email design has evolved.

Want to stay ahead of the curve? (That’s rhetorical, of course you do.) Well, it can be hard to see all the changes happening and to know which trends will last (and are thus worth investing in). That’s why the below infographic by EmailMonks caught my eye. It does a nice job interpreting email design trends.

Here are some highlights of email features you can expect to grace your inbox this year:

• GIFs: GIFs have grabbed the attention of users for years. Now, they are joined by cinemagraphs (static + moving GIFs). Keep  an eye out for keyframe animations and live backgrounds. The latter might change with time or be a looped video playing in the background. Animating with keyframe creates smoother animations with less obvious frame changes.
• Flat design and minimalism: Consumers want more information, but less content (because less is more). Minimalistic email design caters to that aesthetic.
• Interactive and dynamic content: Want an engaging email? Incorporate dynamic content and interactive features. The use of segmentation and personalization is growing. Elements such as menus, forms, embedded search bars, accordions, and countdown timers will have a integral role in emails this year.
• Search: Search options within emails are going to surge. Subscribers will be able to comb through a retailer’s entire collection of products without opening a new tab or window. Finding a desired item without having to visit the sender’s website? Sign me up!

EmailMonks has shared the latest email design trends that will help shape your strategy. Give the graphic a read to see what trends will revolutionize the email industry in 2017. How many are you planning to include in your email design strategy for the rest of the year?