Design Basics: Email Dimensions

When creating the content for your emails, the dimensions are an important aspect to consider. The size and layout can have an effect on the success of your campaign. Below, I’ve listed a couple of basic pointers to keep in mind.

Width
The typical email has a width of 600 to 650 pixels. This may sound pretty small – but if you create your email any wider, your recipients may have to scroll both vertically and horizontally to view the email in its entirety… making it a pain to read. Create your email any narrower and your email may become very long in order to fit all of your content.

Despite the width norm of 600-650 pixels, formatting emails horizontally seems to be a growing trend among some retailers. The very helpful Smith-Harmon blog has highlighted various designs in horizontal format, which seem to be generating good results. (It’s worth noting that with these designs, the content usually isn’t very tall – so most recipients would only have to scroll in one direction. This is a good plan; the more you ask your recipient to do in order to read your message, the more likely they are to lose interest).

This just goes to show that it could be worth it to test out different variables in your email creative. Every group is different, and what doesn’t work for one group might create great results for another!

Not only does this email include pertinent information above the fold, the first line is coded in HTML – so the recipient wouldn’t have to enable images to see the text right away. (click image for full view)

Designing for the Preview Pane: The 250-Pixel Rule
Many email clients will display the top portion of your email in a preview pane, which recipients will view before deciding to read the rest of your email. The size of this preview pane varies depending on the email client (Hotmail/Outlook 2007/etc.) and the recipient’s individual settings, but you can generally expect that most of your recipients will see the top left 250 pixels of your email in their preview panes. With that in mind, it’s a good idea to include compelling HTML content in this area to entice your recipients to read further.

Stay tuned for further posts covering email design basics! Have a topic in mind? Feel free to drop me a line.

Celeste ODell | Creative Services & Design