We all struggle with a little writer’s block at some point in our email designing journey. Don’t worry; it’s much more common than you think, but happens way more often than anyone would like!
The good news is that there are plenty of email design resources to pull inspiration from. If you are struggling to come up with fresh new ideas for the campaign you’ve been trying to design for hours, there is always somewhere you can look for influence. In fact, there are so many online inspiration platforms (and so much content within them) that it can sometimes get a little overwhelming.
To help you navigate these creative waters, we at CAL have come up with the 3 best email design resources we have found (so far). This list is in no way exhaustive, and we can’t promise that any of these resources will be the answer to your inspirational needs. However, if you are struggling with getting those pesky creative juices flowing, these reserves of email examples, templates and guidance is a great place to start.
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If you haven’t heard of reallygoodemails.com yet, you’re in for a real treat! This email warehouse is an impressive database of emails from extremely talented companies and individuals. It is also a place where email designers come to “strut their stuff” by showing off their new snazzy emails (and we get to benefit from being exposed to emails that we would otherwise not see in our inboxes).
We love reallygoodemails because the artists and companies on this website aren’t purely posting for inspirational purposes; they are real emails that have been sent out to real customers. They were designed to follow industry tendencies and trends and to maximize engagement. So if you have a good eye, you can pull more than just design and creative inspiration from these email examples - you can learn what the big companies and artists are discovering from research based on an extremely vast customer sample.
Here are some big companies that we were able to find on reallygoodemails:
The website homepage offers a gorgeous display of curated emails from the best of the best and a search bar for you to easily find emails similar to the one you want to design. What we at CAL have found even more useful, is that they provide an “explore” tab, where the user can navigate different categories of emails. This allows us the flexibility of delving into emails that can be used for entire automation flows, instead of just one-off campaign emails.
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If you are looking for more artistic content and less real-world run-of-the-mill emails, Dribbble would be your best place to draw your inspiration. Artists and designers from all corners of the internet come to Dribbble to showcase their talent and build a portfolio. Think Instagram for designers; instead of headshots and cool photos, it’s amazing art and design.
This creative space will allow you to explore different art styles that aren’t necessarily restricted to email layouts. Since anyone can submit content that aligns with their own genre, you will get a healthy mix of trends, techniques and approaches to design!
Head to the search bar at the top of the page and search for “email”. You’re guaranteed to be met with a staggering amount of posts from brilliant designers who have tagged their content as “email” (think hashtags - but cooler). This comes with a catch, however: the content isn’t completely curated. While only the best designs will get the most likes and visibility, the category can include anything to do with the word “email”. That means you are likely to be shown emails, but can also be shown landing pages of email marketing companies, email application redesigns, 3D email animations, etc.
We have found this range of content can sometimes be beneficial though, as you never really know exactly where the inspiration for that email redesign will come from!
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Klaviyo is the main tool we use at CAL for building amazing emails. In our opinion, it is the most user friendly and intuitive platform to reproduce your designs in a way that is guaranteed to look good on mobile and desktop (provided you use the tool properly of course).
While Klaviyo continues to grow its userbase throughout the years, so do the features that they make available for their clients. One of these lesser-known tools is the Klaviyo Showcase, which highlights great designs that are provided by Klaviyo creators. Not only are these gorgeous emails ready for real-world applications, they are templated so that you can immediately copy them into your company’s environment.
Once the emails are saved on your account, you can edit and modify them to your heart’s desire and then send them directly through Klaviyo. You get the assurance that your email will perform on all screens, the confidence of cutting-edge design and the flexibility of adding your own elements.
As with other showcasing tools, you are able to search something similar to your campaign idea, but you can also browse by industry, campaign type or upcoming holidays. We find the “Metrics” filter to be extremely useful; it includes emails that have been successful in their open rates or click through rates, allowing you to pick your template more confidently. Also, once your template has been chosen, you are given a suggested subject line, preview text, sending date and sending time to help organize your campaign.
Those were only 3 out of the hundreds of design resources that are available to you on the world-wide-web. From here, hopefully, you will explore and find more databases of email examples and templates that suit your niche. One last tip: if you are looking for more routine exposure to gorgeous email design, try subscribing to websites and newsletters that are in your niche (or if you simply like their designs). We think you’ll be surprised at how quickly passive exposure to good design can change the way you think about emails.
Don’t want the hassle of signing up to multiple websites? Every Friday, we publish the 6 best email examples that we could find over the week in our newsletter. That way, you get exposure to an extremely curated list of emails right in your inbox in one single email. Subscribe below to receive this weekly newsletter and more!
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