Your email banner will always be the first element that your customers see - and therefore can have a big influence on your brand voice (even though you haven't even said anything yet!). According to Litmus, the average time that your customers will spend reading your email is a short 12 seconds. Therefore, any parts of your email that appear on the users screen when they open your email (also known as “above the fold”) could be the deciding factor between them scrolling to learn more, or backing out of the email - this includes your email banner.
To begin building that brand voice to keep your customers scrolling for more information, you must first try to determine what your ideal customers are attracted to. Once you've understood who your customers are and what their needs and desires may be, you can begin amplifying your brand voice through email and determining how you want to structure your content, from the top down.
If you're still looking for the perfect email banner design structure, or if you want to switch it up to really "wow" your clients, these are the banners that we found worked best in 2022, along with their own strengths and weaknesses. This way, you’ll be able to pin-point exactly which banner to use in different scenarios and also justify why you are using them.
This banner is extremely familiar and well organized. It combines the company logo, the most used links of your website and/or a call to action.
Since it is so familiar, you might not win any style points for the use of this banner, but it will make it easier for an audience unfamiliar with modern email marketing to get onto your website.
We use this email banner for more mature audiences who might not intuitively click a logo to head to your website and might need to be instructed on how to get to your shop (e.g. a link in your banner that says "Shop Now" or "Our Site").
As the name states, this is the most straightforward email banner design. It is effortless due to its easy integration into every email. The asymmetry of this design makes it stand out a little more than The Classic Design while still offering one CTA that the user can click on (for the users who don't intuitively click on company logos to head to websites).
Here is a free tool that we use to design emails exactly like the one pictured above! It is a very simple and intuitive plug-in for Figma users (if you aren't designing emails in Figma, we definitely recommend you try it out).
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This is our favorite and most popular email banner design. It incorporates your logo into the email and allows the user to flow directly into your email content. The CTA of the email is pushed down to the bottom of the content so that the user has context before deciding whether they want to continue the navigation. All of the content is still above the fold (link), but organized in a more presentable way. Unfortunately, this means that it is more difficult to integrate due to contrast and positioning issues (and therefore not very easy to template), but the result is an email that is extremely pleasing to the eye.
You can't go wrong with any of these banner designs. What is imperative is that you try to understand your audience and how your typical user is more likely to interact with your email. However, don't worry about getting it wrong! If you miss the mark on usability, your users will tell you. As with any other changes to your marketing material and design, keep an eye on your analytics to understand user demands, needs and tastes. Keep in mind that experimentation is necessary, but your users should determine what stays and what goes!
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