There are many different types of visual elements that you can add to your email, but illustrations work wonders probably because they are fun. Did you know that illustration in email is one of the design trends that will make it big in 2022? Over the past couple of years, the purpose of using illustrations has evolved. Now, illustrations are used as a storytelling tool. Here are a few creative ways to use illustrations in your email.
Creative ways to use illustration in email
How-to-guides
How-to-guides are often lengthy and are not suitable for email content. Emails that are just a wall of text will be ignored by your customers. However, this idea can be repurposed by using illustrations in your emails.
Harry’s has found a creative way to enter compelling how-to-guides in their emails. Instead of using a wall of text to describe their products, they have simply used a storyboard illustration to market their product. They have used three illustrations, one of which is dedicated to showcasing their products. The opening line of their email is also humorous. Orange and green colors, considered to be the most eye-catching colors, are used to highlight the products.
Quirky
While it is recommended to use uncomplicated and meaningful illustrations in your emails, the rule is not set in stone. You are free to use designs that concur with your brand aesthetics. With colorful and quirky illustrations, you can easily attract the attention of your readers.
The illustrations used by Magic Spoon Cereal are anything but simple. At first glance, the illustration seems more like modern art. But when you see their product design, you will notice that the illustrations are quite in line with their quirky brand aesthetics. In addition to that, this email was part of their Halloween email marketing campaign. Therefore, Halloween colors like orange, purple, and browns are generously used in the template. The illustration depicts a witch riding a one-eyed deer to celebrate the spookiness of the holiday.
Animated illustrations
Adding a bit of animation is an easy way to spice up your illustrations. Animated GIFs are a series of images that are stitched together. Whereas, in animated illustrations, a slight motion is added to the main image.
Stibee uses the same technique in their emails. They have used one GIF that is surrounded by illustrations that are animated. The slight motion of illustrations makes the emails much more engaging as compared to simple static designs. Stibee also uses contrasting colors to make their illustrations and CTA stand out from the rest of the email.
Seasonal illustrations
The holiday season is a great time to experiment with your email template to make them more visible in the inboxes of your target audience. Including illustrations in your holiday emails makes them more engaging for the readers. One of the bonuses of creating holiday illustrations is that you already have a dedicated color palette for each holiday. For example, the dominant colors of Christmas are red, green, and white.
Honey uses the above-mentioned color palette in its Christmas template. They have used appropriate illustrations that are in tandem with the message that they are trying to convey. The illustrations are simple yet effective.
Layer with photos
Creating massive and intricate illustrations for email templates might become an expensive affair for start-ups. But you don’t need elaborate graphic animations to make your emails stand out. You can still create attractive email templates by layering a few illustrations on your stock photos.
RXBAR has used this technique in their Halloween email template. They have used a static image of their product that has been modified to look like Frankenstein’s monster walking through a forest.
Best practices to follow while using illustrations in your email
Keep them simple
It might be enticing to use multicolored images in your template to make your illustrations more attractive and engaging. But the same effect can also be achieved with a simple design.
Place them wisely
The placement of the illustration also matters. The illustrations that you are using should have a definitive purpose, and their placement should supplement it. For example, if you are planning to use your product logo, you should do so wisely. You should not just throw the logo anywhere and hope that it makes sense.
Use small-sized illustrations
While adding illustrations to your email template, use the JPG format. Other formats like PNG will increase the file size of the emails and drastically increase the load time. If your emails are taking longer to open, your target audience will just close them and move on to the next one.
Use backup images
Sure, adding animation to illustrations is a great way to make your emails more appealing. But, there’s a chance that these animations may not load in some of the email clients. Therefore, you should embed a static image of your illustrations into the HTML code as a failsafe mechanism.
Conclusion
Illustrations are a great way to convey your message to your readers. You can mix things up and come up with unique illustrations that align with your brand image. You can also outsource the designing process to an email marketing service company. The scope of using and creating illustrations is only limited by your imagination.
Author: Kevin George is the head of marketing at Email Uplers, that specializes in crafting Professional Email Templates, PSD to Email conversion, and Mailchimp Templates. Kevin loves gadgets, bikes & jazz, and he breathes email marketing. He enjoys sharing his insights and thoughts on email marketing best practices on email marketing blog.