An Ultimate Guide on Email Customization

An Ultimate Guide on Email Customization
01 January, 2023 • ... • 731 views
Irene Dmitrieva
by Irene Dmitrieva

Customizing your emails can be a great way to keep marketing communications on brand and consistent. With modern email design tools and templates, anyone can put together a stunning customizable email without HTML or CSS knowledge. Keep reading to learn how to apply email customization to make your emails more effective.

What is email customization?

Email customization is the process of making a template unique by adding personal touches that reflect your company’s branding. Email service providers’ email builders usually offer a variety of templates that can be customized with simple coding or drag-and-drop tools. This includes style elements like colors, fonts, images, logos, etc. But you can also adjust other features like the layout of text boxes and images according to the campaign’s marketing goals. For example, one way to introduce customers to a brand redesign is to place an old and a new logo side-by-side instead of one after the other. By customizing the design of your emails, you can make your email campaign stand out from the rest, even if you don’t have a background in design and development.

Email template types

By using different templates, you can shake things up in your marketing emails. There are many different types of email templates that can be customized to fit your company’s branding and marketing goals. These might include:

  • A content template that contains only text and provides space for a header, relevant call-to-action buttons, and logos.
  • A gallery email. If you’re looking to display many images in your email, a gallery is a way to go.
  • An email with a featured section. Useful to highlight something specific in the email. This template can be used for a number of purposes: it is the perfect choice for companies who want to market their products, make announcements, tell stories, or teach readers.
  • A fixed column layout is ideal when you want to draw attention to specific data points or compare information side-by-side.
  • A themed email layout that corresponds with special occasions or events. For example, a Christmas-themed template sent to readers in December.
  • A past email campaign. A tried and true template can be repurposed for future email blasts.

All of these templates are great for different email marketing purposes.

Email customization vs. personalization: What’s the difference

Email customization and personalization are two terms that might seem interchangeable. In actuality, they refer to different processes involved in creating email content.

Email personalization refers to creating messages for each individual subscriber based on their specific interests or demographics. This can include customizing the subject line, sender name, and content of your email to ensure that each message is highly relevant.

In contrast, email customization is more about adapting the visual style, layout of an email in general. Another difference is that email customization doesn’t adjust to subscribers, it adjusts to businesses.

Two distinct emails that could be made from one template
Two different emails from different brands that can probably be made from one template. Source: Really Good Emails

Take a look at these two emails. Their structure is very similar yet the brand colors, logos, different images, and additional elements (bullet points, a subheader) make them distinct. That’s how email customization works.

Both approaches (email personalization and customization) are powerful tools to justify your marketing efforts.

Why create a customized email?

Email templates help marketers save time. Thanks to them there’s also no need to reinvent the wheel. But you need to tweak templates to make your emails recognizable and consistent. 

When you take the time to create and customize email, it’s worth it for several reasons: 

  • A custom email template is a great choice for marketers who want to save time and resources while still effectively engaging their target market. With pre-built templates that incorporate images, employees can focus on other important marketing tasks.
  • Customized emails create a consistent style and structure for newsletters. Consistency is essential in establishing a clear brand identity for your organization. This lets readers know what they can expect from your communications in the future, making them more likely to engage with your messages.
  • With pre-existing templates that only require drag-and-drop customization, you can easily craft user-friendly and good-looking emails. No need to have advanced coding skills or seek design support.

Must-have email customization elements

If you want your email marketing campaign to be successful, it is crucial that you tailor your email templates to reflect your overall strategy. Here are some key elements that you can (and should) customize.

Brand elements

Your brand elements are what set your emails apart from generic or clunky templates. Elements like your logo, fonts, and colors all create amazing emails, professional feel, and brand consistency across your marketing materials.

Grammarly logo in an email
The Grammarly company logo is highly visible at the top of each email. Brand colors and typical structure also make this email recognizable

Visuals

An image-rich message is usually more appealing than a text-heavy one. In customized emails, you can use visuals to illustrate what’s most important. For example, using an image of a product alongside the text will help potential customers get a feel for what they’re buying. 

With the help of images, you can easily break the message into visual blocks. This makes it easier for your readers to quickly understand what each section is about. As you can see from the illustration below, using appropriate images and illustrations helps to better convey the message. For example, charts by the “Flex dates” header show what the function looks like. In addition, including useful diagrams or charts is a great way to highlight important points or facts.

An example of an email that uses images to structure the message
Illustrations aid in delivering your message more effectively. Source: Really Good Emails

Social sharing buttons

Social sharing buttons and links are also important features to include when customizing your emails. These allow recipients to easily share your content, extending the reach of your brand and helping you build relationships with potential customers.

Social sharing buttons in an email
Evernote provides the opportunity for readers to engage with its content through social media. Source: Really Good Emails

Unique value proposition callouts

To be effective, templates should make use of visual elements such as callouts, bullet points, and CTA buttons to draw the reader’s attention to the UVP. They can be customized to match the color scheme of your brand.

Handy did a great job of designing the email. The brand designed its email campaign with features like CTA buttons and graphics in a unified style.

The use of unique value proposition elements in an email
Handy incorporates call-to-action buttons and icons of catalog sections to accentuate the most crucial details in a letter. Source: MailerLite

Unsubscribe link

Unsubscribe link is another email customization element you can have. This gives recipients the ability to opt out of your list at any time and protects you from complaints or legal issues down the road. Ideally, this link should be easy for your readers to find and use, whether it’s in the body of the email or at the bottom.

Unsubscribe link in an email
The unsubscribe link is at the bottom of the email, where it's easy to spot and click on. Source: Really Good Emails

Selzy templates customization

Now we’ll show you how easy template customization really is. Selzy’s email builder has a variety of different templates that you can adjust to your preferences.

Screenshot of Selzy email template choice
Selzy offers dozens of customizable templates

On the left, you can see different categories you can choose from. And on the right, there’re templates themselves. Let’s choose one of the options and customize it.

The interface of Selzy’s email editor
Selzy’s email editor has an intuitive interface

Here’s the email editor where you can customize the template of your choice. Different content elements and style options to add are on the left. And on the right is the layout you’re working on. Clicking on each part of the template opens the dedicated menu. Let’s click on the logo element on top.

The “content priorities” menu in Selzy’s email editor
A left click on any element opens a dedicated menu

The “content priorities” menu allows you to tweak the size and placement of the element, change the image and link. Using this menu we added an image of the logo and changed its alignment from the center to the left. 

Next up let’s move the countdown element around.

Selzy’s drag-and-drop element placement
Customizing an email is easy with a drag-and-drop function

Changing the placement of an element is very straightforward. Click on the element and drag it where you want. In this example, we want to place the countdown just below the logo.

Next step, we put the text block on the bottom and added social sharing buttons and an image block.

Customized email template
The end result of the template customization

Here’s the final look! Not only did we totally revise the layout of the content and inserted new blocks, but it was easy and fast. You too can use Selzy’s customization features and various templates to make sure that your emails are unique and consistent with brand identity and campaign goals.

Final thoughts

Email customization makes a template look more on-brand by adding personal details. By using a custom email template, you can spend less time on email design and more time writing engaging content that your audience will love.

When creating an email marketing campaign template, it is important to include a variety of customizable elements that help convey your brand and message effectively. Some key elements to consider are:

  • Brand elements (such as your logo, fonts, and colors)
  • Visuals like images and illustrations
  • Social sharing buttons to help increase your reach
  • Unique value proposition callouts that draw attention to key benefits
  • Unsubscribe link to give recipients the ability to opt out of your list

Email customization is a great way to create engaging, on-brand content that resonates with your audience. With the right approach, you can create beautiful email, truly effective and customizable templates that will drive engagement and increase ROI for your business.

01 January, 2023
Article by
Irene Dmitrieva
As a marketing copywriter, I have experience creating compelling content for websites and social media posts. My background in market research helps me ensure that my copy is both on-brand and data-driven. I am excited to bring my skills and experience to Selzy team and help drive success for this company.
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