The Email Marketers Guide to Branding It takes five to seven impressions for consumers to even remember a brand. That’s why regular, consistent branding is key to getting your business recognised by your audience. When it comes to email, the concept of branding is similar to that on all other channels. It involves the process of using style, images, photography, colours, logos, and copy in a consistent way that makes your emails instantly recognisable as belonging to your brand. And this process is increasingly essential as the inbox becomes busier and busier, noisier and noisier. For instance, over 300 billion emails were estimated to have been sent and received every single day in 2020. And this is predicted to increase to over 376.4 billion by 2025. Fortunately, email branding doesn’t have to cost the earth. If anything at all. And a great place to start is with this guide. Where we will take you through the benefits of email branding, some of the key steps to ensuring your email branding is immediately recognisable, and how you can go about reinforcing your branding with email. For email marketers, better starts here. Benefits of email branding Before we explore how you can improve your email branding, let’s begin with why you would in the first place. Instantly recognisable Never underestimate the power of familiarity. One of the most immediate benefits of email branding is that it makes your business immediately recognisable. If your business has gone to lengths to build up your reputation, offer a seamless service, and boasts a dedicated customer base. Then you want consumers to immediately know who you are when you send out your email campaigns. By building a recognisable brand, you will be more familiar to consumers. This will help cut through the noise of your competitors. Because consumers are often overwhelmed by choice, so are more likely to choose a brand they know and trust, instead of risking their money with an unknown business. Builds credibility High quality, consistent branding helps a business to look legitimate. It suggests that they are successful and savvy enough to put time and energy into making their brand look great. Something that consumers will connect with the quality of your products and service. Inconsistent, ill-thought-out branding on the other hand looks sloppy and reflects badly on the brand’s offering. Attracts the perfect customer Consumers connect with brands that have similar values to them. A key point of branding is showcasing your story and values. So by reflecting this in your email, you will be attracting and engaging with the perfect customers for your business. For instance, if you are selling higher-ticket items, this can be reflected in your branding with the use of more stylish or luxurious branding. If, however, you sell cheaper products or FMCG, your branding may be more down to earth and accessible. All of these details can be fed through into your emails to help connect with your audience. Helps maintain consistency Consistency is key to good branding. But good branding can also help maintain consistency throughout your email campaigns. Without clear branding in mind, it can be easy to go rogue on email design. Subjectively choosing colours, images, and fonts that suit in the moment. Sometimes this will look good. But sometimes it won’t. It can result in a less recognisable business and brand. And also will likely involve design that not everyone in the business is happy with or has signed off on. By having consistency throughout your emails, you only need to receive branding sign off once. And you know that each email will look great at every send. Building an email branding strategy We hope by now you agree with us. Branding is pretty essential to email and the wider business. And it doesn’t have to be difficult, just follow our steps and you’ll have beautifully branded emails in no time. Logo and tagline Before we get into the intricacies of branding, we need to state the obvious. One of the most recognisable elements of your brand is going to be your logo and tagline. So do not forget to include these in your emails. They don’t have to be front and centre, as long as they are noticeable at the beginning of your email. So as soon as a recipient opens they have an immediate view of your logo. And then your branding can be reinforced by all of the following content. Colours Colours are one of the most stand-out elements of a brand. In fact, research compiled by Colorcom has shown that consumers “make a subconscious judgment about a person, environment, or product within 90 seconds of initial viewing and that between 62% and 90% of that assessment is based on colour alone.” Therefore, choose your colours wisely. Ideally, these will reflect the colours used on your website and other marketing materials, to maintain consistency. And you can use this colour subtly throughout your email. From header copy, to CTAs, to even using different hues of the colour in images. Imagery Whatever imagery you choose, ensure it is consistent and reflects your brand’s personality. Sure, feel free to mix up photography, illustration, and iconography. But make sure the same style is used throughout. If you have the budget, using a professional photographer to take your own set of brand photos can be a great investment. They will be able to reflect your brand, keep images consistent, and include members of your own team. Alternatively, you could use a designer to create your own set of icons and illustrations. If this isn’t an option, there are lots of great websites where you can source images. There are paid options, such as Shutterstock and Getty Images. As well as free sites such as Unsplash and Pexels. Fonts Design isn’t just about colours and imagery. Fonts also play a role in the look of your email campaigns. The key with fonts is to not overdo it. Else you risk looking like an email from the early 00s. Instead, use interesting fonts sparingly, and for the most important elements of the email. Such as the banner, headings, and calls to action. Otherwise, ensure that your font is easily readable, and doesn’t distract from the main message or goal of the email. Template Instead of having to replicate each element of your email every send, create an email template that you can use time and time again. This not only makes the process of creating and sending email much simpler. But it also ensures that all of the elements of your branding are consistent and included in all of your emails. You may even want to invest time and money working with a designer at this stage, to get your branding spot on. You’ll be using this template regularly, so it’s a great use of resource. Copy Email branding isn’t all about visuals. It’s also about the message you are trying to convey. And how you convey it. Copy and tone of voice are key to any branding strategy. Particularly when it comes to reflecting brand personality. For instance, brands in the finance industry may choose to use a more formal tone of voice. Whereas those in the beauty industry may be more familiar and playful. How to reinforce your branding Branding isn’t just about design. It should be accompanied by strategies and tactics that help to promote and reinforce your branding as much as possible. And email marketing can help you do exactly that. Welcome emails Making a memorable first impression is essential for email branding. And welcome campaigns are ideal to achieve that. It is the ideal opportunity for businesses to introduce themselves, their brand values, their personality, and of course their look and feel. This will help to establish their brand in recipients’ minds, so that they are immediately recognisable when they receive future emails. Personalisation Personalisation can have a significant impact on your branding. By tailoring your email content to each individual recipient, you can speak directly to the consumer and their preferences, helping to build a more emotional connection. And the more you build this emotional connection, the more your recipients will remember your brand. User generated content 92% of global consumers trust word of mouth recommendations over more traditional marketing. Part of building trust and sharing your brand is encouraging your customers to tell the world how happy they are with your products and service. And email is the perfect channel to share this information. You can include case studies and testimonials. Share social media posts and videos. Pepper quotes throughout your email copy. Or dedicate an entire email to a customer story. Linking to your website This may seem a no-brainer. But ensure that you have clear links back to your website from your email campaigns. What does this have to do with branding? It shows the relationship between your email branding, website, and wider business. Reinforcing your brand choices, and offering recipients the opportunity to get better acquainted with you. In short, it’s yet another opportunity to lodge your business and branding in your recipients’ minds. Are you reviewing your email branding? If our guide has caught your attention, you may be considering a redesign of your emails, or even starting from scratch with email branding. Our team of experts and designers, alongside our easy to use AI email marketing platform can help make email branding a breeze. Get in touch to find out more.