Email Anatomy: The Key Parts of an Email (and Best Practices)

Crafting an effective email campaign is a delicate balance between art and science, requiring both creative flair and analytical precision. In email marketing, this dual approach enables marketers to engage their audience through compelling content while strategically driving conversions. 

Having a good understanding of the core elements of your email (both creative and technical) can help you proactively outline content and create templates to speed up the email build process. To get you started, this guide delves into the critical parts of a marketing email, dissecting its anatomy and providing examples and best practices. 

Sender Details (Name, Email Address)

The sender details might seem trivial, but they play a crucial role in influencing whether your email is opened. These elements are the first indicators of your email's legitimacy and relevance. Some best practices include:

• Personalization: Depending on the type of communication, it might make sense to use a specific person’s name from your team rather than a general contact or info address. This personal touch can significantly enhance open rates. Preview how the name shows up on mobile – you don’t want important characters to get cut off. 

• Consistency: Regularly use the same sender name so recipients recognize your emails over time, building trust and familiarity.

• Professionalism: Use a domain that reflects your company’s name (e.g., @yourcompany.com) to add professionalism and increase brand recognition.

Subject Line 

We’re all familiar with this one. Your subject line acts as the headline of your email, making it one of the most critical parts to get right. Important elements of a good email subject line include:

• Clarity and relevance: Ensure your subject line clearly reflects the email content, which helps in aligning with the reader’s expectations. For example, if you promise a discount in the subject line, you should pay it off in the email. Otherwise, recipients will get frustrated if they have to go digging and clicking to find information, and potentially unsubscribe.

• Personalization: While personalizing by including the recipient’s first name is a great start, today’s inboxes are saturated with “[Name]” subject lines. Consider other elements you could include that are tailored to the user – product recommendations, local weather references, and leveraging customer attributes can up your game.

• Testing: Regularly test different subject lines (using A/B testing) to determine what style resonates best with your audience, such as direct, curious, or benefit-driven phrasing. Some email platforms, like Braze, even offer a way to dynamically send the winning subject line variant to the remaining audience, maximizing your potential for opens.
  

Preheader Text

The email preheader text extends the narrative begun by your subject line and can make the difference between an opened email and one that's ignored.

The preheader text should complement the subject line, and can add context or additional lure that wasn’t possible (or necessary) to include upfront. 

If you don’t manually set a preheader text, your email will automatically display the first line of text included in your HTML. Sometimes, this leads to wonky or weird preheader copy, and a missed opportunity for a marketer to earn the open. Our advice: make sure to have a good, safe, default fallback preheader text embedded into your HTML templates.

Email Header

Sometimes overlooked, the email header can be a surprising source of engagement for your email campaign. It’s best practice to, at minimum, include your logo at the top of the email, with a hyperlink out to your main landing page. This acts as a “hot button” for recipients who are interested in quickly navigating to your website. 

There are two ways to level-up your email header:

1. Include an additional menu of links that are most relevant to your business

2. Dynamically change the main call-to-action in the email header based on customer attributes. For example, if you offer a subscription product, include an “Upgrade” or “Subscribe now” CTA at the top of the email for all users still on the free plan.
   

Email Body Content

The body is where you deliver the value and message you’ve promised in your subject line and preheader. 

This section could look very different depending on the message you want to convey and the template you are using, but if you’re looking for a simple starting point, a hero image (main image banner), headline (about 90 characters or less), body copy (1-3 sentences), and call-to-action button (CTA), is tried-and-true format. Some general tips:

• Organize your content with headings, subheadings, and bullet points to improve readability and scannability.

• Balance text with relevant images or graphics to keep the reader engaged. Make sure every image has a purpose and enhances the message.

• Place clear and actionable CTAs that guide users on what to do next. Ensure they stand out and are placed strategically throughout the content for better conversion.

Call-to-Action (CTA)

While technically grouped within the content of the email, it’s a critical piece of a campaign that should never be overlooked. Your CTA is the reason you’re sending the campaign in the first place, and should be defined before you even get to the planning stage. It should answer the question, “what is the action I want this subscriber to take”, and your content should reflect why they should care and what’s in it for them.

Some tips for improving your click-through-rate:

• Your CTA should be prominently placed so it stands out easily. It’s often effective to place a CTA both in the middle and at the end of your email to catch readers at different points of engagement.

• For primary CTAs, use buttons instead of hyperlinked texts to enhance visibility and click-through rates. The button should be large enough to be easily clickable, especially on mobile devices, and designed in colors that contrast well with the rest of the email layout to draw attention.

• The message on your CTA button should be straightforward and unambiguous. Use action-oriented verbs like “Subscribe,” “Download,” “Join,” or “Start” to make it clear what clicking the button will do.

• Incorporating a sense of urgency or incentive can motivate readers to act immediately. Phrases like “Offer ends soon,” “Get started today,” or “Join now and save” prompt quick responses.
  

Examples of Effective CTAs:

1. For a subscription service: Button that says “Start Your Free Trial,” placed both after the introductory offer and at the end of the email.

2. For an e-commerce promotion: Button that says “Shop Now - 20% Off!” with a brief countdown timer below it, indicating the end of the offer period.

3. For a webinar or event: “Reserve Your Spot” or “Register Now” positioned prominently after the event description.

Email Footer

The footer serves as the informational backbone of your email, often housing legal information, additional links, and disclaimers.

Footers should include essential links to your privacy policy, terms of use, contact information, and an easy-to-find unsubscribe link. Be sure to ensure your footer adheres to email marketing laws and regulations, such as GDPR or CAN-SPAM.

You can also encourage further engagement by linking to things like your social media profiles, app store buttons, and shopping categories from the footer. 

Core Parts of an Email to A/B Test

A/B testing is a critical component of refining your email strategy, allowing you to understand better what resonates with your audience.

Beyond just testing subject lines and CTAs, consider testing different layouts, timing of sends, and segmentation of your audience to gather comprehensive insights. Ensure your tests reach statistical significance to make informed decisions about changes to your email campaigns. 

If you have a smaller audience, consider larger, big-swing tests like testing a plain-text, letter-style email over a stylized campaign.

Conclusion

While this overview is a helpful starting point to understanding core components of a marketing email, it doesn't mean you have to stick to this exact template. Try testing different elements and introducing more variety to your campaign structures as you scale your email volume.

If you're looking for more email inspiration, check out sites like ReallyGoodEmails or Panoramata, which are basically Pinterest for email campaigns.