Email marketing might be one of the most effective ways of reaching out to your prospects with your marketing campaigns. But what about keeping them hooked to your brand? This has always been a challenge for email marketers. Amongst the plethora of tactics applied to overcome this challenge, interactive email design is fast emerging as the most innovative, dynamic and trending way to keep subscribers interested and involved. Now this is sure to put a smile on the face of email designers and developers! A text copy, however engaging its content might be, can still go unnoticed but interactivity in emails calls for some kind of participation, thus grabbing attention and keeping subscribers glued to your copy. It adds fun to the experience and helps to make a lasting impression. And there’s more good news for the creative teams working behind the scenes: Gone are the days when ESPs would not support interactivity in emails. Subscribers can now take action in the email itself. Amazing interactivity options like Menus, Accordions, GIF, Flip effect, etc., not only make emails look enticing but also offer good CTRs. So, let your creative juices flow…

1. Menus in email

Provision to explore products/ services right in your inbox! Isn’t that cool? Menus in email provide you with that option. Be it the travel and hospitality industry or technology websites, manufacturing units or e-commerce websites, all can benefit by sharing information in menus. Some industries that can benefit:

• Travel and hospitality industry to share tour options
• Media industry to share a big chunk of information in menus
• E-commerce industry to launch new products, and also for cross selling
• Manufacturing companies to send out processes to stakeholders

2. Accordions in email

Accordions help to send out a lot of content and still don’t let the email look lengthy. This is a great way to keep subscribers engaged without irritating them. This can especially prove helpful while designing the mobile version of any email. Apart from the benefit mentioned above, with accordions, you can measure the clicks on tabs to find out what is gathering more attention and tweak marketing strategies accordingly. Some industries that can benefit:

• Retail brands to showcase many products and information in one email
• Tech industry to display various navigation options
• Media industry to compress their huge data in less space
• All industries to send feedback emails with a questionnaire in accordion

3. GIF in email

Animated GIFs add fun and delight to an email. Fortunately, with many ESPs now supporting GIF in email, it is even easier to impress subscribers with GIFs. According to MarketingSherpa, Dell increased its revenue by 109%, conversion rate by 103%, click rate by 43% and open rate by 6% through a GIF-centric campaign. Growth oriented businesses, too, can and should make the most of this highly profitable and easy-to-implement tool. Some industries that can benefit:

• Food/restaurant industry to promote products/ show procedures of cooking
• E-commerce websites/ fashion brands to display several images of different or same product
• Real estate industry to display pictures of sample houses
• Automobile brands to showcase features/colors of models

4. Interactive graphs in emails

Interactive graphs in emails help to illustrate data, findings, annual reports, etc. in an impressive manner, leaving a long-lasting impact on minds of subscribers. Graphs also make the information credible, thus proving to be good for your business. Some industries that can benefit:

• E-commerce websites to provide comparative data for products
• Educational industry to share achievements and records
• Manufacturing units to share annual report outcomes with stakeholders
• Research agencies to share their findings

5. Counters in email

Counters create that time-is-ticking-away feeling and thus ingrain a sense of urgency, which always works well in favor of a marketing campaign. Apart from that, it also creates an impression that the email is important and noteworthy. Thus, promoting events and sales with the help of countdowns is a sure-shot way to draw your subscribers’ attention. Some industries that can benefit:

• E-commerce websites during sale period to add a sense of urgency
• Educational institutions to draw more admissions
• Travel and tourism industry to present time specific/seasonal offers

6. Flip effect in email

This is another way of downsizing the content of your email. Flip saves space and you can flip flop the content you are interested in. Exhibiting multiple products, writing a product description at the back, offering discounts; all this can be done with flip effect. Some industries that can benefit:

• Retail brands to present products with information of the product using flip
• Tour operators to display images and information of packages in flip
• Companies wanting to share ebooks, whitepapers
• Ecommerce industry to display sales/offers

7. Scratch effect in email

Sending offers to subscribers in order to convert them into leads is a part and parcel of any business. Scratch effect is an influential tool when it comes to presenting such offers. Your recipient has to scratch the code to redeem the offer. The interactivity makes the experience even more exciting. Revealing codes with the scratch effect can be used by any industry to offer discounts.

8. Sliders in email

Sliders are space saving and attention seeking tools within your email. Maximum information can be packed in a small space, where the screen keeps sliding, showing multiple products/services at a time. The best part is that you can let your creative juices flow while designing each slide, making the subscriber curious by revealing just a little in every slide. Some industries that can benefit:

• Home décor industry to demonstrate various home products.
• Tour operators to display offers/packages in one go
• Healthcare industry to promote their services
• Tech companies to showcase coupon codes/offers to other sectors

9. Rotating Banners in email

An image speaks louder than words and more than one can speak even louder. Rotating banners help to showcase all the images (or content) you want to popularize in limited space. Not to forget that the rotation effect makes the section conspicuous, grabbing attention. Some industries that can benefit:

• Cosmetic brands to display shades of various cosmetics
• Banks to display account plans, special investment plans, etc.
• Event management companies to exhibit their work, destinations, services, client testimonials, etc.
• Universities to display pictures of their star performers.

Although many ESPs and email clients have now started supporting interactivity within emails; unfortunately, some still are unable to render some of the effects mentioned above. So, make sure you test them across each ESP and email client before sending them to your prospects.

Interactivity in emails

1. Adding interactivity in emails is like doing a makeover of your old and dull plain text emails. The stunning and fresh look not only creates a great impression but also helps in improving your brand image.
2. Most of the interactivity tools help to deliver maximum information in as little space as possible, without disturbing the beauty of the email, in fact enhancing it.
3. Interactivity within emails can be responsible for better open, click-through and conversion rates.
4. Interactivity within emails speeds up the conversion process by providing actionable tools within the inbox. Steps like taking the prospect to your website or a particular landing page can be skipped here.

With interactivity likely to be driving consumer interest in the near future, it is important that email marketers modify their campaigns to include interactivity in emails. Are you game for it?