Don't get me wrong—there's a time and place for black text on a white screen. But it's fun to spice things up with different types of email content ideas now and then.
Think outside the box. You can include elements like:
Images
GIFs
Animations
Buttons
Countdowns
Amp for Email
And that's just a taste of what you can do inside an email. Below, we're breaking down 13 email ideas you can include in your campaigns.
Most email aficionados know how to add a brand logo and hero image to their emails, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. You have plenty of options to make your emails fresh and personalized:
Ready to add an image to your email campaign? There isn’t just one right way. Learn the 3 most popular (and efficient) methods to add images to your emails in our post: How to Embed Images in Your Emails (CID, Inline & More).
GIFs (pronounced with a hard G, of course) aren't just for tweets, texts, and Slack threads—these are a tried-and-true element of email campaigns. The hardest part is finding the right one.
True creativity and ingenuity come when you stop finding GIFs and start creating them. Learn how to make email GIFs in our step-by-step guide—you could even make your logo a GIF, like Disney does in its emails.
Sure, you might sprinkle buttons throughout your email design, but try to keep it to a minimum. We recommend adding one above the fold and at the end of your email—that way, you can capture both the skimmers and the folks that took the time to read from top to bottom.
Add countdown timers to your emails for a bit of interactivity and urgency. Dynamic countdowns will let your recipients know how much time they have left to take advantage of a promotion. And if a recipient opens the message after the promotion is over, the countdown timer will display a message like "Time is out" or "This offer has expired."
Want to make an impact? Use countdown timers during holidays and seasonal sales, like Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
Charts, graphs, tables, and maps—use any of these to tell a story. Or, any time you want to share data with your subscribers, consider packaging it in a chart.
It'll make your statistics visually more interesting—much more so than any ol' bulleted list.
Emojis in email has always been a hot topic, but we think that if it feels right for your brand, go for it. A well-timed emoji could help your message stand out in the inbox or add color and pop to the text in your emails.
Consider using emojis instead of bullet points to illustrate concepts or blow up an emoji's size to make it as big as an image. You can add a lot of creativity and character to your emails with emojis.
When possible, replace bullet points and numbered lists with icons. Icons act the same way but give a picture of what you're trying to communicate.
You can use your brand's icons or generic stock icons—either will work. But if you go the stock route, try to find a large, uniform set. Icons have a lot of character, and it’ll be pretty noticeable if you mix and match different styles.
Want to collect sign-ups for an event or survey your shoppers on a recent in-store experience? Rather than send them a link to a stand-alone page, embed your form right in your email.
You'll need AMP for Email and a bit of coding know-how (or a developer), but this interactive element can be a game changer for your engagement.
Accordion elements in your emails will make your subscribers whistle like a missile. For example, when you have lots of content you want to communicate but don't want to make your email as long as an ebook, opt for accordions.
Again, you'll need AMP for Email—but the outcome is worth the development hassle.
Dynamic content is content personalized to your email recipient's open time and preferences. For example, you can tailor what product recommendations end up in their unique inbox based on their shopping behaviors and past experiences.
You can also use dynamic content to serve up-to-date shopping recommendations, regardless of when they open the email. For example, if you sell out of a hot product, and a recipient opens your email late tomorrow, they won't see the sold-out product—instead, dynamic content will serve them something else in their inbox.
We all see hover and rollover effects on websites all the time, but these are still an untapped experience in the inbox. Relatively easy to include, you can add a nice touch of creativity and interactivity to your emails with them.
Let your recipients do more shopping right from your emails with product previews. That means instead of sending them to your website to view/experiment with different colors or patterns of products, empower them to act right from the email.
Previewing a new color could make the difference between sealing the sale and losing the deal—and it doesn't take too much upfront work to make it happen.
Whether you want to add dynamic content to your campaigns or interactive AMP for Email elements, trust Twilio SendGrid to help you get the job done. Our design editor has the support, widgets, and documentation you need to make just about any of your email dreams a reality:
