The Email Wars

The other week Anna Yeaman at StyleCampaign put forth an idea and backed it up with a test on the concept of the uses of black and white as a background in an email and how it performs. Her test has been on my mind making me take a closer look at not only our work but of other campaigns I see since. In paying closer attention to how some people have used these colors to make their email campaigns not only look better, but become more usable.

Now the colors black and white are stylish colors. They are both elegant colors that can really make a campaign stand out. She shared the results how used alone they made a big difference in test but also took it a little farther showing how they can work together. Now I like her use of the black frame on the white background, but taking a simple look at them again I really wanted to see how some other programs were using them and how they made me feel.

Well just after (might she have led the trend?) I read her article I noticed one email I get each week make the switch from the black border and white body to an all white body. Why is this important? Well in looking at them the new white one not only made the content more readable, but it also made the colors stand out and pop more. When you have a newsletter with more content, information architecture plays and important role and clearing the colors away from the content made this stand out to me.

Take a look at the old version:

This email used the black border and background outside with the white content blocks. Now the color bars to do a good job breaking up the sections, but not until I saw the new version did I realize how hard it was to scan, read and drive me to action. Thoughts from you?

But then they changed it all up on me this week, and maybe on you. Before I tell you what I think really works here, take a look for yourself.

Look at how cutting the copy, shrinking the header, removing the black border and background really make the content stand on its own. Not only does it work, but it allows the colored section headers allow the content to be much easier to read and visually navigate.

Maybe simpler is better in email. We always try so hard to design great emails but maybe what we are doing at times interferes with the content itself. Maybe what we should all test in content heavy email newsletters to to let the copy and content do the work, as that is what we are all really after right?

I would love to hear your thoughts and thank you Anna for making me pay attention to this a little more.