How Email Design Agencies Boost CTRs By 14% With These Tips

Most businesses get lost in the sea of emails that bomb inboxes.

With similar designs and layouts and free stock photos used by dozens of retailers, engaging your audience to “click” your call-to-action (CTA) can be an exhausting task.

This results in low engagement and disappointing conversion rates.

Crafting effective email campaigns requires equal parts creativity and strategy.

Ricky Figueroa, the creator of the Ponderer newsletter and Pixels Design Studio, remarked, “A consistent design allows the reader to focus on the content rather than a new format for each issue. They know how it will be formatted, so the design elements and content shine through.”

This is where an email design agency can come in.

Such agencies are specialized in creating visually pleasing and strategically targeted email communications tailored to your audience.

But, like all great things, they come with a price tag.

This article will outline the services an email design agency offers, how to assess whether your business needs one, the major benefits they can provide to enhance your email marketing efforts, and practical tips on creating a standout email design.

Let's explore how to transform your email strategy into a powerful tool for growth!

What Is An Email Design Agency & How Can It Help Your Business?

An email design agency is a team of creative professionals who specialize in crafting visually appealing and effective email marketing campaigns.

Studies indicate that beautifully designed emails can boost click-through rates by up to 14% and increase conversions by 10%, making them an essential tool for any business looking to enhance its bottom line.

Mady Maio, founder of Camber App and LA Happenings by Camber, a popular newsletter on beehiiv, once said this about design, “[beehiiv] helps brands and writers create beautiful newsletters that are tailored to their brand and helps them grow their audience and really supercharge their newsletter growth.”

An email design agency can play a pivotal role in transforming your email strategy from ordinary to extraordinary. These specialized teams of creative professionals go beyond basic design, merging artistic vision with marketing strategy to deliver compelling email experiences that resonate with your audience.

Here's how an email design agency can elevate your marketing campaigns:

Professional Look: They create polished and on-brand emails that enhance your company's image and credibility.

Optimized for All Devices: Agencies design responsive emails that look great across desktops, tablets, and smartphones, ensuring a seamless user experience.

With mobile-first email design, less is more. A minimalistic email format with focused content keeps your email clean, readable, and engaging.

The Teachable newsletter, for example, is always short and to the point, with minimal design elements and images. The email provides helpful links and 2-3 articles to read and is usually less than 500 words.

Improved Deliverability: Adhering to email marketing best practices helps ensure that your messages successfully land in subscribers' inboxes rather than their spam folders.

Strategic Focus: Their designs align with your marketing goals, crafting emails that guide recipients toward desired actions and conversions.

Time-Saving: Outsourcing email design allows your team to focus on core business activities while experts handle the intricacies of design and strategy.

With a dedicated team on your side, you can consistently engage your audience and drive meaningful results.

The Multifaceted Role of Email Design Agencies

Take it from Jon Finkel, acclaimed author, fitness enthusiast, and Books & Biceps newsletter creator, who firmly believes in the power of design to enhance the reader’s experience.

He said, “Just like authors spend significant time making sure we get the cover of our books right, newsletter creators have the same chance to make a powerful impression with their landing page and email design.”

Email design agencies offer a comprehensive suite of services that extend far beyond basic graphic design:

• Brand Alignment: Ensuring every email reflects your unique brand identity

• Technical Optimization: Creating responsive designs that look great on any device

• Strategic Development: Designing email templates that guide recipients toward desired actions

• Performance Analysis: Tracking and improving email campaign metrics

If you’re looking for a cost-effective alternative to email design agencies, beehiiv is the platform for you. Brett Dashevsky, founder of Creator Economy NYC, had this to say about beehiiv, “beehiiv has been instrumental in helping us streamline our newsletter operations… beehiiv's user-friendly interface and features have made it easier than ever to curate and distribute our newsletter.”

Why Trust Me

Linda Hwang has extensive experience in B2B marketing and previously worked at a renowned international facilities management company. There, she played a crucial role in creating effective content and social media marketing plans. Now, Linda is a marketing consultant who helps small businesses create compelling brand stories.

How To Choose The Best Email Design Agency

Selecting the right email design agency is crucial for achieving your marketing objectives. It requires careful consideration of several key factors.

Evaluating Expertise & Experience

Finding an agency with a strong background and specialized knowledge in your industry can significantly enhance your email marketing effectiveness.

Consider these factors during your evaluation:

• Years in Business: While not the sole indicator of quality, longer-established agencies may bring more stability and expertise.

• Industry Specialization: Look for agencies that focus specifically on your sector, as they are likely to understand your audience and challenges better.

• Range of Services: Ensure the agency offers comprehensive email marketing services beyond design, including strategy and analytics.

• Technical Proficiency: Verify that the agency stays current with the latest trends and technologies in email marketing.

Reviewing Portfolios & Case Studies

An agency's portfolio reflects its creativity and effectiveness. Thoroughly reviewing past work can provide insights into what to expect.

Key aspects to look for include:

• Design Variety: Check if the agency can adapt its style to fit different brands and industries effectively.

• Creativity: Look for innovative and unique designs that stand out in the inbox.

• Responsive Design: Ensure their designs perform well on various devices to provide a seamless user experience.

• Measurable Results: Request case studies that showcase tangible improvements in metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.

Ricky Figueroa, founder of Pixels Design Studio, the number one newsletter design studio, said, “A good newsletter design should be clean, uncluttered, and consistent across issues.” He would know, as his newsletter Ponderer is one of the best-designed newsletters on beehiiv.

Checking Client Testimonials & Reviews

Client feedback is invaluable for assessing an agency’s reliability and performance.

Conduct thorough research to gather insights about their strengths and weaknesses:

• Communication Skills: Evaluate how well the agency engages with clients and manages collaboration throughout the project.

• Timeliness: Confirm whether they consistently meet deadlines without sacrificing quality.

• Performance Outcomes: Look for evidence from previous clients that highlights real improvements in their email marketing efforts.

• Value for Money: Determine if clients believe their investment in the agency yielded a good return.

By considering these critical factors, you can find a partner who aligns with your marketing goals and drives successful email campaigns.

3 Key Benefits of Working with an Email Design Agency

Still on the fence about whether an email design agency is right for you?

Let's break down three major benefits that might just tip the scales in favor of professional help.

Enhanced Branding & Professionalism

Where first impressions are everything, professional email design can be the key differentiator for your brand.

Ricky Figueroa commented, “Design is language. It is a way of communicating ideas and elevating the written word. It is so much more than how your newsletter looks. It really is how it works, how it feels, how it resonates with your subscribers–and how it shows up in the wild. It is how people interact with your product.”

An expertly crafted email not only captures attention but also establishes your brand's credibility and fosters trust with potential customers.

Here’s how a polished email design can make a significant impact:

• Establishes Visual Trust: A well-designed email creates an immediate sense of reliability, encouraging recipients to engage with your content.

• Reinforces Brand Recognition: Consistent use of color schemes, fonts, and imagery across your email campaigns helps solidify your brand identity in the minds of your audience.

• Creates a Cohesive Brand Experience: By ensuring that all your emails align with brand guidelines, you provide a seamless experience that resonates across all touchpoints.

• Incorporates Professional-Quality Graphics: High-quality visuals and thoughtful layouts elevate your emails, making them look as polished as communications from Fortune 500 companies.

• Seamlessly Integrates Brand Elements: Utilizing your logo and other branding elements effectively can enhance brand recall and loyalty.

Even if you’re just starting, with the right email design, your brand can compete on the same level as established corporations.

Figueroa also offered design tips you can do on your own, “With these three elements: the vehicle, the engine, the fuel… you can design a newsletter that will stand out, create opportunities, and grow your business.”

The Vehicle: Your offer, mission, and overall product or service.

The Engine: Your strategic design and consistent structure.

The Fuel: Your key differentiator.

Increased Engagement & Conversion Rates

Professional agencies leverage a deep understanding of design and human behavior to achieve results that truly resonate with recipients.

Here are key elements of effective email design that drive results:

• Intuitive Layouts: Thoughtfully structured designs guide the reader's eye through the content seamlessly, making it easier for them to absorb information and take action.

• Color Psychology: Intentionally using colors can evoke specific emotions or reactions. Warm colors like red can create urgency, while blues often evoke trust.

• Compelling CTAs: Strategically placed buttons and links catch the reader’s attention. These CTAs are crafted in a way that motivates immediate action, enhancing the likelihood of clicks.

• Eye-Catching Headlines: Powerful headlines not only encourage opens but also set the tone for the rest of the email, drawing the reader further into the content.

• Persuasive Copywriting: Engaging and direct copy that speaks to the reader’s needs and desires is essential for driving clicks and facilitating conversions.

• A/B Testing: Continual experimentation with different design elements, headlines, and copy helps identify what resonates best with the target audience, ensuring that performance only improves over time.

Eliot Crist, CEO of Fantasy Life, mentioned the importance of A/B testing, “There’s also subject line A/B testing [with beehiiv], which can help you understand how well your newsletter is resonating with your audience and the types of content that resonate most effectively.”

Access to Advanced Tools & Expertise

Email design agencies leverage advanced tools and a wealth of knowledge that can elevate your email designs beyond your in-house capabilities.

Here’s how they stand out:

• Advanced Design Software: Agencies utilize cutting-edge software that enables the creation of visually stunning and engaging email layouts that capture attention and encourage clicks.

• Email Testing Tools: They employ sophisticated A/B testing capabilities to tailor content for maximum impact and ensure that your emails render beautifully across all devices and platforms.

• Analytics Platforms: Agencies provide access to comprehensive analytics that allow you to track performance and gain insights, enabling continuous improvement of your email strategies.

• Expertise in Email Rendering: With a deep understanding of how different email clients render designs, they can optimize your emails for consistency in appearance, regardless of where they are viewed.

• Continuous Trend Education: To stay ahead of the curve, professional agencies continually educate themselves on the latest design trends and best practices, ensuring that their campaigns are fresh and relevant.

For those who are venturing outside of an email design agency, Eliot Crist once said during an interview, “beehiiv’s analytics are user-friendly and easy to understand, making it simple to track and analyze the performance of your newsletters.”

Top Email Design Agencies in 2024

When considering an email design agency, it's essential to find one that aligns with your specific needs and goals.

Here are some of the standout agencies in the email design landscape, offering unique features, capabilities, and pricing structures:

1. Pixels Design Studio

Location: Kissimmee, FL

Focus: Pixels specializes in creating visually stunning and engaging newsletter designs for founders and creators.

Capabilities: Pixels offers customer newsletter template design, custom thumbnails, banners, and content dividers, referral program setup and design, brand audits and logo design, and much more!

Integration: Asana, Zoom, Loom, Telegram, beehiiv

Pricing: Lowest package is Launch, which starts at a $2,000 one-time fee.

2. Email Uplers

Location: India

Focus: Email Uplers focuses on businesses of all sizes seeking comprehensive email marketing solutions.

Capabilities: Email Uplers offers email template production, email marketing automation, campaign management, and ESP migration.

Integration: Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Marketo, and over 50+ email service providers (ESPs).

Pricing: Custom quotes based on types of services.

3. InboxArmy

Location: Grapevine, Texas

Focus: InboxArmy offers comprehensive email marketing services.

Capabilities: Deliverability optimization, ESP vendor evaluation, and detailed analytics to track campaign performance.

Integration: Integrates with various email service providers effectively.

Pricing: Offers competitive pricing based on project scope and client requirements.

4. SmartMail

Location: Brooklyn, New York

Focus: SmartMail offers e-commerce email marketing across the customer lifecycle.

Capabilities: It works with major brands like Skype, leveraging sophisticated segmentation and personalization techniques. It also offers unique customer journey mapping that is not commonly found elsewhere.

Integration: Integrates well with leading e-commerce platforms such as Shopify and Magento.

Pricing: Variable, depending on project complexity.

5. SocialBloom

Location: Rochester, Minnesota

Focus: B2B companies

Capabilities: SocialBloom offers a blend of email, calling, and social selling services, offering a more holistic approach to integrated marketing strategies. It is unique in its multi-channel tactics, which enhance lead generation efforts.

Integration: Connects easily with CRM tools. 

Pricing: Tailored packages based on service selection.

6. The Better Creative

Focus: Data-driven, conversion-oriented designs. 

Capabilities: The Better Creative specializes in creating high-conversion campaigns by integrating behavioral data into design choices, something many competitors overlook. 

Integration: Works well with advanced analytical tools for real-time performance tracking. 

Pricing: Competitive rates that adjust based on campaign scale.

7. SuperSide

Focus: SupserSide offers comprehensive design services. 

Capabilities: It provides access to global talent, ensuring a diverse range of creative solutions and ideas. It also offers a unique combination of scalability and speed of service. 

Integration: Can integrate with various design and project management tools. 

Pricing: Flexible pricing based on the project scope.

It's beneficial to contact several agencies to discuss your goals and determine which one best aligns with your vision.

Top Platforms With Exceptional Email Design

1. beehiiv

Focus: Ideal for content creators, bloggers, and small businesses looking to grow their audience cost-effectively.

Capabilities: beehiiv offers a drag-and-drop editor for designing custom newsletters, advanced automation tools, audience segmentation, CRM, analytics, and monetization.

Integration: Integrates well with e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce, CRMs, and social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Stripe.

Pricing: It offers a free plan for up to 2,500 subscribers, and the next plan starts at $34 per month.

2. Mailchimp Design Studio

Focus: User-friendly, highly customizable designs 

Capabilities: Mailchimp Design Studio offers a library of templates and design assistance for brands that want to maintain consistent branding across emails. 

Integration: Integrates well within the Mailchimp ecosystem and with other platforms. 

Pricing: Offers a free tier with limited features and pricing scales with added functionalities.

Pricing Considerations

When considering the investment in email design agency services, understanding the varying costs can help you make an informed decision for your marketing needs.

Here’s a breakdown of typical pricing tiers and the factors that influence them:

Basic Packages: $500 - $1,500 per month

Mid-Tier Services: $1,500 - $5,000 per month

Enterprise Solutions: $5,000 - $15,000+ per month

Pricing often depends on several key factors:

Number of Email Templates: More templates typically increase costs.

Complexity of Design: Intricate designs require more time and expertise.

Level of Customization: Tailored solutions can elevate your brand's identity but may also raise prices.

Ongoing Support and Optimization: Continuous assistance and adjustments are vital for maintaining engagement and effectiveness.

By understanding these elements, you can better align your budget with your email marketing goals.

Closing Thoughts

From understanding what an email design agency does to exploring their benefits and highlighting top agencies, you now know how to decide if an email design agency is right for your business.

If you’re looking to elevate your email marketing game in this crowded digital landscape, it's worth considering.

But if you’re looking for a budget-friendly option, beehiiv is your platform!

Per Eliot Crist, “Since switching to beehiiv, The Fantasy Life newsletter has seen impressive results. Open rates are up 100%, with a 200% increase in click-through rates. Plus, unsubscribe rates have decreased, and deliverability is through the roof.”

If you're ready to stand out in your audience’s inbox, take the first step with beehiiv.

Visit beehiiv today and start your free trial!