- Graphics hinder delivery. Your number one goal is reach. To achieve reach your email needs to be in the primary inbox, not promotions or junk. Templates with graphics can cause Gmail to filter your content as promotional where open rates are abysmal.
- Use your personal photo as your email avatar. Keep your footer simple, and remove pointless disclaimers in legalese.
- Text-only emails load fast. Most emails are read on a mobile device. The recipient's mobile could have bad coverage, so keep your email lightweight. Use large standard fonts only, ideally plain text.
- Your subject line should be short, provoke interest, and not be spammy. An emoji will make your email stick out and lift your click-through rate. The subject line is your impression on the 80% of your audience who will likely not read your email. It is your chance to convey consistency, your work ethic, and be concise.
- Bots are reading your email. Strive to avoid keywords that will trigger spam filters.
- Your email should be brief and to the point. Pretend you have a 240 character limit.
- Links should not be masked. Hyperlinks (used sparingly) should be composed using the full URL address, and only linked to known trusted sites.