Like every year, the email marketing fraternity is looking forward to some exciting trends for 2021. Obviously, we have come a long way from plain-text emails to images in emails to AMP and what not.

With the overflow of creative juices, email geeks are all set to serve uniqueness in the subscriber’s inboxes and cut through the noise of 3.9 billion emails sent and received per day.

Let’s have a look at what the year has in store for us.

Marketers will vouch for minimalism

Minimalism refers to subtlety, monochrome layout, and muted colors in email designs. A huge majority of designers are taking this approach of saying more with less. Muted color palettes with desaturated shades will gain more momentum in the coming days.

Most of the health and wellness brands will tread on this path to represent safety.

Here’s an example showing muted colors and minimalist email design.

Interactivity will continue to rule

Interactive elements in emails will get more subscriber engagement, as revealed by Campaign Monitor. Whether it is hamburger menus, carousels, sliders, or videos, your subscribers are looking forward to a website-like experience in their inbox that would reduce their effort.

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is another way of incorporating interactive features in emails.

For instance: Booking portals can let their subscribers book the service from the email itself.

If you are an ecommerce marketer, you can send out cart abandonment emails and allow the user to complete the purchase without having to go to the website or mobile application.

Dark Mode compatibility will become a best practice

There was a time when personalization was introduced as a trend. Now, it has become a best practice. Something similar can be said for Dark Mode compatibility too.

With more than 91.8% of people using Dark Mode, email geeks will have to make sure that their emails render well in both light as well as dark theme.

Here’s an example to show how dark mode works.

Essentially, it will just reverse the colors used in the email. However, different email clients have different rules for rendering it. Therefore, you must always test your emails on Dark Mode before hitting the “SEND” button.

Gradients will add more depth to emails

With gradients, marketers will be able to add visual appeal to their email campaigns. It is believed that the origin of gradients dates back to the psychedelic culture of the 1960s. As it has entered the world of email design, it will exude a retro feeling.

Here’s a beautiful example to demonstrate the power of gradients. It has taken the entire email experience to the next level.

1. Tap on the right emotions

Email marketing goes a lot beyond promoting your products and waiting for conversions. You must tap on the right consumer psychology and inspire them to take action.

Draft your copy and choose the visuals in such a way that the customer “feels” something. It can be a feeling of belonging, greed, trust, curiosity, love, or fear (of missing out) to name a few.

Postable has set a nice example on how to make the subscribers emote. The words, as well as images, are chosen so well that it will surely get the user to take action.

Experiment with textured illustrations for 2D images

The creativity of email designers is no longer limited to Shutterstock or templatized designs. They have a wider horizon to explore. In 2021, we will see textured illustrations in the 2D images of emails.

Doesn’t that sound pretty fancy?

Here’s an email template to show how it will look like.

Email geeks will welcome 3D images in emails

Let’s see an example:

Did you see how the correct use of 3D images can give a new life to your emails? If you want to make your email speak to your subscribers, 3D images are the way forward.

You can even add animations to these 3D images to go a step ahead.

Wrapping Up

2021 will be all about making your email design pop out and grab the subscriber’s eyeballs. Strive to create emails that have something unique to offer and make the subscriber go wow!

If you are looking for more insights into email design trends 2021, just head to the infographic created by Email Uplers: 11 Email Design Trends to Reign Supreme in 2021.

Source: 11 Email Design Trends that will reign supreme in 2021