One of the trickiest things I have ran into lately is designing email templates. Nowadays a lot of advertising comes right to your inbox especially if you are a store card holder or have signed up for email notifications.
There are two things to remember to achieve a good email deign: Effectiveness and functionality.
Effectiveness: Simplicity is a key factor in effectiveness. Chances are the reader is skimming through his or her emails and will glance at this design. So the key is to sell whatever you design advertises in a matter of seconds.
Functionality: Like all web design, you need to incorporate testing, testing, testing. Email templates need to be tested in a variety of different programs to make sure that the reader will be able to read the email fast and conveniently. Make sure your design is easy to read and won’t force the reader to take multiple steps to get to the point. Also, making sure your images display as quickly and easily as possible is important. Often our images will do most of the selling and when they don’t display right away, it causes the readers to have to follow a link somewhere else, which can make them hesitant to do so.
Here are some examples of some good email templates:
amandalrodriguez.com 