The hidden factors that make email design actually work — Stripo.email

No one buys a Tiffany ring for the box, but the box still matters. It signals care, trust, and quality before the product even appears. Email design works the same way. Your message might be brilliant, your offer generous, but if your email looks off, loads poorly, or feels out of sync with your brand, subscribers will hesitate…or walk away entirely.

This article explores the less obvious, often overlooked, factors that make email design truly work — the kinds that go beyond visual polish.

1. Strategy before pixels

Before you open your design tool or drop a single block into your template, pause. Ask yourself: Why are we sending this? Who is it for? What do we want recipients to feel, think, or do?

Email design that works isn’t about colors or layouts — it’s about purpose. Without that purpose, even the most beautiful email is just noise.

It’s easy to get caught up in how the email looks. But great design isn’t decoration — it’s alignment. Every visual choice should reflect an understanding of your audience, your message, and your goal.

This is exactly what happens in email. An email that ignores audience behavior or business goals — even if it’s beautifully built — can fall flat. A strategic approach, on the other hand, sets the stage for every design element to do its job.

So before you obsess over padding or font size, take a beat. Start with strategy. It’s what separates decoration from design that performs.

2. Know your audience: Generations, channels, and segments

Ryan’s nightclub DJ analogy nails what many email marketers forget: email design has to respond to the audience, not to your own preferences.

Another common mistake is treating all subscribers the same. However, expectations vary widely across age groups and buyer journeys.

For instance, Gen Z moves quickly. They skim. They expect dynamic visuals, interactive touches, and messages that feel personal — emails that are easy to digest. In contrast, boomers prefer clarity. They value accessible design, straightforward content, and trust-building details like testimonials and guarantees.

Designing for both in one campaign is tough but not impossible. It takes a clear strategy and a flexible design approach.

Beyond generations, channel behavior is just as important. Some subscribers check email daily. Others glance once, then head to your app, website, or even an in-store location to take action.

When your visuals and messaging reflect how your audience actually thinks and behaves — not just your brand’s favorite aesthetic — your emails become more effective and much harder to ignore.

3. Structure that supports clarity

When you’re just starting to build your email, it’s easy to think in blocks: image, headline, paragraph, button, and repeat. But effective design doesn’t just present content — it helps readers understand and act with as little effort as possible.

A strong structure reduces friction. When layout and content are thrown together, emails feel overwhelming and unclear — even if they look nice. But when your layout is clean, intentional, and easy to scan, it builds trust and drives results.

To check whether your structure supports clarity, ask yourself:

1. Can someone understand the point of the email in five seconds or less?
2. Is there a headline at the top that sets the purpose clearly?
3. Are similar types of content grouped together, like products?
4. Are sections visually separated with enough space and contrast?
5. Does the layout feel calm and readable, or too busy?
6. Is the CTA placed where it makes sense — after the value is explained?

A well-structured email might open with a bold headline and include a short burst of copy, a supporting image or quote, and a CTA. It doesn’t need to be fancy; it just needs to feel intentional.

When the structure supports clarity, your message comes through fast, clean, and confidently.

4. Traditional design best practices still matter

While strategy and structure make your email effective, the basics are what make it usable. These longstanding best practices aren’t flashy, but they’re essential. Without them, even the most thoughtful, on-brand, and data-informed email might fail to render, become unreadable, or alienate part of your audience.

In 2025, these rules still apply, not because they’re trendy, but because they work.

Here’s a checklist to keep your fundamentals strong:

1. Safe, accessible fonts: Stick to email safe fonts (such as Arial, Tahoma, and Verdana) to ensure consistent rendering across devices and email clients.
2. Readable font sizes: Use at least 14 px for desktop body text, 16 px+ for mobile, and 20–24 px+ for buttons.
3. Mobile-first layout: Adjust font sizes, button widths, and visibility of elements to optimize for small screens.
4. One primary CTA per screen: Avoid choice overload. Keep the reader focused on one clear action at a time.
5. High color contrast: Make sure text and buttons stand out against the background — even in dark mode.
6. Accessible design: Ensure that your email can be read by everyone, including recipients relying on screen readers. Include ALT text and use accessible color combinations.
7. Balanced text-to-image ratio: Avoid image-only emails. Pair visuals with enough text to support clarity and avoid spam filters.
8. Brand and compliance markers: Include your logo in the header and an unsubscribe link in the footer to build trust and stay legally compliant.

These aren’t just design rules; they’re enablers. Skip them, and recipients may zoom in to read tiny text, miss your CTA entirely, or find your email broken on a mobile phone.

5. Testing with intention, not instinct

Once your basics are in place — fonts are legible, the layout is clean, mobile rendering is solid, and accessibility is handled — you’ve got the right to ask a more exciting question: What does my audience actually prefer?

In email marketing, guessing is expensive. But testing? That’s how you discover what really works for your unique audience.

But remember, testing doesn’t fix bad design. It builds on a good design. If your email is hard to scan, read, or click, start there first.

Once that’s settled, start small. You don’t need to reinvent your entire email. Just test one variable at a time.

Start with questions like:

1. Would this CTA perform better if it were shorter?
2. Does this layout help the message land faster?
3. Will a centered button outperform one aligned left?

Let your audience’s behavior guide your next move. A test result doesn’t give you the final answer; it gives you a better starting point. When the results show a winner, move on to a new variable.

6. Brand consistency builds trust — but evolution keeps you relevant

Consistency builds trust. A familiar tone, layout, and visual style reinforce your brand in every inbox. But if your emails haven’t changed in years, there’s a real risk they’ve started to blend in — or worse, get ignored.

Even high-performing templates have a shelf life.

In a recent webinar, Ryan Phelan shared insights into how brands can balance consistency with evolution in email design.

1. Review and refresh your templates every 2–3 years. That doesn’t mean abandoning your brand identity; it means stretching it. Evolve your layouts, explore new formats, or shift your tone slightly to reflect how your audience is growing.
2. When you feel like it, step outside the center of your brand equity. That’s where innovation begins. Everybody likes to stay in the center of their brand equity. But every once in a while, you’ve got to test the edges.

Let me share a quick example. A KFC team once tested a cute puppy image in a “We miss you” retention email. It was a bold move — off-brand, unexpected, and not tied directly to the product. The team hesitated, unsure whether a puppy would resonate more than a traditional product image. But the results spoke loud and clear: the puppy tripled performance. That’s what can happen when you test the edges.

For more insights and helpful recommendations from renowned expert Ryan Phelan on converting emails, please watch the full webinar. 

Email design that converts: Best practices in 2025

7. Accessibility is a business decision

Accessibility isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s not an extra layer you add if there’s time; it’s a core part of performance. Skipping it can cost you both subscribers and your reputation.

However, it’s not just a compliance checkbox; it’s also about respect. If your font is too small, your contrast too low, or your buttons too tiny to tap, a large portion of your audience — especially older adults and people with visual or motor impairments — simply can’t engage.

Some fear that accessible emails might look worse or limit creativity. But in reality, accessible emails often perform better. They’re easier to read, quicker to act on, and more inclusive by design.

This isn’t just about doing the right thing; it’s about doing the smart thing. When more people can read and respond to your emails, everyone wins.

For a detailed checklist of accessibility best practices, check out our full guide to accessible email design.

8. No silos allowed: Designers, marketers, and developers need to think together

Marketers know that emails need to be accessible and drive results. Designers want them to look stunning. Coders want them to render reliably across every client. These goals aren’t at odds, but too often, the teams behind them are.

When roles work in silos, misalignment creeps in. You get tiny, untappable buttons that look nice but frustrate subscribers. Or elegant layouts that collapse in Outlook. Or worse — a high-performing email concept that never makes it past design because no one asked if it was even technically possible.

That’s why collaboration shouldn’t wait until the final review. Involve all roles from the very beginning — not just to approve the outcome but also to shape it. Early input prevents costly surprises and sparks smarter ideas.

When designers, marketers, and coders align, email becomes more than just pretty pixels; it becomes a high-performing, inclusive, and technically sound experience. But this kind of collaboration doesn’t just happen. It takes intention.

Break the silos with:

• shared planning: Align early on purpose, audience, and tech constraints;
• joint reviews: Don’t wait until the final stage. Review mid-build together;
• knowledge sharing: Help each team understand what the others need — from accessibility and brand tone to rendering quirks and interactive limits;
• cross-discipline exposure: Let marketers shadow designers. Invite developers to design reviews. Build empathy through visibility.

When everyone understands not just what to do but also why it matters, emails improve from the inside out. Want your next campaign to succeed? Make sure the right people are building it — together.

Wrapping up: What to do next Monday

If you want your emails to improve, start small and start now. Here’s how to put what you’ve learned into practice:

1. Audit your most recent email: Check for accessibility issues and clarity. Can someone read and act on it easily?
2. Review your layout: Does your email have a clear structure that guides the reader? Or does it feel like a patchwork of blocks?
3. Talk to your teammate: Sit down with a designer, coder, or copywriter. Share one challenge you each face and solve it together.
4. Use the design checklist: Before hitting send, double-check key elements: font size, mobile optimization, contrast, alt text, and CTA clarity.
5. Run a micro-test: Choose one variable for your next send, like a CTA, layout tweak, or subject line. Learn from what happens.