You've booked an email with us...
Let's build an email together
We have put together this handy guide that tells you best practice, what we need from you, and when.
1. Main message
Let us know the main message you’d like to convey to our audience and what you hope to gain by sending the email.
This helps our design team ensure the focus of the email is on the thing you most want to shout about, which is especially important if you have a complex business that has multiple revenue streams.
Some possible aims include:
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Promoting a new product, range or service
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Promoting an offer, deal or sale
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Raising awareness of your business or brand
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Generating interest in an event
2. Images
Please provide a minimum of three images, including one that can be used as a header image and at least two that can be used in the body of the email.
Specifications
Header or full-width image ![]()
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Size: Minimum of 700px width
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Format: JPG or PNG
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File size: Maximum of 400kb
Body images ![]()
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Size: Minimum of 500px width
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Format: JPG or PNG
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File size: Maximum of 200kb
3. Logo
In addition to the images you provide, please also provide us with a logo for your business that can be used in the header of your email.
Specifications
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Size: Minimum of 400px width
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Format: PNG with a transparent background
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File size: Maximum of 200kb


4. Copy
Please provide us with the text you would like used alongside your visual assets within the email. Your email copy should lead with the main message you want to convey. Keep it as short and succinct as possible – even a short paragraph of text viewed on desktop can become a lengthy block to scroll though on mobile (see the difference in the experience by using the image switch).


Please make it clear where copy should be used in titles, subtitles or body text, and give some indication of the imagery that should accompany it, where relevant.
5. Links
Please provide us with all the URLs you’d like us to include in your email, and where you like each one to be used (e.g. on a particular image, button, etc).
Our Email Service Provider (Dotdigital) tracks email clicks natively, but if you would like your own visibility on the traffic driven to your site, please ensure the URLs you provide us with have been correctly appended with UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) parameters that will allow you to track the traffic in your own Google Analytics account.


6. Subject lines
While our email team is happy to suggest some subject lines that they feel will help your email perform to its best, if you have some in mind that you’d like us to use, please provide them.
We split (A/B) test subject lines for all of our email campaigns as standard, to enable the best performance of the email; this process allows the contacts in the email database to determine which subject line will get the best response. For this reason, we ask that you supply a minimum of 2 subject lines for us to use in a split test.


Specifications
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Length: Maximum of 40 characters
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Number to provide: 2 - 4
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Focus: Your subject lines should focus on, or peak interest in, the most enticing or important part of your message - they should also give some indication of what the reader can expect to find on opening the email
7. Contact address
Please provide us with an email address to which we can send an inbox test of your email once it’s been built by our team.
Please also specify if this is a different email address to the one you’d like to be contacted on about any queries we have regarding the email build, and provide an alternative where relevant.
All assets must be provided 5 working days before the agreed send date.
Thank you for your custom!
If you have any further questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with your sales rep, or contact us on: mybusiness@horsemart.co.uk