Font matters as it helps in attracting audiences and increasing conversion rates. So, if you are looking for the best font for email content, you are at the right place. We have found 5 things you should consider before choosing the best font.
The time people actually spend skimming through business emails
It is common knowledge that your business emails shouldn’t be too long. Some experts say that your email newsletter should not contain more than 500 words in total. The rule does make sense, you know.
After all, why put so many words on an email that gets read for approximately only 10 to 12 seconds? Yes, the average read time on an email is just that. Not even half of a minute.
People don’t enjoy reading long paragraphs when opening their emails. They just want to know what’s up and get quickly to the overview of a point you’re trying to make.
This is especially the case when receiving transactional emails. People want to get things done quickly.
To help them do this, use fonts that are legible and basic. These should be scrollable on all devices, be it desktop, mobile, or tablet.
Customers’ emails are flooded with all manner of marketing mails. Your font could make your mail stand out.
Per an article on the Brevo website, readability and legibility of the content should be your primary concern when selecting a font.
That said, choose a font that is large and ‘fat’ enough for comfortable skimming.
When making titles and headers, use fonts that are big enough to catch attention.
The clarity of each letter displayed on mobile
As for the font that is appropriate for email content, do consider the clarity of your fonts when displayed on mobile.
After all, most people today open their emails on mobile devices instead of laptop, or even PC.
Smartphone displays are comparatively smaller than most laptops even, so do consider how your texts would appear on mobile before you consider any other platforms. You don’t want your text to be so thin, crampy and difficult to read.
Therefore, try to choose amongst fonts that are known to be on the ‘fatter’ side. This means that they have more body width and natural spacing that comes with the font type.
Choosing a serif font may be better as this type of font is proven to be easier to read thanks to its curves and edges that resemble ‘tails’. Serif fonts are best for fast reading as well as titles.
Fonts that don’t clash with flashy images
Meanwhile, we also have sans serif fonts. This type of font does not come with tails and they appear comparatively modern and sleek.
Images on an online newsletter, or photos on a social media do more than cosmetic improvement.
They enhance the readability of the article and help the readers to grasp the story even before reading it.
Per an article on the Campaign Monitor, images and photos persuade reluctant and choosy subscribers to read the article till the end.
But you don’t want to lose the meaning of the article by using unattractive fonts that disappear within the flashy and colorful images.
If your email newsletter comes with quite a bit of picture and videos, try to choose amongst sans serif fonts instead of the other type. Serif fonts can be used in titles and headers as they catch attention quickly.
But the content that comes after each title or header should be in sans serif if you also include pictures. Choosing a sans serif font in such a scenario will make your email look more streamlined and tidier.
This equals better readability and the overall look of your email doesn’t put a strain on your recipient’s eyes. Be careful about this sort of design if you want better engagement.
Email recipients are known to delete an email within 3 seconds if they decide that the email is hard to read.
Size and spacing matter
For an overall look that appears professional, the total harmony of your email newsletter design is important. Your texts are the master focus of an email newsletter.
Remember this; it is not your images or your videos that are the main stars. They can be there to elevate your email newsletter, but the main mode of communication is still your text.
Therefore, you must put an emphasis on the ease of reading. When thinking about ease of reading, especially when your email recipients skim through all the words displayed on their smartphones, the size and spacing of your letters matter.
Like, a lot. You want the size and spacing of your letters to be easy to grasp whilst reading at lightning speed. This is meaningful for grabbing your reader’s attention.
Try to send a copy of the email to yourself before you send it out to thousands of your subscribers.
Check compatibility between mobile and desktop
As mentioned already, most people open their emails on smartphones. Smartphones are significantly smaller than laptops and PCs. With that in mind, it is a good habit to always consider mobile first when designing an email newsletter.
However, just because that is the case, it doesn’t mean your desktop look can be overlooked (pun intended). Plenty of users still open their emails on desktop, especially those who are always working on their laptops or PCs.
With that said, it is important that the fonts you have chosen also look nice and decent on a desktop. Always check for compatibility when designing email newsletters for both mobile and desktop.
One font size wouldn’t make it through all the devices. A font that would work well on a desktop could be too small and fragmented when viewed on a smartphone.
Similarly, per an article on the Linkedln website, a perfect font should fit on the intended device, and allows for a better structured article sprinkled with images and links.
Even if you need to make some adjustments, both versions shouldn’t look too different from each other. Your emails should always look seamless when viewed from different platforms.
To simplify this though, you could use dedicated software that can do this automatically for you.
