trending typography: the use of artistic fonts in email
We will surely watch the rise of many email marketing trends in 2018. One of those trends to watch out for is the increased use of custom typography in email. Custom typography is the use of artistic, eye-catching fonts that direct the user’s attention to the main message of your email. Using these artistic fonts will increase the visual appeal of emails which usually leads to an increase in user engagement.
how will custom typography help?
As humans, we are naturally drawn to anything that stands out from the crowd. This applies to email typography as well. The key in using artistic typography is making sure it is on-brand and renders across all of your user’s devices and email clients. We all know that brands use unique fonts in their logos to distinguish themselves from the competition. The same goes for custom fonts within email. You always want your font to match who you are and what you are trying to say. Having some beautiful text that doesn’t render is useless though. It will be key to test your email content templates or web fonts to guarantee successful rendering.
expert advice
Successful rendering of web fonts is essential if you want your custom font to be effective. The reason marketers need to worry about web fonts rendering correctly is due to the fact that not all email clients (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail) support every type of web font. This means you have to test your chosen custom fonts within email clients before you initiate your campaign. The three parenthetical examples listed (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail) should support most of the custom fonts you choose because they are some of the largest email clients that people use. But it is always good to render test before you implement custom typography into your campaigns.
Here’s a quote from one of our employees describing the benefits of custom typography:
“Using web fonts within email is a great way to closely match branding guidelines and stand out in the monotonous inbox. However, it’s always important to understand which clients the web font will and will not render, and properly back it up with an appropriate web-friendly typeface.” -Adam Sukenik, UX Designer at WhatCounts
There are two points I want to touch on real quick. The first is that you need to make sure you match your branding guidelines within the custom font. It is good to deviate from competition, but don’t deviate from who you are as a brand. Secondly, Adam said that you need to back it up with the appropriate web-friendly typeface. This means that you need to have a fallback font that the reader will see if the primary chosen web font doesn’t render within a particular email client.
quick tips
There are two ways to make sure your beautifully created fonts render in the future.
- Have your custom font be a part of the hero-image, the main message content, so that as long as your user has it enabled within their email to display content from your company, the image will display.
- Another way to successfully use custom typography in email is by using custom texts that are web-supported fonts. If you select text that is downloaded into the clients web browser, it should render appropriately in email.
we are here to help!
At WhatCounts, our mission is to assist in your success across all marketing channels. If you want to dive into how custom typography can help you, talk to your account manager or reach out to us directly. We are happy to work with you on any custom project that utilizes custom typography so you can stand out from the crowd and fit your brand voice.
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