Good design of mail navigation bar affects the conversion rate of mail marketing

Guide: How to design the mail navigation bar? Can you use the same design style as the Web navigation bar? We don't think about it very often, but if you can improve the conversion rate of mail marketing by changing the design of the Mail navigation bar, many companies may be willing to change, and by reading this article, you will have your own answer.

The navigation bar at the top of your email can be a huge source of user engagement. In addition to being seen almost every time in the message preview pane, the navigation bar shows your email subscribers a clear and familiar path to engage with you, even if they are not interested in the main content of your email.

According to Eroi's latest "Mail Fundamentals" survey, 62% of mail marketers who contain navigation bars say that navigation bars are more effective or effective in generating clicks than body content. In addition, 65% of marketers say that in terms of conversion, the navigation bar is better or the same as the main content.

"One of the mail designers I know once said half jokingly that he wanted to send a message with only one navigation bar," says Aaron Smith, co-founder and president of Smith-harmon, "to see how effective they are in driving user engagement." ”

Navigation bars in retail messages use

Nearly 93% of the top 108 online retailers include navigation bars at the top of their messages. Slightly lower than last year's 94%.

Navigation bars in messages, units:%

	%
Horizontal Horizontal	88%
Vertical Vertical	3%
(horizontal, vertical) all have Both	2%
No navigation bar No nav bar	7%

The horizontal navigation bar is far more vertical, because the horizontal navigation bar is easier to see in the message preview pane, helping to improve its effect.

Does the message navigation bar have to match the navigation bar of the Web site?

For most email marketers, it's easier to decide which navigation bar to include, but many people are unsure whether the navigation bar should be consistent with its site's navigation. Of the retailers that contain the navigation bar, 38% uses a message navigation bar that is consistent with the site.

Our view is that the difference between mail and online marketing is the difference between navigation. Mail is not as broad as a Web site, and users spend less time on messages, which requires the message to be browsed quickly. We recommend that you consider these differences when creating a mail navigation bar.

Number of navigation bar links

The difference in navigation between a message and a Web site means that mail navigation has fewer links than site navigation.

Currently, the average number of links to Retail site navigation bars is 8.9, while the average number of links to a horizontal message navigation bar is 8.1. However, the number of links ranges from 3 to 19, and the vertical message navigation bar has an average of 23.2 links, ranging from 6 to 50.

"These numbers seem a little high to me," Smith said. "I recommend selecting 5 or 6 links that reflect the destination of the site and add them to the navigation bar of your email." ”

Interestingly, 59% of the retailers that have 9 or more links in the navigation bar copy the navigation bars of the Web site, while the mail navigation bars link fewer retailers and use mail-specific navigation bars more often. Copying site navigation may be under pressure from the sales area managers and marketers, but these longer navigation strips weaken better results.

Other navigation links

In addition to the navigation bar links, we've also studied the navigation links that retailers place at the top of the message, whether they are in the navigation bar or anywhere before the text. For example, we found that 52% of retailers placed a link to their sales, wholesale stores or clearance sale sales area. 15% there are links to their store locations, and 8% links to their gift card pages.

Since 92% of retailers use the same or fewer links to their site's navigation bars in the mail-navigation bar, it's interesting to see that 6% of retailers place a "more", "See all" or similar link to each sales area. This is a worthwhile consideration for many retailers in the sales area.

Tips for navigating the bar

The links in your email navigation bar don't have to be set in the same way, and your navigation bar doesn't have to be fixed in your mail program. Imagine that this may also be good, such as changing the order of links, or highlighting different links in different colors. Here are three techniques you can add to your navigation:

Highlight the "Sales" link

Sales are almost always the interest of subscribers, so you can consider giving a special deal to your "sales", "clearance" or "Special sale" links. That's what a handful of big retailers like Alloy, Ebags, Rei and Spiegel do.

"We found that rendering the ' sales ' link red is an effective way to drive sales," said Lisa Harmon, co-founder and president of Smith-harmon.

Smith-harmon customer REI, the red "Sales and clearance" link rendered from red HTML text, saw success.

Emphasize a specific sales area

If you send a message to a product in a particular sales area, and you have the sales area in the navigation bar, consider highlighting the link, such as changing the color of the text or background. For example, when Old Navy sends messages about men's clothing, they highlight the "MEN" label in the navigation bar.

In this year's April 17 message, Old Navy highlighted the Sales area label

HSN uses the same technique, but goes a step further and prompts the sales area focus in the sender's name. For example, in any mail that comes from a specific transaction in its clearance sales area, the sender's name is "HSN clearance" and the "clearance" label is highlighted in the navigation bar.

Similar to Old Navy, in the April 19 message, HSN uses the background color to highlight the sales area feature.

Show seasonal Sales Area

Change your navigation and have seasonal opportunities. For example, on the occasion of Mother's Day, Redenvelope added a red "Mother's Day" link to the navigation bar as the first label. FTD and Smartbargains also added a "Mother's Day" link to attract attention to mother's gifts.

Redenvelope added the "Mother's Day" label to the navigation bar as the beginning of the April 14 mail.

HTML navigation Bar

Another consideration for navigation bars is the creation of images or HTML text. Whenever possible, we recommend using HTML text as a navigation bar. By doing so, you can guarantee that your links will still be readable even when the viewer masks the image. By default, about half of consumers screen images in their main inbox, giving your navigation bar a guaranteed display that has an impact on maximizing the effect of your message, especially if your navigation strips do not require exotic fonts, pictures, or logos.

Retailers are quickly realising the benefits of using HTML for navigation bars. At present, 28% of the horizontal direction of the message navigation bar using HTML text, compared to last year only 15% high. HTML text is far more common in vertical navigation bars, with 60% of vertical navigation being created in HTML.

In addition to the top text and the Alt attribute text for the image, Art.com also uses HTML text for the navigation bar on a brown background.

Web Search in a message

In almost any site, site search is a key part, but the role of the message in the second. 93% of the major online retailers placed the navigation bar in the mail, but only 19% included any form of site search in the message.

In-site search in mail, units:%

	%
No search	81%
Search the form search Format	12%
Search link/button search Link/button	5%
Search form images linked to a Web site	2%

"We found it difficult to explain the use of search forms," Smith said.

The main reason behind the widespread lack of search in-site searches is that most mail client programs prohibit the form. Also, some client programs display security warnings when users try to use the form. This creates a bad user experience and is why only 12% of retailers use the site search form in their emails. A small percentage of retailers try to make up for the lack of support for this feature by placing a "search" link, or by linking an image of a search box to a search landing page.

This is not to say that site search should not be included in the navigation section. For some retailers, the extra traffic generated by the search form in the mail exceeds the possible negative impact. However, you need to do a careful, positive and negative analysis beforehand to make sure it's useful for your organization.