---
title: 5 Ingredients For Excellent Emails
description: Five design and content tips & a few other resources for association marketers to make their emails excellent.
---

[BAM! (Better Association Marketing) from HighRoad Solution ](https://www.highroadsolutions.com/blog)

# [5 Ingredients For Excellent Emails](https://www.highroadsolutions.com/blog/five-ingredients-excellent-emails)

 Written by [Lisa Campo](https://www.highroadsolutions.com/blog/author/lisa-campo) | 6/23/15 4:15 PM

All association marketers want members to read, or at the very least skim, their emails. Here are five things you can focus on to make yours better.

- **Know your audience.** Get your stats. How many of your members are opening on mobile vs. desktop? Design accordingly.
- **Have clear calls to action.** If you want members to register, have a register button. If you want members to read a white paper, your link text should say "Read the white paper about disappearing bees!" Never make them try to hard to do what you want them to do!
- **Have clear and concise graphics.** Your graphics should be appropriate; not obvious and generic stock photos. 
- Don’t have too much text, but if you do, it better be **readable** and **worthwhile**. Don't overexplain. Trust that your members can figure out how to register for an event if the only real action they have to take is to click a link.
- **Use an online rendering tool** like [Litmus](http://www.litmus.com) or [Email on Acid](http://www.emailonacid.com) to make sure your emails will look good across the board. These are super fun. They show what your email will look like on all the browsers/devices you choose. 

I covered all these points (and a lot more) in my webinar, "**How To Make Your Emails Sizzle for Summer**," on June 12. Did you miss it? Don't worry, we've got you; this button will bring you right to it.

** A little extra**: Use these resources to make sure your emails look amazing.         

- [http://](http://reallygoodemails.com/)[reallygoodemails.com](http://reallygoodemails.com/): So many well-designed campaigns to look at.
- [StyleCampaign](http://stylecampaign.com/blog/)[ blog](http://stylecampaign.com/blog/)
- Learn for free at [Campaign Monitor](https://www.campaignmonitor.com/guides/)’s guide section – tons of content!
- [Lynda.com](http://www.lynda.com/): Not free, but worth the money.
- Just use Google (I believe in you!)
- Test the rendering of your designs: [www.emailonacid.com](http://www.emailonacid.com/) and [www.litmus.com](http://www.litmus.com/)
- BlueHornet 2014 Consumer Views of Email Marketing Report: [http://](http://resources.bluehornet.com/resources/form/2014-consumer-views-of-email-marketing-report)[resources.bluehornet.com/resources/form/2014-consumer-views-of-email-marketing-report](http://resources.bluehornet.com/resources/form/2014-consumer-views-of-email-marketing-report)
- Litmus.com blog: [https://](https://litmus.com/blog/)[litmus.com/blog/](https://litmus.com/blog/)
- Mailchimp Resources: [http](http://mailchimp.com/resources/)[://](http://mailchimp.com/resources/)[mailchimp.com/resources/](http://mailchimp.com/resources/)
- Campaign Monitor: [https://www.campaignmonitor.com/guides](https://www.campaignmonitor.com/guides/)[/](https://www.campaignmonitor.com/guides/)
- HubSpot Blog: [http](http://blog.hubspot.com/)[://blog.hubspot.com](http://blog.hubspot.com/)

[View full post](https://www.highroadsolutions.com/blog/five-ingredients-excellent-emails)

```json
{
  "@context" : "http://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BlogPosting",
  "author" : {
    "@type" : "Person",
    "name" : "Lisa Campo"
  },
  "dateModified" : "2015-06-23T16:15:41.003Z",
  "datePublished" : "2015-06-23T16:15:40Z",
  "headline" : "5 Ingredients For Excellent Emails",
  "image" : {
    "@type" : "ImageObject",
    "height" : 60,
    "url" : "/hs/hsstatic/content_shared_assets/static-1.4092/img/default-amp-logo.png",
    "width" : 60
  },
  "mainEntityOfPage" : "https://www.highroadsolutions.com/blog/five-ingredients-excellent-emails",
  "publisher" : {
    "@type" : "Organization",
    "logo" : {
      "@type" : "ImageObject",
      "height" : 60.0,
      "url" : "https://f.hubspotusercontent30.net/hubfs/345438/hrs-logo-2019-navyblue-1.png",
      "width" : 183.47826
    },
    "name" : "BAM! (Better Association Marketing)"
  }
}
```