Emails have been the backbone of corporations for the last 40 years, and Prudential was no different. From the most basic of confirmation emails letting the customer know they successfully updated their account information, to the complex marketing email announcing a new product or service Prudential needed them and all of the variations in between. 

 

In late 2015, after the new Prudential site was launched, the marketing department wanted to create new emails that connected with the new look and feel of the site.  This was easier said than done. Emails are complicated and yet simple; they are generally built using basic HTML language and with minimal clickable images so that customers who might be using outdated, corporate email programs can download them quickly and still get the information they need, even if the firewalls don’t allow images to be uploaded upon opening. Also, fonts must go back to the basic list from 1985 (we used Arial) so that the load time is not affected by looking for, downloading, and then uploading special fonts. Sure, we could have used text as an image, but again, if the server didn’t load the image, the message is lost.

 

In addition to everything else, we needed to remain flexible with our layout to accommodate the diverse content that could be included in an email. Initially, I designed basic layouts suitable for a 320-pixel-wide format, which I then expanded to a 640-pixel width. This adjustment ensured proper viewing on both mobile phones and desktop computers, while also considering how different email programs handle formatting.

 

Once I had the layout where we needed it and included a variety of components, I began creating visual cues that aligned with the new site, such as the header, footer, font sizing, colors, and more. This helped establish a system that our marketing department could use to create emails with minimal oversight from our team. We were quite busy, and they were sending out dozens of emails each month. It was more effective to develop a reliable system that allowed them to efficiently produce those emails.

 

Over time, as our needs evolved, we added, edited, and refined the system. While it may be frustrating for designers to utilize a basic font like Arial when they have access to a vast array of fonts, we ensured that the emails we created were as elegant and engaging as possible. Although we aspired to design innovative and exciting emails, we had to consider the limitations imposed by HTML and the corporate environment.

 

Thanks for reading.