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Hi there friend,

I began my career with a boutique web design and development agency I started with some friends. One of the lessons I quickly learned was how important consistent branding was for a company’s audience to build a connection with them.

Even more importantly, I learned how much it matters for a brand to be actually interesting.

Consumers - whether they’re buying your product or consuming your content - generally don’t want to be bored. And while most of the work of keeping people interested comes down to your written content, visuals like, colors, fonts, and images can be the magical extra spice that leads your audience to fall in love with your brand.

I’m not going to write a dissertation on all things branding (we’ve written about typography, color theory, and visual design in depth elsewhere). Instead I’m going to walk you through three changes you can make today to add some extra character to your email.

Make a Good First Impression with a Branded Header

If you don’t already have your logo at the top of your newsletter, this is basically step 0. If you don’t have a logo, Canva makes it super easy to make one (and Canva’s built right into AWeber so you can create images whenever you want).

There are a few common variations of email headers I’ve seen in my favorite newsletters.

Just the Logo

Simple, classic, and easy to implement and manage. This gets the job done with zero fuss.

Full Header Image

In this very newsletter, we use a custom image that spans the width of the email. This more visually striking approach lets us add more of the AWeber brand character to the start of every newsletter.

Change the Color of Your Canvas

Most of the emails I read share one big visual characteristic in common: they have a plain white background. And that’s a perfectly fine decision (our own newsletter has a white background). But it’s not the only choice you have.

Some of the newsletters I read that have the clearest visual character use other light colored backgrounds. Check out this yellow background in Semafor’s newsletter.

If you use a background color other than white be sure that there is enough contrast between the background and your text so people can easily read it.

Here are a few light colors to start from if you’re using dark text:

• Yellow: #fffee8
• Blue: #e8f6ff
• Green: #e8ffe9

Let Your Typography Tell a Story

The font you choose goes a long way to communicating a brand character.

Serif Font - Timeless Style:

A typeface that features small decorative strokes or extensions at the end of its larger strokes, commonly used to convey tradition, reliability, and respectability.

Fonts Include: Helvetica, Tahoma, and Verdana.

Sans-serif Font - Clean and Modern:

A sans-serif font is a typeface without decorative strokes at the ends of its characters, known for its clean, modern appearance and readability.

Fonts Include: Georgia, and Times.

Mix up your headline and paragraph fonts to add variety and character to your content. Here are a few combination that pair well together:

Traditional + Modern

Pairing a serif font for headlines with a sans-serif font for paragraphs combines traditional elegance with modern simplicity. The headlines grab attention with a classic appearance, while the sans-serif paragraph text brings a clean and readable contrast, making the bulk of the content easy to digest.

Contemporary + Classic

A sans-serif font for headlines paired with a serif font for paragraphs creates a blend of contemporary boldness and classic readability. The sans-serif headline strikes with its modern and straightforward look. Following up with a serif font in the body text then offers a comfortable reading experience, grounding the innovative feel of the headline with the time-tested feel of serif fonts.

What did you think of this email?

❤️❤️❤️ Loved it. Can't wait to get the next one.

💔 I didn't really care for it.

Try a new look on your newsletter in seconds

If you want to experiment with different colors and fonts in your email, theme settings makes it as easy as possible.

Manage your paragraph and headline styles, colors, button styles, and more for your entire message all from one easy to control panel.

Get our latest expert advice and helpful tips 

As always, thanks for reading!

- Chris V. and the rest of the AWeber team