6 types of images to make your emails more interesting

Published: Thu, 03/28/24

Hi there friend,

Last week, I shared some of the incredible ways you can use Canva (right inside of AWeber) to edit, retouch, and spice up the images in your email.

Buckle up because today we’re going even further. I’m going to walk you through the most useful types of images you can create in Canva for your emails.

When many people think of the images you can create with Canva, they think that you’re limited to social images, ad units, and maybe a flier or two. But that’s barely even scratching the surface of the types of helpful and interesting things you can make in just a few minutes with Canva.

Creating a Hero Image

An example email header saying "Hello Summer" in an interesting font.

Hero images are the most common thing I create in Canva. There are piles of legitimately good templates to build off of, and in some cases even just use with minor modifications.

I always start my hero creation process by hitting the “Create a design” button and typing a simple search. I’ve yet to find a search that didn’t yield at least one template that worked to get me started.

A screenshot of Canva showing all of the many search results for the term "email."

Creating Charts

A bar chart comparing the email frequency for small businesses.

I’m something of a data nerd (I have no less than a dozen spreadsheets and dashboards open in other tabs right now as I type this). I love the experience of understanding something in a completely new way thanks to information being presented smartly in a clear chart.

I’ll regularly use charts to make the data I’m using to tell a story feel more concrete and help people understand the true scale of impact. In a series from last year on how major league baseball teams use email I relied heavily on charts to turn the numbers into a meaningful story.

Canva has a ton of wonderful chart templates to tell your data stories in an attractive and easily understandable way.

Creating QR Codes

This one is a bit of a curveball, because I don’t often (if ever) include QR codes in my newsletters. What I do use them for is to help promote my newsletters.

What is a QR Code?

It is a barcode that you can scan with a smartphone camera to easily visit websites without the need for typing.

I’ll use Canva to create fliers or other printed materials (like mailers) that include QR codes to sign up for my list pointing to my signup page.

This is a great opportunity to offer an incentive (like a coupon code, an exclusive email course, or consultation) and then use campaign automation to deliver what you promised to the people who sign up.

Creating Product Mockups

I’ve recently started experimenting with Canva’s “Mockups” app that lets you superimpose your image on to a variety of devices and product templates.

I’ve found this very useful to create promotional images (for social media, ads, etc) with a picture of my newsletter out in the wild on someone’s phone or computer. And the best part is that it literally only takes seconds to get a customized mockup.

This can also be useful if you want feedback on whether your audience would buy physical products with your logo or graphics on them, or to promote incentives they could earn by referring your newsletter or products.

Creating GIFs

We’ve written about experiments we’ve run in the past that show the impact of motion in your emails. Whether it’s increasing clicks on video thumbnails or increasing positive sentiment about the people in your business, there’s evidence that motion, when used smartly, can really matter.

Canva’s free GIF maker lets you create a gif from a video you upload or one of their many templates. You can add text, embellish with stickers, or use quirky effects, filters, and animations.

I created the gif below in less than a minute using one of Canva’s GIF templates.

Creating a Logo

This one comes with a big caveat. I’ve said before that I’m a designer at heart, so I have a bias here, but I think if there’s one single thing you should work with a designer on, it’s your logo.

For most people, your logo is the graphic element that is going to be seen most often by your customers - either on its own or as part of other designs. So it’s really important that your logo accurately reflects who you are and is memorable enough that when your prospects and customers see it they can’t help but remember you.

One other watch-out for logos you create using Canva’s templates is that, since you don’t have exclusive rights to those templates, you cannot register them as trademarks.

All that being said, if you’re starting out a new project and you need something to use as a logo while you’re getting started, Canva’s Logo Maker is a great tool to get you something decent.

It’s likely to be fairly generic, and you’ll be limited in the ways you can use it (due to file format limitations); but it’s a good stopgap until you’ve validated an idea enough to work with a designer on something permanent.

I hope what I’ve shared helps you create something beautiful. Next week, I’ll be writing some of the AI image creation and editing tools available on the Canva pro plan. Get ready, because they truly feel like magic.

What did you think of this email?

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

💔 I didn't really care for it.

All of this Image Creation Potential is Possible Right Inside of AWeber

Teaching you how to create these images isn’t really useful if it’s not easy to add them to your emails and landing pages. That’s why we added the Canva button to AWeber’s editors so you can create to your heart’s content without having to leave AWeber.

And no worrying about downloading images, copying or pasting, or uploading anything anywhere. It all happens automatically so you can focus on creation, and not annoying busywork.