How do your emails look? Are they time intensive beauties or clunky cut and paste templates?

Jeff Hilimire, of Spunlogic, gives us advice on how to evaluate email design:

• When reviewing your creative, make sure you understand where the "fold" is in your email. The fold represents the area of the email that can be seen in the preview pane without having to scroll (typically 400 to 500 pixels in vertical space). Understanding the "above the fold" rule is one of the most important usability improvements you can make with your emails. Make sure your creative and calls to action are aligned so that they appear above the fold, allowing the user to see them without having to scroll.
  
  
• Remember: when people are using email they want it to be as simple and fast as possible. Consequently, you also want to make sure that you have a call to action below the fold (as well as one above the fold) to allow the user to act on the email if they have scrolled down.
  
  
• Another key area to review when looking back at your email campaigns is brand consistency. Although it's important to keep your emails fresh, you should also make sure that the branding is consistent so the user will continue to recognize and gain trust in your email efforts. A good rule of thumb to follow is to keep your logo in the top left corner, as that is the first place the user's eyes will look. You should also develop a template for your creative that will allow you to easily swap out creative elements without sacrificing the brand consistency.