What is an Email Header?

The first thing that might grab your attention when reading an email is its header. It is placed above the message and gives a hint of information regarding the sender. So if you can’t identify the sender of an email you have received, or you need to report a spam message, you must check the email header.

An email header is simply an attention grabber, holding the receiver’s interest in what’s the content is about to deliver.

How to make an Email Header?

An email header is designed for branding and professional communication. Note that it is a useful decoration in your email, it would be better if you don’t overdo designing it.

Here are some design tips to consider in making an email header:

Image doesn’t always work

The goal is not to overdo the design. Yes, it grabs attention, but the message is more important. Using images related to the email content or the company is a good idea, but it doesn’t mean that it will always work at best in making an email header.

Simplicity is strong

Minimal is trendy. Try to keep your email header at least close to this thought. Unnecessary images or texts will just make your header crowded, so avoid little complexity in design.

Consistency matters

One of the functions of an email header is about branding. Keeping it consistent in communication will help a lot.

Visual is power

Make your email header communicates first before the recipients read the plain format of the content message. This will make your visual statement work.

Email Header size

The email header should not be too small or too big to consume the space for the message. However, it should be in size good enough to put the necessary information and grab the reader’s attention.

It is recommended that when making an email header, the dimension must be of high quality in 600 x 200 pixels, maintaining low file size. This format will help your email header load fast even when viewed on different screen display.

Downsides of an Email Header

There are different effective email headers that definitely works in branding and in getting the reader’s attention. However, they also have disadvantages that make it completely useless.

You need superb skills in making visually gorgeous email headers, but some email clients and large servers block images because they are sometimes slower to load.

When you choose to make your email header more branded, you might look unprofessional because it seems that you are focused on just one thing.

On the other hand, if you think that a header wouldn’t matter that much, your email will look plainly boring. Your readers might just ignore them. It’s then important to keep the right balance.