Email branding 101: tips and examples to elevate your brand with every email you send

Whether someone is checking your social media channels, visiting your website, or reading your newsletter, creating a cohesive, well-designed brand experience builds a strong connection between you and your community—and what ultimately gets the sale.

And when you’re a creator who understands the importance of using email to market your business, branding this crucial connection with your audience is imperative.

In this article, we’ll talk about what email branding is, why it matters, and how to execute it in your own emails.

What is email branding, and why is it important?

Email branding is a marketing strategy that creates a coordinated email experience for subscribers, no matter what kind of email they receive.

That includes traditional design elements like colors and fonts but also extends to how your email appears in the inbox, how many emails you send, and where those emails fit into your larger marketing efforts.

Email branding isn’t just about making your emails look nice.

Great email branding:

• Increases email open rates: Inbox recognition is huge when it comes to getting that coveted open. If subscribers know what to expect, they’re much more likely to open your email.
• Improves deliverability rates: The better your engagement, the better your deliverability. That means you’re more likely to land in the inbox in the first place, so none of your hard work on your marketing efforts goes to waste.
• Shows you’re a professional: Remember, you’re running a business. Consistent email branding looks more put-together, even if you’re using an informal style.
• Builds trust: When you’re cohesive across multiple platforms, it’s easier for your subscribers to trust that you are who you say you are.

Melissa Lambert, Kit’s email deliverability specialist, points to email branding as a great way to build a connection with your subscribers—which makes them more likely to purchase from you, too:

Branding your emails can definitely contribute to better deliverability. When an audience recognizes the brand in correlation to excellent content, they tend to interact with the emails more. It helps build a 1:1 connection to the people you’re sending messages to and makes them look less like everything else in the inbox.

The types of emails you should brand

The short answer? All of them.

Every email you send should be branded consistently, using the same design language—colors, fonts, and imagery—and the same brand voice so your subscribers feel connected to who you are and what you do.

That includes:

• Regular email newsletters
• Welcome emails to your new newsletter subscribers
• Lead nurturing sequences, such as webinar follow-ups or ebook downloads
• Product launch email sequences that promote your new book, course, tour, podcast, or something else you’re excited about
• Sales emails that announce your new album, merch, coaching packages, paid newsletter, and other digital products
• Onboarding email sequences for new customers
• Requests for testimonials from existing customers

While your emails should all be part of the same brand, you don’t have to make every type of email look exactly the same.

For example, a detailed weekly newsletter will differ from a sales email for your next product launch. What matters is that your email branding feels the same through visual and written cues.

The 9 branding elements you need to tackle (+ examples)

So, how do you brand an email?

Knowing who you are as a creator is one thing, but nailing the details for each email you send is another matter.

Here’s how to incorporate branded elements into your email designs:

1. Use a branded sender name and email address

Make sure your emails are instantly recognizable in the inbox by choosing a consistent, branded sender name. This could be the name of your business, or you can use the “first name from business name” convention. Either way, make sure people know who you are.

While your subscribers won’t always be looking at your email address, make sure you’re sending email from an official email. It should be matched with your domain name, not a Gmail or Yahoo email address—and your subscribers should be able to reply.

Branded sender name example with Jay Clouse

Every email that creator Jay Clouse sends uses his own name as the from name. His email address, jay@jayclouse.com matches his domain and makes readers feel like the email is actually from Jay, even if someone else on his team wrote or sent it.

2. Consider BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification)

BIMI, or Brand Indicators for Message Identification, is an email verification method like the fabled blue checkmarks for Instagram or X/Twitter. This means subscribers can see your logo next to your sender name and email address in the inbox.

To earn that verification, brands have to follow a set of authentication instructions similar to setting up other deliverability methods like DMARC. It’s definitely on the more technical side to do, but the payoff is instant brand recognition right in the inbox.

3. Write subject lines and preview text in your brand voice

Before writing another word of email copy, think about your brand voice.

Brand voice is how you “talk” to your audience across your channels. It shows your personality and is a unique identifier for your business.

Of course, there’s some variation in how you use your brand voice.

For example, you wouldn’t necessarily send a legal notice with the same slang (or cool dance moves) as a TikTok video—but generally, you should sound like you no matter where someone is reading it online.

When writing an email, honing in your brand voice means making your subject lines and preview text consistent with how you talk. If you would never use emojis in a text, then don’t include emojis, as an example.

You want your subscribers to recognize a subject line for something you would send and no one else.

Subject line and preview text example with Rachael Pilcher from A Mighty Freelancer

Subject lines should be short and to the point, accurately advertising what you’ll find inside.

One way to do this is to consistently mark your subject lines in some way— Rachael Pilcher from A Mighty Freelancer adds the newsletter edition number for each send.

Beyond using her business name in every subject line, the copy itself is very consistent. Typically, Rachael asks a question that will be answered through the newsletter, which tends to be detailed, in-depth posts about freelance life.

4. Add your logo to the email header

People are much more likely to remember pictures than text, so adding a logo to your header triggers more recognition than without.

What is the recommended logo size in an email header?

That depends on your email design.

For example, you might want to go for a full email banner that always appears at the top of your email. In that case, aim for 700x200px. Otherwise, keep your logo fairly small—no more than 200x200px.

Email header branding example by musician Ryan Baustert

Musician Ryan Baustert uses a recognizable header at the start of his email newsletters.

He writes on a variety of topics to help artists build stronger marketing programs and get noticed. His header is simple—just his name and logo—but that’s all you need.

5. Personalize your emails

Building an email brand is all about creating a connection with your subscribers.

Unlike other marketing channels (ahem, social media) where you’re shouting into the ether and hoping for comments or likes back, email is a 1:1 medium—the inbox remains one of the last personal online spaces out there.

Personalizing your emails based on your subscriber demographics, preferences, and behaviors is a great way to foster that connection and encourage conversation.

Personalized email example with Jordan Syatt

Creator and fitness coach Jordan Syatt personalizes most of his emails, and this subject line is a great example of one that immediately stands out in the inbox.

You can grab their attention by asking a question and using the recipient’s first name.

6. Stick with your brand colors

Everyone can point to McDonald’s yellow, Starbucks green, Walmart blue, and Barbie pink without thinking.

That’s because their brand colors are so consistent and ubiquitous that they have immediate brand recognition.

Do the same for your emails so your subscribers recognize the source of the email, even without an introduction.

Create a color palette with designated colors for each element of your email, i.e., the header, background color, links, call-to-action buttons, and footer.

That doesn’t mean you can’t ever branch out from a specific template.

How you use your brand colors can vary by season, type of email, or specific email campaigns, like your Black Friday emails. What matters is you’re keeping to a certain set of colors that your subscribers associate with your brand.

Email color branding example with Danny Gregory

As an artist, Danny Gregory knows color.

The creator chose a consistent black and blue palette for his emails, including his paid subscription to Danny’s Essays. While his email style isn’t heavily designed, the color pops and pulls you in.

7. Consistently use the same web-safe fonts

Similarly, choose only a few fonts you’ll use consistently in your emails.

That may mean one font for your headers and another for the body copy.

Either way, stick with web-safe fonts like Helvetica, Arial, or Times New Roman.

“Web-safe” refers to the fact that no matter what browser or email client someone uses, the font looks the same, even if the font isn’t installed on the person’s computer. This is key for branding but also for accessibility.

You may have slightly different fonts for your other platforms or your website (for example, there are very few options for changing fonts on Instagram).

Try to choose just a few fonts that match your brand and run with it.

8. Inject brand personality into your email footer

Don’t neglect your email footer just because it’s at the bottom of your email!

Think of your email signature branding instead as your “last chance” to make an impression on your subscribers.

Should you add your company logo? Absolutely!

Should you use a photo in your email signature? If it’s a headshot, go for it. But you don’t need to make your footer any fancier than the rest of your email.

Your footer should also include a visible, one-click unsubscribe link, information on how you process your data, and your business address to comply with regulations like CAN-SPAM and GDPR.

Remember, even if you’re located outside of the jurisdiction of one of these laws, they apply to your subscriber, not to the sender.

So, if you’re sending to folks in Europe, your emails must comply with GDPR, for example.

Email signature branding example with Charis Lindrooth

Charis Lindrooth of BotanicWise, a holistic and natural medicine community, advertises an upcoming course launch in her email signature, alongside the typical housekeeping. That way, she’s using the footer like an additional CTA block—without it feeling sales-y.

9. Check your branded emails look good on all devices

You’re putting all this effort into branding your emails for a reason—you want to look polished and professional.

Even if your style is more informal, don’t let typos, broken links, or funky-looking emails ruin all that hard work.

Before sending an email, double-check how it looks on multiple devices and do a little QA through a test send.

You can do this in Kit by heading to Send > Broadcast. Click on the newly branded email to open it.

Then, click Preview email > Send email test.

How to make a branded email template with Kit (for free)

If you’re not interested in tinkering with your email design every single time, then make your branded choices with colors, fonts, and format once using an email branding software like Kit’s email designer.

Here’s how to create a branded email template:

1. Go to the Email Templates page in Kit and click the + New email template button. Select Starting point or Classic template. If you’d rather just skip to the good part, go to Kit’s email template marketplace, where you can find free and paid templates.

2. Once you’ve chosen your template, use the editor to add, reorder, and change the template sections until it looks like an email you typically send.

3. You can add your fonts and colors by clicking the placeholder body text and buttons. Customize the overall look of the template using the Section or Template tab in the right sidebar.

Elevate your email branding with Kit

Use Kit to create a professional-looking email that increases open rates, improves deliverability, and builds trust with your audience.

Sign up today to get started.