How Knak Does Email – Boosting Interactivity with Hover States

We love to see emails become more interactive. In our recent Benchmark Survey, a growing number of respondents noted that they’re using interactive email elements to boost click-through rates, so we wanted to share how Knak makes it easy for users to add hover states to images and buttons.

What Is a Hover State?

If you’re trying to draw attention to important content or CTA buttons, a hover state is an easy way to do it. It’s a subtle – or sometimes dramatic – change in the appearance of the content that serves as a visual cue to promote clicks.

A hover state changes the way images or buttons look when a user “hovers” over them. In Knak, we have a “highlight on hover” function that increases the brightness by 10% when someone hovers over the image or button.

How Do I Add a Hover State?

Adding a hover state in Knak is simple.

• Add an image or button (or both) to your email.
• Click on the image or button to reveal the content attributes in the right nav.
• Select “Highlight on Hover” to invert the colours in the content.
• View the effect by previewing the email in Knak and hovering your cursor over the content.

In the event that your subscribers are using an email client that does not support hover states, like some versions of Outlook, they will see only the primary image or button.

A/B Test

If you’re new to using hover states, I’d encourage you to give them a try. Add one to the CTA button in your next email, and A/B test it to see how it performs. If it improves interaction – meaning it boosts click-through rates – test it again next time and see if you start to notice a trend.

If you have questions about how to make this work, check out our help doc, or reach out here!