How to Use Interactive Emails to Boost Engagement and Impact

Email has the ability to connect with an audience in a way that few other digital mediums can. The history of email marketing is testament to the fact that email is a powerful digital channel capable of creating long-lasting brand connections. However, most email marketers opt to "play it safe" when it comes to email content and prefer to stick to static content.

While not every email needs that extra dash of charm, adding in some interactivity to your email templates can be a great way to make lasting impressions. Elements such as hover effects, click-to-reveal content, or interactive quizzes invite your recipients to become a participant in your message. Shifting from a passive viewing experience to active engagement is one way to cut through the inbox and create authentic brand connections.

In this post, we're going to provide a deep dive into interactive email templates and how to use them to boost your email marketing metrics.

What are interactive emails?

Interactive email content allows your recipients to engage directly with your email using interactions like clicking, swiping, or selecting content. While email has been historically limited to what it can achieve for interactivity, due to limitations imposed by ESPs such as not allowing for loading of scripts, that doesn't mean HTML email templates have to be static by default.

Quite the contrary: email developers can be creative and add in interactivity to delight and engage with recipients. Simple interactions like hover effects and click-to-reveal content can provide rich interactivity while more complex actions like image carousels and countdown timers can bring your email to the next level.

What are the benefits of interactive emails?

Interactive emails provide benefits such as better conversion rates, higher engagement, improved sharing (forwarding to a friend), increased click-through rates, and overall better user experience. It doesn't mean that every email needs to have interactive elements, but those that do can be an effective tool in your marketing arsenal.

Before going all-in on interactive emails, you can start by A/B testing static emails versus interactive emails. The data will help you determine if it's an effective strategy. You will want to monitor a few metrics:

• Click-through rates: Are users more likely to click on CTA buttons or other high value links?
• Forwarding rates: Do recipients forward your emails to friends at a higher rate than static content emails?
• Conversion rates: Do recipients take the desired conversion action such purchasing a product, signing up for a webinar, or visiting a high value page?

Types of Interactive Email Content

When it comes to displaying interactive content, email has traditionally been more challenging than web pages. The reason for this is that support of modern CSS is inconsistent with across the major email clients. More importantly, JavaScript is not supported by email clients; JavaScript is a critical component of making web pages dynamic and interactive, and without support from this coding language, it's much more challenging to create interactive content.

Challenging, however, doesn't mean impossible!

Email developers and no-code email platforms are innovative and can do a surprising amount with just a little bit of ingenuity. Developers can use CSS techniques and other fallback strategies to create interactive elements. Here are some of the most common types of interactive content you'll find in emails:

• Hover Effects
• Click-to-Reveal Content
• Image Carousels
• Polls and Surveys
• Animated Gifs
• Countdown Timers

Hover Effects

A hover effect is when you move your cursor over an element on screen like a button or image, and the object’s properties change (eg, color change, size, visibility). These simple effects can add a dash of panache to your content by providing visible effects based on user actions. Hover effects can be implemented using the :hover CSS pseudo-class and enjoy fairly wide, although not universal, support among email clients.

It’s worth noting that the concept of “hover” doesn’t exist on touchscreen devices like smartphones or tablets. Therefore, hover effects are best seen as enhancements that desktop recipients will benefit from most.

Hover effects can be used in creative and enticing ways. For example, an ecommerce brand may use hover effects to change the color of a clothing item when it’s hovered over. This can help personalize the content by giving the recipient an idea of the different options available.

Click-to-Reveal Content

Content that is revealed by a click is like unwrapping a gift. Click-to-reveal content mimics JavaScript interactivity using CSS techniques, specifically utilizing unchecked checkboxes or radio buttons and the :checked pseudo-class. When users click on the hidden checkbox or button, it will reveal content.

While support is relatively limited, it can provide a moment of delight for users where it is supported (primarily in Apple Mail and iiOS Mail). Asn example, a fashion retailer could share outfits that use click-to-reveal functionality to explore different color selections. Imagine being able to pick your wardrobe directly from your email? This type of technique can bring your engagement to the next level.

Image Carousels

Carousels provide users a way to easily swipe through multiple images without losing their spot in the email content. Developers can use CSS and HTML techniques similar to click-to-reveal content to rotate through different images. Each image corresponds to a different radio button and the CSS controls the display based on which button is selected. Again, technical support isn't especially broad, so robust email testing is required to ensure your email works in key email clients.

As an example in the real-world, you could display different product features in a product update email to your end users. A new feature release coupled with engaging screenshots is a great way to encourage users to explore new features and get more value out of your application.

Polls and Surveys

Sending a simple poll or survey in your email is a great way to create engagement with your recipients. Directly embedding a survey into your email is technically challenging, as the lack of JavaScript support in email clients means data collected isn’t sent back to a server for analysis. However, clever setups include using Velocity script to capture information or to use basic click tracking to collect results.

The best practice for using this type of interactive element is to keep it basic and straightforward. One example that fits this requirement is an NPS survey. In Knak, you can achieve this using link tracking to prefill a form option on a landing page to collect data results. For more advanced native form or polling functions, Knak customers can integrate with MoveableInk or LiveClicker.

Animated GIFs

GIFs enjoy broad support across the majority of email clients, including both web and mobile clients. This is great news for marketers looking to add some interactivity to their emails. GIFs can be used in a variety of ways, such as animating small icons or displaying animated screenshots. You can implement GIFs using a standard <img> tag that points to the GIF file.

It's tempting to use GIFs to replace many static images in your emails but it's important to consider the overall size of the email. Adding lots of GIFs can increase the file size of your email and make it slow to render. A good rule of thumb is to stick to 1mb or so per GIF to ensure your email's file size remains manageable. GIFs in email are ideal for showcasing product updates, sharing fun memes, or promotional graphics.

Countdown Timers

Countdown timers are a tried and tested way to create a sense of urgency. From e-commerce to events, the countdown timer can help prompt recipients to take action without delay. Achieving this in email, however, is often done through the usage of GIFs and requires sending images from the server based on when the email was opened.

For example, when people use email software that hides the open time (for privacy reasons), the countdown timer won't work. This requires a fallback image to show people instead. Like many interactive elements, it requires a clever workaround to bring to life.

Challenges in Interactive Email Creation

As you may have noticed from the previous discussion, there are a number of challenges creating interactive email content. One of the biggest challenges with interactive content is compatibility with various email clients. The lack of universal support for CSS features and the complete lack of JavaScript support makes it challenging, but not impossible, to create emails with the type of interactivity you can achieve on web pages.

Another challenge is load times. Achieving interactivity often requires using large images, GIFs, or complex elements that can increase load time, particularly on mobile devices. To avoid this, use lightweight code, optimize image file sizes, and keep the design streamlined. This is a benefit of email builders like Knak–they take care of many of these details for you behind the scenes.

Testing your interactive emails is essential. You will want to test the email across multiple platforms and devices to make sure that the email functions as intended. If it doesn't, consider designing fallback options, such as using static images for certain clients versus using a GIF.

Trends in Interactive Email Marketing

Two trends in email marketing have the potential to supercharge interactive emails:

1. AI-powered content
2. Gamification

Email marketers are embracing AI to help with subject lines, preview text, alt text, and translations. What's even more exciting is the ability to combine AI-driven 1:1 personalization with interactive emails for deeper engagement. AI and machine learning can help adapt user content in real-time, making the interactive experience more relevant to each recipient.

For example, imagine you’re an e-commerce fashion brand sending a Black Friday email. Instead of just sending a generic list of sales, you send tailored recommendations based on the recipient’s past browsing behavior. Now, combine that with interactivity—allowing users to explore personalized product options directly in the email, like selecting different color choices or product variations.

The other trend that has potential is gamification. Interactive elements like "spin-to-win wheels" and quizzes that offer prizes capture attention and encourage engagement. It's irresistible to see what lies behind a secret door and can increase the fun factor of your emails. This could be used in many different ways, for example sending an anniversary gift to recipients that they need to reveal in order to redeem. MovableInk has a great blog post on gamification in marketing.

Achieving Interactivity at Scale with No-Code Tools

A not-so-subtle theme woven throughout this post is that interactivity in email design and development is challenging. To the chagrin of email developers worldwide, we don't enjoy the same universal support of scripting languages like JavaScript or even the full suite of CSS3 features across all email clients. That's not to say that we can't accomplish a lot–as we've seen–but rather that we sometimes need to think outside the box.

One of the core challenges facing interactive email design is the ability to build what we want and have it work on all email clients and devices. Coding emails can be challenging enough, but when you factor in responsive design, it can be daunting. No-code email builders like Knak are changing the game.

Knak allows anyone on your team to build emails with a drag-and-drop builder. While what you see is a beautiful, on-brand email, behind the scenes Knak is generating the code required to be responsive and compatible with all email clients. When adding interactive elements to your emails, this is absolutely critical. You need to trust your email will work across all platforms and devices, and still benefit from the engaging elements you've woven into your email.

Knak supports interactive elements and can even leverage email scripting languages like Velocity to achieve advanced functionality. Your emails can then be tested, circulated for review and approvals, and synced to your email platform of choice.

This is important because, despite the challenge of building interactive emails, they are incredibly effective at delighting and engaging with your audience. It's a proven way to increase conversions, clicks, and engagement, and well worth your investment.