EDS

Our guide to creating an email design system “EDS”

What Is An EDS?

• A email design system or “EDS” is a set of standards for creating reusable components with a consistent visual style, typically aligned with your brand guidelines specific to email.�
• Think of it like a set of Lego bricks, where each component is a block used to build various structures.�
• An email design system includes components like headers, footers, titles, CTAs, hero images, and logos.�
• An EDS is crucial for elevated brands that need to balance design and email deliverability requirements.

💚 Benefits Of An EDS

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There’s numerous advantages that come with utilizing an EDS; here are some of the most common benefits we observe:

• SPEED: An EDS accelerates the workflow, saves time, and streamlines handling of urgent design requests with quick turnarounds in your email department.�
• FLEXIBILITY: An EDS gives you flexibility to do more in less time because it streamlines work by providing high quality pre-built components.�
• CONSISTENCY: It guarantees adherence to brand guidelines by standardizing colors, typography, and logos, ensuring consistency across all emails through a unified workflow.�
• SCALE: The EDS makes it much easier to build new emails, add components and modules, or make universal changes.

How Do You Create Your Own EDS For Your Brand?

Inventory Your Current Email

• The first step is reviewing all the types of email of your existing program to understand the big picture perspective.�
• Common emails you need to inventory include:
• Transactional emails
• Newsletters
• Promotions
• Reminders
• Flows
• Shipping notifications
• UGC emails
• Other 3rd party app emails�

Step 1

Define Your Email Modules

• After getting your head around the different emails each you send, you can start work on identifying the individual components used to build/design those emails.�
• Dig into the details! What did you like? What did you want to get rid of? What seemed to be working and what wasn’t?�
• Think about your different layouts:
• Two-column and three-column modules?
• Will you build specific modules for mobile emails?
• Are you considering components for light and dark mode emails?

Step 2

Research New Ideas

• Once you have a list of the components (design blocks) for your EDS, you need to start thinking how you want those email modules to look and function.�
• This step includes some design research. Look at email designs from other brands to get ideas for how you want to adapt and refresh your clients current campaigns.�
• We recommend researching your competition and going to sites like milled.com or reallygoodemails.com to find further inspiration.

Step 3

Define Your Brand Rules

Systems require adherence to rules, and while occasionally bending brand style guide rules is necessary, these guidelines are crucial in defining your email design system. Here are some common rules to consider:

• Web font vs Custom font rules
• Text hierarchy rules
• Layout rules
• Button & CTA rules
• Fallback font rules
• Footer rules
• Logo rules
• Color rules

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Step 4

Design Your Modules

• Now that you have your plan of attack, the designer can start building the design library.�
• We recommend that an EDS will live in Zeplin or Figma and the mockups sent to you for review and necessary adjustments before implementing into a CRM like Klaviyo.�
• Modules you will need to build, could include: Heroes, product blocks, category blocks, review blocks, support blocks, footer blocks etc.�
• Don’t forget to also design for mobile as well. You will need to create mobile modules!

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Step 5

Implement And Test

• Once designs have been approved, you’ll need your developer to implement your designs into Klaviyo.�
• Once implemented we recommend running your emails through pre-deployment tools to double check how the templates render in different inboxes. Common tools we use:�
• Email On Acid
• Litmus

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Step 6

Wonder Valley EDS Case Study

Wonder Valley, an elevated Olive Oil brand, came to FlowCandy in Q3 2023 with very specific brand guidelines. Our team was able to complete their EDS in under 30 days, including:

• Providing strategic consultation.
• Inventory all existing emails.
• Building all modules and blocks in Figma.
• Implementing all emails in Klaviyo
• Testing templates and deploying them on new flows and campaigns

🏆 Results: Wonder Valley was thrilled because we helped save his design team a ton of time. And since the EDS, over 10 of their emails have been organically shared on Really Good Emails.

Build An EDS With �FlowCandy

Do It With FlowCandy

Why trust FlowCandy to build your EDS?

• We’ve done hundreds of them!
• We can do them in under 30 days, fully implemented and live in your Klaviyo account.
• We offer a 100% money back guarantee.
• Totally hands off, our team will do everything.

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$6,995 alue