• by Jaime Senior , October 13, 2008

I'm an instructions guy. When I buy something that falls into the "assembly required" category -- a piece of furniture, a toy for my kids -- the first thing I do is pull all the pieces out and look for the instructions. Then I get down to business and look at the parts listing and match it up against what's in the box, making sure it's all there. Then it's assembly time. Recently, I purchased a swing set for my kids: two sets of instructions for two major components of the set. That was fun.

When it comes to developing designs, branding guidelines are an essential tool for copywriters and designers in making sure the messages across various channels are consistent. They are the instructions we need to make sure voice, look and feel, and all things design-related,  are consistent with the overall brand. In the old days, companies developed branding guidelines for their print communications. Then came the Internet, and as Web sites became a important part of their overall marketing efforts, they began creating brand guidelines for both.
Unfortunately, there is one important area that companies tend to forget when developing the online portion of branding guidelines. I often find myself asking when I've received such guidelines: "What about email?" I wouldn't have been happy if the second set of swing set instructions had said "Refer to the other instructions and figure it out."

When working on email creative, it's better to have online guideline developed for the Web site than having none at all  -- and better than having guidelines that were developed for print. But if a company's strategists are developing branding guidelines, and they know email marketing will be used, there are some good reasons why email-specific guidelines should be a part of the plan .

Font Usage

Typically, Web site guidelines do cover font usage, which do not always carry over well to email. Font size, line spacing, and other font characteristics are all easily controlled with style sheets on sites. But CSS is not recommended for email, so guidelines on how to approach it in email need to be specific.
Another problem arises when sites are done completely in Flash. You can use any font you desire if it's all Flash. So body copy can be set in the Doggie Bag Script font, and headlines can be Saucy Millionaire, but if you want control over how it will render in the inbox, you'd  better have a backup for what the body copy font will be for email. You can be pretty sure Doggie Bag Script isn't loaded in too many systems.


Page Width

There are different opinions on how wide an email message should be; best-practice recommendations on width vary depending on whom you ask. Generally , you'll see 580 pixels to about 650 pixels wide as the recommended maximum. Yet page widths in Web site guidelines can be set much wider than that. A site set at 850 px wide will not carry over well to an email template. And if you want to include the navigation bar from your site in email (a practice I recommend), sizes will have to be adjusted, or buttons removed altogether.

Overall Spacing Issues

Other factors, like spacing between items, how far a button lies beneath text, how many pixels between columns, etc.,  also need to be addressed in email guidelines. They are usually clearly defined for the Web site, but you may not have as much width on your email template, so the space between columns may need to be tightened up, and you don't want excessive scrolling in email, so vertical spacing issues are important as well.

The truth is, these issues and others to do with email are not major problems. They can be overcome with a little work -- a little back and forth. But that's just the point. If you want to go through two rounds of revisions instead of eight or nine, and time is of the essence, having some of these things defined up front saves time. And time is money, right?