Sideways-scrolling emails have been on the email marketer’s radar for a few years. At Alchemy Worx we first produced them for a client campaign back in 2006, but like many marketers we came up against the number one restriction facing these emails – scrolling left to right on a desktop is not easy! But with 53% of emails now opened on mobile*, using easy finger swiping actions or turning the phone to landscape mode, these emails seem much more appealing for both marketers and customers.
A sideways-scrolling email will make an impact simply because of how drastically different it is to what most subscribers are receiving – but that could be either positive or negative; you may come off as innovative or unfamiliar. Where your email falls on this scale will likely depend on your audience and the frequency and purpose for which you choose this style of design. The best way to find out is to test and watch how your subscribers engage.
In this article, we take into consideration when and how to use this technique and showcase some great examples from the industry. When should you consider using them? It’s rare to see a brand that only executes horizontal emails and, perhaps, this is because using them for every campaign is over the top. However, if you wanted to try it out, here are our three reasons for doing so:
1. If they match your brand’s tone or personality
We’ve seen a lot of fashion brands use sideways-scrolling emails, perhaps because they feel the slightly edgy characteristics of the design fit in well with their own brand image and audience. So, this style of email is worth considering if you want to make your brand seem a little stand-out.
2. To make a more striking campaign
Crate & Barrel’s effect of beer glasses in a row is instantly effective, perhaps reminding the recipient of drinks lined up on the bar, and it perfectly complements the offer to transform what could otherwise have been a fairly standard communication into something more noticeable and memorable.
Sainsbury’s also pulled out all the stops with a sideways-scrolling email for the competitive Christmas market. The use of clear, animated arrows guiding readers to scroll right makes navigation clear and the design is strong throughout.
3. When the content gives added relevance
AAA Email: As we touched on above, sideways-scrolling emails can be put to great use when the design is given added relevance by your key message or content. Here the AAA have cleverly used road signs and a sideways-scrolling design to give the impression of driving down the road – before finally arriving at your ‘renew now’ destination. Each sign has a purpose – like the first one that guides you to scroll right – and together the design and content make for a strong and memorable email. How difficult are they to code? Perhaps not as difficult as you think…
Pro: There is less need for responsive design and coding as scrolling sideways removes many of the complications presented by the range of mobile screen sizes.
Con: Heights become more important than ever and it is generally harder to manage heights in HTML than width.
From a coding point of view, sideways-scrolling emails are not a major issue. Normal responsive coding generally means your HTML code is adapted to resize or rearrange itself to fit into narrower screens on mobile devices. If your email is supposed to scroll from left to right, then there is little or potentially no need for this. On the flipside, you need to be very strict with the email’s maximum height to make sure it will fit on any screen and will not require the reader to scroll up and down as well as left and right. This could be an issue as heights are somewhat difficult to manage when you have live text in your code, as your text will continue to wrap and increase the height of the section along with it. Why stop at horizontal? Instead of choosing from a vertical or horizontal design, why not go all out for the right mailing and do both? When done carefully, it’s possible to utilize the restrictions of screen size and deliberately build an email that’s too large to fit both horizontally and vertically. Check out this cool example: http://stylecampaign.com/blog/blogmails/horizontal/horizontal-game.htm
The Canadian Tourist Commission have simply taken an oversized canvas and, by placing smaller-sized images strategically within it, created an ‘email adventure’ that requires subscribers to scroll from point to point. Who’d have thought an email that requires multi-directional scrolling would be so effective? We like the simplicity and fun of this idea and think there’s great scope for developing and adapting it to fit other messages.
While we think it’s unlikely that sideways-scrolling emails will be the new default in email design, there are definitely benefits to be gained for brands that use them well – particularly while they remain relatively unusual. So why not see where a sideways-scrolling email might fit in with your email marketing plans?
*Experian “Quarterly email benchmark report” (Q3 2014)
Last updated: Aug 05, 2016
