Best Font Size for Email Marketing for 2024

What Is a Font Size?

As the name suggests, a font size is the size of the font you use in your word processing software and online communications. In simpler terms, the font size simply refers to how large or small your text will appear on screen.

Font families all fall under the broader term “typefaces,” depending on your font type and font family, the size and readability of the font will differ hugely. Also, your email fonts and web fonts will differ from your word processing fonts, though most email clients will have a default font and size automatically set.

The two main font families are:

• Serif fonts (or serif typefaces)
• Sans-serif fonts (sometimes styled as sans-serif fonts).

Based on our observations, however, within these font families are specific fonts, which can have a huge amount of variance in appearance (eg, the number of strokes per character) and weights (ie, thickness of pixels), as well as similarities.

Serifs are usually used in more traditional printing, whereas sans-serifs are more suited for the web (apps will tend to choose sans-serif fonts for ease of readability, but it depends on the purpose of the application and how design-led it is). This is because sans-serif fonts often have monospaced characters, line spacing, and consistent character height. 

This makes them ideal for various operating systems (including tablets and mobile devices), browsers, and email providers and allows the words to be easily read within paragraphs.

For this reason, email templates will usually use a sans-serif font for their email copy, both for HTML emails and CSS email design, and a fallback font (an alternative font to account for Unicode). 

From our first-hand examination, designers rarely use a sans-serif font in their designs if intended for the web or email unless used in images attempting to make the appearance have a particular tone or feelings. 

For example, the email text may use a sans-serif font, but the email signature could be an image with a serif font for personalization and professionalism.

Some examples of popular serif fonts you may be familiar with include:

• Garamond
• Times New Roman
• Courier New
• Georgia.

Some examples of popular sans-serif fonts you may be familiar with include:

• Arial
• Tahoma
• Trebuchet (and Trebuchet MS)
• Roboto
• Lato
• Geneva
• Comic Sans.

While you may not find yourself considering the size of your font often, it is very important in many different situations: in academic essays, resumes, logos and designs, and email marketing campaigns.

Therefore, the choices you make when it comes to the selection of font and font size are key features and characteristics that can determine the success of your email newsletters and overall email marketing strategy.

The Importance of Font Size in Communication

Do you want to open an email only to be met with a wall of tiny text you can barely see? What about an email where the message is composed of huge letters that take up most of your screen, requiring you to scroll and scroll to piece together the full message?

Font size is an aspect of online communication that most people do not realize the importance of. Our analysis has shown that choosing an inappropriate font size in online communication can cause your message to come across as unprofessional and can affect the recipient’s ability to read it.

The font you choose isn't just a visual element. It's a psychological trigger that influences how readers perceive your email message. Human psychology works based on shapes and different fonts to evoke emotions. For example, Sans-Serif fonts such as Arial convey simplicity, modernism, and clarity in their message. According to DirectIQ's research on 45,000 participants, those who read the text in Baskerville font were 2% more optimistic than those looking at other fonts.

When it comes to online marketing and advertising, especially with your marketing emails, inappropriate elements in your communication — such as incorrect font and font size choices — could even lead to reduced conversions.

As your email marketing strategy unfolds, the goal is to enhance and meticulously track your open rates, conversion rates, click-through rates, and engagement levels to secure the highest possible ROI. It's crucial to consider every detail in the communications dispatched to your potential readers and subscribers, ensuring they are finely tuned to drive success.

That includes background colors, embedded links, your call to action (CTAs), and your font size.

The Science Behind Readability and Font Size

Did you know that your font choice can impact not only the readability of your email but also whether or not the recipient remembers the content of the email? 

Research has shown that reading a message with a larger font may increase your ability to recall the content of the message later. Those are some insights an email marketer will want to add to their strategies and tactics basket!

Similarly, emails with strong visual clarity and font alterations, such as important sections being bolded or italicized (which affects the character's shape), also have a higher chance of being recalled accurately later.  

What Is Email Marketing?

Email marketing refers to using email communication to market a brand or business. This can be done using various email marketing tools, or simply through a business’ existing Gmail or Outlook client or other email service providers (ESPs), they use.

In this highly digital age, email marketing is a great way to expand your business and establish a presence in an online space, and email marketing campaigns are increasingly being used to boost sales and draw in new customers.

Email marketing relies on you being able to collect verified email addresses (aka leads) for key personnel, whether that’s direct potential customers or other businesses, companies, and networks who would be beneficial for your business. It’s important that the email addresses are valid, or it’ll affect your email bounce rates.

The goal is to use your email marketing to get results. Whether that’s selling your products or services, increasing the number of users or followers for your service, getting more subscriptions and sign-ups, sending more traffic to your websites’ landing pages or social channels, or expanding your reach to audiences in other markets, sectors, and industries.

When combined with other internet marketing techniques, such as social media, working with influencers (eg, bloggers, vloggers, and podcasters), blogs, forums, and offline marketing tactics, email marketing can be especially effective, particularly for businesses within specific niches.

Our thorough assessment revealed that email marketing targets groups directly by forming carefully curated lists, databases, funnels, and segments, allowing you to send your calls to action straight to your potential consumers and buyers (or fans, viewers, and listeners!).

No matter where you are in your business journey — beginners, intermediates, advanced experts, professionals, or leaders — email marketing done correctly can give you an edge over your competitors, connecting you with more of the right people directly into their inboxes.

While email marketing is often thought of as marketing for big-name manufacturers, suppliers, or distributors (this includes sellers, merchants, vendors, producers, and retailers), smaller businesses and startups will also benefit from this form of marketing! You don’t have to have shops and stores, or be in malls!

Perhaps you’re gurus, mentors, coaches, trainers, speakers, authors, or writers. Undoubtedly you’ll want to get the word out about your service so that you can sell more of your services, have more participants, or more guests and attendees at your events where you’re the hosts.

Some examples of those who could benefit from email marketing include:

• Those who have a service to market or programs and projects for promotion
• Those who host any sort of workshops or courses (eg, tutorials, lessons, classes, webinars, seminars, conferences, meetups, gatherings, parties, festivals, shows, and exhibitions)
• Those who sell products (eg, ebooks, guides, manuals, catalogs, banners, posters, flyers, brochures, magazines, and newspapers)
• Those who need to advertise their announcements (eg, displays, presentations, demos, launches, releases, and updates)
• Those who are already paying for promotions, advertisements (ads), and commercials
• Businesses include associations, organizations, corporations, enterprises, firms, agencies, studios, and consultancies.

The Role of Typography in Effective Email Marketing

Using text in your email marketing is extremely important — this is the vessel through which you present yourself and your business to potential clients or customers. You want to make a good first impression, which involves ensuring that your typography is appropriate.

Imagine that you receive an email written entirely in Comic Sans. Does this make you value or trust the sender? Or does it make you want to close the email immediately and not read further?

Though famously maligned, Comic Sans is the perfect example of an “unprofessional” font where its reputation precedes it. Write your marketing emails in Comic Sans, and you’re more likely to see your unsubscribe rates soar than anything else in your metrics, tracking, and reports!

Why Details Like Fonts Matter in Email Campaigns

There are many different ways that your font choice can impact your email marketing campaign. 

For one, it will determine the readability of your email — using smaller fonts will make your text more difficult to read, while fonts that are too large will appear unprofessional. 

Another role that fonts can play in your email campaign is establishing your personal branding and style. A unique yet readable font in your email can leave a strong impression and help you create a cohesive style for your brand.

A font can affect your sender's reputation. Choose poorly, and your recipients could set the spam filters to automatically send any further emails you send to the spam folder.

The Best Font Size for Email Marketing

So, what exactly are the best font size options for email marketing purposes? The answer will differ slightly depending on what types of messages you are sending out.

In a standard email where you are typing a body text message, the best font size is almost always around 12-point font (this is usually the standard in your email provider settings). This will change slightly depending on your font, but most of them will look best in a 12-point font. 

When it comes to headlines, you will want to increase the size to catch the recipient's attention. Our advice is that a font size of around 20-point- or 24-point font is the best pick for headlines or titles. 

As for other tips, if you are sending out a newsletter, catalog, or any other document that you want to be highly readable and attention-grabbing, you will want to pick a font somewhere in the middle. A 16-point font is a good choice for your email marketing documents.

If you have text on a button on your website, eg, buttons for joining your subscription list or purchasing, the best font size is also 16-point.

Factors to Consider in Choosing the Best Font Size

There are, of course, some additional factors that you will want to consider when selecting the best font size for your email marketing campaign. 

Different platforms, demographics, and types of content will greatly impact which font is the best choice for your email marketing.

As per our expertise, for ultimate font optimization, plan and analyze trends (you can even check posts, articles, stories, and case studies), then beta-test your findings. 

Curate a selection of people (a seed list) who can give you feedback through surveys and polls on how your font looks and whether you’re achieving your goals.

Email Platform and Device Considerations

You’ve crafted the perfect email on your desktop computer, sent it off to your recipient, and they open it on their mobile phone. The content looks completely different, and the email is virtually unreadable. 

This is something you want to avoid at all costs. If you have some inside knowledge of your intended recipients' devices, that’s great news! You can prioritize the formatting and fonts of your email to best suit the device they use to check and reply to emails. 

Most of the time, however, this won’t be the case. Chances are you don’t know the device preferences of everyone on your email list. Even if you do, it is impractical to standardize every email you send to suit the individual recipient’s preferred device. 

The best course of action is to create an email that will be readable on both desktop computers and mobile devices. 

There are many ways to do this, such as sending test emails on both desktop and mobile to check their reliability, sending test emails to a curated seed list to compare and adjust, or utilizing a template created specifically for this purpose. 

Audience Demographics and Preferences

If you are set on discovering your audience's device and content preferences to tailor your email content perfectly for them, one measure you can take is considering the demographic of your audience. 

Younger demographics will likely prefer mobile devices over desktop computers, while older demographics will likely open emails exclusively on computers. If you are reaching out to businesses, it is likely that your email will be opened on a desktop computer, as it will most likely be opened by a worker in the office using their work portals. 

Considering the demographics and preferences of your target audience is an extremely effective way to evaluate and determine any relevant considerations that should be made, and in turn, it will help you choose an ideal font size and email formatting. 

The Nature of Your Email Content

Something to consider when choosing a font for your email campaign is if there are other specific factors surrounding the content of your email that may impact your font choice. 

Advertising eyeglasses or reaching out to elderly communities? A larger font may be the optimized choice here. 

Reaching out to recipients regarding something they may want to be kept private, such as medications or other sensitive information? It is probably not a good idea to broadcast this with a 24-point font title that could be read over their shoulder. 

Take the nature of your email content into consideration when choosing a font. This is something that is often overlooked but can greatly increase the success of your email marketing campaign. 

The Impact of Different Font Sizes in Emails

So, how exactly do different font sizes change how your message is received? It may surprise you to know that the impact can vary significantly!

Font Size and Reader Responsiveness

If your recipient is reading your email and gets annoyed or frustrated at the lack of readability, chances are they won’t even finish reading the message, let alone respond. 

Using an appropriate and readable font size will greatly increase reader responsiveness within your email marketing campaign and validate your professionalism and expertise. 

How Font Size Affects Email Deliverability

Sending multiple emails with extremely large or small font sizes runs the risk of your email being flagged as spam and decreases the chances of it making it to your recipient’s main inbox. 

Emails with unusual formatting often get caught by spam detectors, and emails with odd font sizes are no exception. 

It is generally recommended that you do not use a font size smaller than 12-point, or larger than 38-point (though this size should be reserved for headers and titles only). 

Keeping your font size within the normal range will increase your email deliverability as it won’t be flagged for review as spam by any automated systems — or even by the recipients themselves. 

Recommendations for Font Sizes in Email Marketing

Let’s cut to the chase: what are the best font sizes for email marketing? How does this change depending on the content of the email?

Optimal Font Sizes for Email Body Text and Headings

The best font size for the body text of your emails? Anything from 12-point to 18-point font is legible and enhances readability. Additionally, this is preferred by the audience and maximizes engagement.

While 12-point is the most commonly used font size for computer-based communications, a font size of around 14-point to 16-point will likely be more readable and more compatible with mobile devices and ensure accessibility. 

When it comes to headings, you will want to catch the reader’s attention — this means using a larger font size. 

Somewhere around 20-point- to 24-point font is generally a good pick and will ensure your email stands out in their inbox, improving open rates. 

Be sure to check your font size and style align with the branding and fit within the design, too. Try not to use a font larger than 36-point in your email, as this borders on being too large for most screens.

Best Practices for Font Scaling and Hierarchy in Emails

Good font scaling and hierarchy in emails will make your message stand out and increase the readability of your email as a whole. 

How you choose to do this depends on the content of your email and your personal style, aesthetics, brand alignment, and audience preference, but there are a few guidelines you can follow to create a well-structured email. 

For example, using a larger font for your heading and putting the text in bold will make it more eye-catching, which could increase the engagement rate. 

Additionally, transitioning to non-bolded text at a smaller font size (in points or pixels) for the body of your email will make it appear less harsh and easier to read. 

Putting important phrases that you want to stand out in bold or italics, or even at a slightly larger font, will draw the reader’s attention. 

Play around with font scaling in your emails to create an effective structure that will leave a strong impression on the recipient. 

Combining Font Style with Font Size

Now you know all about what font size to use in your email marketing campaigns, but what font styles should you be using? How do these styles impact what size you should be using? 

Over time, we found that while the font style that you use is entirely up to you, there are some email-friendly fonts out there that you may want to consider using. 

Popular Email-Friendly Font Styles and Their Advantages

A range of fonts have been labeled as web-safe fonts that are easy to read and have high compatibility on a range of devices. Regarding legibility and accessibility, these fonts are often the top pick for email marketers. 

These fonts include: 

• Times New Roman
• Georgia
• Verdana
• Arial
• Helvetica
• Courier New 
• Calibri.

Many other fonts out there are appropriate for emails, but these are the most common and are tried and true fonts that will be highly readable on most devices. 

Most of these fonts are best used with a 12-point to 16-point font size, though you can play around with this and determine which size you prefer. Some font styles will appear smaller than others, so consider increasing their size a little.

FAQs

Why is font size crucial for mobile email reading?

Font size can greatly impact your email's readability when viewed on a mobile device. Generally, text will appear smaller on a mobile, meaning you want to choose a larger font size.

How can A/B testing help determine the best font size?

Implementing A/B testing is a strategic approach to identify the most effective font size for your email campaigns. Discover the steps to execute A/B testing effectively by exploring our comprehensive guide on A/B testing for emails, which can significantly enhance your open and response rates. 

Can I use custom fonts in my emails?

While you can technically use custom fonts in your emails, this is generally not recommended for email marketing campaigns, as the recipient will also need to have the same font installed in order to be able to read your email.

Key Takeaways

While font size is not often something that comes to mind when considering crucial aspects of a successful email campaign, in reality, this can make a world of difference. 

Choosing the right font for your emails can enhance their readability, increasing the deliverability and response rates of these emails. 

When it comes to picking the perfect font size for your email marketing campaign, there are a few factors that you should consider:

• The demographic of your audience
• The content of your email
• The style of font that you are using

These are all factors that will contribute to what font size is ideal.

Now that you’ve set your font style and size so you can put your best foot forward with your email marketing, you can sign up with BookYourData to buy your email lists?

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