Salesforce Marketing Cloud Templates and Dark Mode
In more and more apps and email clients, dark mode is becoming an eye-friendly and battery-friendly alternative to traditional display methods. But what does that mean for emails that marketers send from the Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
Dark Mode — what does it do and what are its advantages?
Put simply, in dark mode, everything that was originally light becomes dark — and vice versa. Since most email designs are based on dark font with a light background, the background becomes dark and the font becomes light. The darker design reduces the blue light effect, which makes the eyes less likely to tire. Dark Mode also has the advantage, at least on OLED displays, of using less energy and thus extending battery life. In addition to these advantages, many users simply appreciate the “cooler” look of Dark Mode. The trend towards darker images began in 2019 with the iOS and Android operating systems, followed soon after by apps such as Facebook, Twitter and Gmail. Since 2020, dark mode has also become increasingly popular in email clients. Anyone who sends emails from the Salesforce Marketing Cloud should address this trend now at the latest.
What do I have to do to make my Salesforce Marketing Cloud emails look good even in dark mode?
Basically, Salesforce Marketing Cloud templates include the same things that apply to other platforms. We would therefore like to take this opportunity to refer to our blog post about Dark Mode, which provides interesting facts about the new display mode — also for users of Salesforce Marketing Cloud templates:
Our conclusion: Dark mode optimization involves considerable additional effort when adapting existing templates and creating new templates and emails.
It is therefore worthwhile to take a closer look at the question of relevance in advance. So far, there are hardly any statistics on this, but in general, younger and more tech-savvy target groups are increasingly using dark mode. (Please also read our blog post: “How widespread is dark mode?”) Anyone who wants to receive specific data for their own recipients can now verify this with tools such as Litmus or Email on Acid. Our clear recommendation is to check all these aspects and then focus on optimization.
