Interactive email layouts are emails that incorporate built-in interactive elements. Users can interact with them and trigger an event within the same email.
By bringing the landing page directly within the inbox, you remove the friction from the task of taking action, making the journey smoother and faster for users.
Now, this goes deeper than merely bringing interactive experiences in fewer steps than redirecting email users to a landing page to achieve the same result. No, it’s not just that.
Interactive email layouts put your email subscribers in the driver’s seat. The driver who is in control of their decision.
By making subscribers the active participants in the email experience, you let them decide. They can choose whether or not they scratch the discount coupon, spin the wheel, swipe the image, and so on. You treat them as individuals who have a deep desire to control their buying decisions.
Mark Ingwer, a business psychologist, hit the nail on the head when he painted consumer control not just as a feel-good tactic but as a way to drive deeper satisfaction. Mark says that when people feel like they made the choice, they’re more invested in the outcome—and more likely to stick with it.
Secondarily, email interactivity delays the exit of subscribers from the email, as they tend to interact with it rather than just reading it. In the times when digital devices are causing attention spans to shrink and making us act like intoxicated raccoons rushing around in a frenzy, subscribers going a little deeper in the email is a luxury. And it’s best to earn that attention with layouts that invite interaction rather than demanding effort.
What you have in front of you are four of the most effective interactive email functionalities that unfold in engaging email designs and that subscribers can’t get enough of in 2025.
4 Types of Interactive Email Layout Elements
If you want your content to feel more intuitive for subscribers, interactive email designs are a good option to try. Understand the following interactive email elements, apply your creativity, and create emails that surprise, delight, and engage your audience.
1. Add Hover Effects for Quick Interactions
Interactive email layouts with hover effects are like background music in a great film. You barely notice them, but without them, something feels off.
Hover micro-interactions are being woven into engaging email designs to such an extent that your subscribers have developed a sort of muscle memory for hovering over images, CTAs, and links.
When a recipient hovers their mouse cursor over an interactive element, the element comes alive with a subtle animation. The style changes introduce subtle and smooth adjustments to the background color, font color, or border styles.
It Works Because:
Hover interactivity in emails mimics familiar app behavior. Nobody has to announce to users how to interact they just do. These subtle touches draw the user’s attention to the most important elements of your email design.
They are simple, too. Without many bells and whistles, you can increase dwell time and click-throughs.
Email Clients Supporting Hover Effects:
- Gmail
- Apple Mail
- iOS Mail
- Outlook (MacOS)
- Yahoo Mail
- AOL
2.Use Polls and Surveys to Collect Insights
Subscribers engaging with the interactive email layout might as well enjoy the experience of providing their feedback through delightful interactivity, thought smart email marketers. And polls and live surveys emerged.
Interactive polls are a welcome addition to your email strategy as they invite intimate engagement and help you collect valuable data on your subscribers’ preferences. After all, what better way to build first-party data in the complex world of third-party cookies and privacy policies?
Why It Works:
Designing email designs with interactive polls enables recipients to take surveys inside emails. They don’t have to fill in the questionnaire through a new browser page.
That means they are less likely to turn down your request for feedback. That way, you not only get to understand their preferences but also initiate a loop of interaction, leading to higher click-through rates.
An American fashion house, Kate Spade, found live polls increased CTR by 84% and revenue by 47%. Targeted follow-up emails generated based on the poll results were cheery on sundae.
Email Clients Supporting Polls:
Gmail
Apple Mail
3.Include Swipeable Product Carousels
Static product grids work until your reader’s scrolling finger gives up out of swipe fatigue. Instead, go for a carousel-style interactive email layout where users can swipe through products, features, or testimonials inside the email real estate.
An interactive product carousel is a mini landing page that allows you to embed product images inside your email. However, you don’t dump all your products at once. You serve them up in a sequential manner when the user swipes or taps.
Why It Works:
Highlighting new arrivals, sporting features, or walking users through step-by-step, interactive image carousels make it feel smooth, not overwhelming.
Plus, as readers are directly involved in the interaction, they are engaged for longer. This even increases the chances of a click that converts into a sale.
Even better? Many inboxes already support them. Apple Mail (MacOS + iOS) and Outlook for Mac handle interactive carousels beautifully. And those two alone cover a big chunk of your audience.
4.Add Gamified Elements to Boost Clicks
Yes, everyone loves games. Subscribers love them because they’re fun. Marketers love them because they can boost conversions by up to 400%.
Interactive email layouts with gamified elements such as spin-to-win wheels and scratch-offs aren’t cute distractions, though. They seize on human psychological triggers: the need to achieve, the thrill of unpredictability, the rush of winning. That’s why they work.
Do it right, and they promise more than clicks. They create micro-experiences within the inbox to foster engagement and anticipation, making your brand feel a little more human.
Why It Works:
Gamified emails work because they are built around familiar game mechanics, including achievements such as points, goals, and challenges that provide users with a mission, as well as feedback loops that show progress or rewards.
You can add a touch of competition with leaderboards and tell a story to make users feel like the protagonist. Or, use countdown timers to add urgency. You can also evoke a sense of community through loyalty campaigns, and your emails will linger in your audience’s minds for longer.
Email Clients Supporting AMP-games:
- Gmail
- Yahoo! Mail
Email Clients Supporting HTML5 & CSS3-games:
- Apple Mail
- Samsung Mail
- Thunderbird
What Happens When Interactivity Isn’t Supported? Here’s the Plan.
Let’s call a spade a spade. Every subscriber will not experience your interactive email layouts the same way. And that’s not a problem, it’s just the reality of how different email clients behave differently with email interactivity.
Some email clients (hello, Apple Mail, and iOS) mostly support full interactivity. But Outlook or older Android versions don’t. But if you’ve worked around with a steady fallback strategy, things go pretty well.
A fallback is the static, non-interactive version of an email that displays when email clients are unable to display the interactive one. It’s an emergency plan devoid of the interactive bells and whistles. But the message still gets delivered cleanly, clearly, and without breaking.
That’s also why a smart email strategy is essential. Great interactive email layouts are built on three levels, as email dev expert Mark Robbins explains:
1.Static email
- For clients that don’t support interactivity, like Outlook desktop. Here, the email must look good and convey the core message, even if it contains no interactive elements.
2.Partially interactive email
- For clients like Yahoo! Mail, AOL, or some older Android apps. These support some interactive features but not everything.
3.Full Interactivity
- For clients such as Apple Mail, iOS Mail, newer Android clients, and certain webmail apps. These support advanced interactive features also.
You build from the top (fully interactive) and work backward. Progressively stripping elements down without breaking the experience. It’s what you call graceful degradation, and when you nait it, no subscriber feels neglected.
Interactive Email Layouts Don’t Have To Be All on You
Yes, email interactivity needs a plan. Yes, email interactivity takes impeccable coding. But the results are worth every second. Higher engagement, stronger brand recall, and more subscribers interacting with your emails, not just opening them and leaving.
If this sounds like a lot to manage, brands should lean on experts like Email Mavlers. The experts have a niche understanding of building interactive emails. The emails they build look polished and render well across all major email clients.
So that the brands can count on consistent rendering, smooth functionality, and a user experience that holds up.