Expertise

Can you walk us through your journey as an email marketer and what led to you being at Parcel?

As with most email marketers, my journey has been windy and indirect!I started my email career at a small 3-person startup. This was a side job, primarily from 5-7 pm on weeknights after I got home from my 9-5.My primary function as Operations Manager (a randomly assigned title that was inclusive of things far beyond my pay grade) was to build relationships. Specifically, to try to convert them to actions, using email as the medium.The platform is Taski. We worked to pair part-time hospitality workers up with restaurants, banquets, and catering companies that needed one-off individual contractor staff. These “taskers” could pick up shifts at leisure.When I joined, I was sending emails out individually and stumbled across a marketing automation tool that could be used to send event-triggered emails. Truly flabbergasted. So much time-saving! That's when I began creating automated touchpoints, built out newsletter programs, and used email to promote both onboarding and shift activation.I worked in that role for four years and then made my way over to the UK to join Braze as an Onboarding Manager. Working with clients across different industries, I was their dedicated point of contact for onboarding onto their new marketing automation tool.I worked with a handful of clients to complete successful IP warmings, set up push notifications, and enable powerful real-time in-app messages, all while missing implementing strategy myself. It was an absolute blast working for Braze and one that felt like 4-years of learning packed into less than a year. However, I ended up moving back to Vancouver after a bout of homesickness.Since then, I have bopped around in various in-house roles as an Email or Lifecycle Marketer.What finally led me to work at Parcel was my online presence as an email marketer and consulting business that I built during the pandemic.Although I worked on consulting projects before, the lockdown offered the time necessary to build a website, write about my email marketing experience, document tests, and save emails I’d previously created to build a portfolio.With that, consulting projects began to come through via inquiries, and I worked on a lot of great email-related things from 2020 to now.Between you and me, this was a great way to avoid spending money pointlessly, because the more time I spent on my couch, the more I would spend.In January of 2022, I messaged Avi on Twitter to praise his work on Parcel and the platform he’d built. Although I classify myself as non-technical, I felt comfortable exploring code in Parcel thanks to some of the features. For instance, clear guidelines on what each line contributes to, how tags work together, and how HTML and CSS are be customized to design emails further.During those first few conversations with Avi, we got into discussing the possibility of working together. Fast forward over a year later, and I’m now in a full-time role with Parcel, thanks to Customer.io acquiring it in late August of 2022!

As "Award Winning Email Marketer, Naomi West", what makes you unique within the space?

Over the past seven years, I’ve had the opportunity to work behind the scenes at 2 ESPs, gain experience through my in-house marketing roles, and do consulting work.This has allowed me to gather experience in over 25 ESPs.I come with a unique skill set that isn’t a silo’d perspective of how things should be done, which makes me open to testing, new ways of working, and different strategies.

You've worked in two different countries, and have consulted for more - what are the biggest cultural differences to keep in mind when creating an email marketing campaign?

As a Canadian who has worked in the UK and remotely for US-based companies, I constantly lean on Grammarly to tell me what version of English to use when copywriting! I’m used to writing out “colour” and “favour” without u’s in my personal life and swapping z’s for s’s depending on the recipient country. It’s incredibly confusing, but I actively need to remember it when writing.Another difference, but one that all brands should consider, is the jurisdiction that governs the world of email. GDPR, CAN-SPAM, CASL. They’re different between the three areas I’ve lived and worked in. I’ve been able to become an expert in all three (although, I am not a lawyer). And always keep them in mind as best practices (and legalities) when sending emails to different audiences.

What has changed since you first began working in the email marketing space?

More tools for the non-technical marketer. The emergence of no-code tools has allowed me to:

• Access and leverage data easier
• Set up webhooks
• Configure reports that influence my future strategy

I’m not just sending emails blindly and without personalization anymore! I can also create assets for emails easier with things like Canva and Figjam.Although a lot of marketers joke that email has rarely changed. I think there’s been some great development in the email realm that make it a great space to work in!

In what ways do you think the tech space can better support and elevate diverse voices?

When sourcing speakers for Parcel Unpacked late last year, I tried to intentionally gather a group of individuals that weren't those who appear in the same thought leadership articles year after year. Not saying that those individuals don’t have value, but I’m ready for some fresh perspectives!One of my main takeaways was to look beyond the loudest voices in the room.When connecting with individuals in the email space, I ask them questions about their own network. For instance, who do they look to for guidance, 1:1 mentorship, and who do they admire?Maybe someone they look up to from a previous job.I'm not looking for someone that is hyper-active on Twitter or runs a Youtube channel with 100k subscribers. Rather, someone who hasn’t had an interest in developing their voice as a persona.In doing so, I’ve met some fantastic voices I wouldn’t have found just by browsing my Twitter feed.

As someone who has been on all sides of the email creation space, what problems has Beefree solved? What do you view as its best use cases? Do you pair it with any other tools?

At the beginning of my career, I was wearing many hats. Trying to learn HTML and CSS while doing all the other functions in my job was overwhelming. BEE Pro allowed me to build emails that I was proud of.BEE Pro is a great tool for marketers juggling many roles and responsibilities at once. The ease of use allows creators to feel confident building emails without needing a background in HTML and CSS. This can be a scary hurdle to overcome when you’re wearing many other hats in your day-to-day! With any ESP, it can be easy to work with to launch communication quickly.

Where do you see email marketing in the next 5 years?

I hope to be able to complete a purchase from an “abandoned cart” email directly.In the next five years, I hope email can eliminate the number of hoops I need to jump through to achieve the desired action.It will benefit both the brand and the subscriber!

Can you share examples of the work that you’ve created inside of BEE Pro?

These emails were all created with BEE in my last role!

What are your best email creation/email campaign planning tips?

• Read copy out loud
• Check responsiveness on mobile
• Double-check all links
• Choose a larger font size instead of a smaller one
• Don’t be afraid to test!

I don’t believe benchmarks are one size fits all. Always test and try all ideas before determining what works and doesn’t work for your brand. Avoid always making inferences about “success” from case studies you read online.

Naomi West x BEE

We are honored to have the great, award-winning Email Marketer Naomi West] (https://www.linkedin.com/in/naomiwest1000/)as our first spotlight feature. She is also the Founder of [Email Characters, a chrome extension to count your subject lines and preheaders.Naomi has been using BEE Pro in her email marketing efforts for a few years. Her advocacy for the tool has helped us in our mission to democratize content designFor more on Naomi West x BEE, watch this webinar on "Creating Content As a Team: Advice From Expert Email Marketers."And, of course, follow Naomi on Instagram and Linkedin for more email marketing tips.

High remote team productivity is essential for the success of a company. While remote teams could be geographically apart, they must work together to achieve their common goal - the organization's growth and bottom line.As a remote-first organization, we here at Beefree have embodied remote collaboration and have built systems to ensure productivity and support the well-being of our teams.We've learned that a company whose remote team is highly productive can invest more resources, tools, and support into other vital areas. Here are some best practices for skyrocketing your remote team's productivity.

1. Offer leadership to your remote team

Managing a remote team requires strong leadership skills, as engaging and motivating people without real-life contact is often more challenging. If you see a lack of productivity and morale within the team, work to create a strong connection with your remote employees and focus on developing a positive attitude toward them. When a team lacks leadership, it might sometimes cause a

• lack of creativity
• procrastination
• distractions

It is always a great practice to remind them about the company's vision, values, culture, and what they're working towards. Visualizing the goal and how their individual roles play into the organization's success empowers them to put their best foot forward.At the same time, it is also best practice to acknowledge when they do their best work and celebrate their achievements. An example could be treating them to lunch when they finish completing a big project or task and congratulating them on their anniversaries. Most importantly, they value the time they give to the organization and respect their off time. A work-life balance helps employees rest and promotes productivity and creativity while preventing burnout. And of course, ensure that you are someone that your team can rely on when they need additional support.

2. Implement team management and productivity tools

Team management, productivity tools, and easy-to-use design software help your team stay organized and on track. For instance, providing marketers and design teams with email design systems can help save your team time by using templates and design layouts to create emails and landing pages.Using remote working tools helps vastly boost remote team productivity. A great tool allows teams to:

• Save all their data in one place for easy access. A great example of this is Google Docs.
• Engage in quality communication (chatting inside the document about ideas or using a shared virtual whiteboard for brainstorming) and set achievable goals with it. 
• Reduce distractions for optimal performance. 

It's important to remember that these productivity levels are impacted by the quality and speed of the tools in place.For instance, design applications require more RAM and scratch disk storage. Production speed can be hindered if their computers have limited RAM, hard disk space, or poor hardware. You must ensure your remote design team has the latest online tools and OS.

3. Practice clear communication

Effective productivity can only be achieved with clear communication protocols. Effective communication helps build a highly satisfied team by boosting morale and increasing employee engagement.Proper communication starts during onboarding and trickles down to training and beyond. A great way to ensure you're constantly communicating with your team is by sending a weekly or monthly newsletter to provide continuous information updates.Along with updates, ensure managers share helpful information with their teams on how to do their work more efficiently. For instance, providing designs with resources, tips, or tools to ease their day-to-day. Do not leave your remote team to seek information for themselves. Instead, try to make it available to them even before they ask.

4. Develop standardized processes

After establishing clear communication protocols, developing a standardized way of working is essential. While everyone has a unique way of working, a predefined work standard is necessary for effective remote team collaboration. This helps provide clear direction specifically on what is expected of each individual.Standardization helps create better clarity and predictability and should be simple to understand and follow. Complicated processes only make it harder for the team to achieve higher productivity.A great place to start is by analyzing the existing processes and noting any gaps. Let this step be guided by your remote team's input and experiences.Then, make it a habit to follow the current best practices and document every process and change. A great way to do this is by running an internal blog that everyone has access to and can provide feedback on.Remember that this may require training your teams on new and updated processes.

5. Invest in business automation

A great way to uphold standardized processes is to invest in business automation. This is also known as the digitization of business processes. At times, tasks assigned to remote teams can become repetitive and take a lot of time that can be spent on more important tasks.Automation helps save time and effort used to perform such tasks. The simple way of automating a business is to use advanced automation tools such as AI and machine learning technologies.Don't forget to set your automation targets and track them strategically to measure their successes.If training is an issue, incorporating an internal knowledge base can be a good solution to keep business processes, procedures, tasks, and training in one place. Various online training tools can help to avoid wasting time on onboarding meetings because all repetitive instructions will be documented in an explainer video or text format.

6. Provide proper training of tools and softwares

While remote teams require many tools to stay productive and manage their day-to-day, training them is not always easy. The implementation of new tools, software, and business automation requires intensive training that, at times, gets forgotten.If you're finding yourself struggling to find time to provide training, consider keeping an internal knowledge base. Various online training tools can help to avoid wasting time on onboarding meetings and constant updates whenever a new tool is added. Online training tools help keep everything in one place and are easily documented using an explainer video or text format.

7. Empower your remote team to take ownership of their duties

Encouraging your team to have ownership over projects and a voice in the decision-making process makes them feel more excited and motivated about the tasks assigned. Giving them ownership means allowing them and trusting them to make decisions independently. This trust helps employees feel like valued members of the team.As always, before giving them ownership, remember to be clear on the expectations and what they will be accountable for. This helps create a sense of responsibility, and they will handle all work keenly.

8. Use productivity metrics to track performance

Productivity metrics provide insights on better supporting and managing your remote team's performance using data points to help you visualize if your team is underperforming or achieving your company goals.To measure their performance, compare the resources you have provided them against the number of projects or tasks completed. There are three metrics you could follow depending on your organization.

1. Capital productivity: measures how well the team uses physical capital.
2. Material productivity: measures how the team is using resources other than capital.
3. Labor productivity: measures the input of every remote team member. 

9. Promote team collaboration

Team collaboration helps build better communication and effective teamwork. Collaboration promotes innovative thinking and allows each team member to participate equally in project goals.Much like sharing the company's vision, collaboration helps build a sense of purpose among teams where ideas can be shared to achieve a common goal, increasing productivity and output.To promote team collaboration:

• Create a strong, supportive remote work environment.
• Keep on encouraging members to brainstorm on projects.
• Guide in areas where responsibilities overlap to avoid conflicts.
• Let the remote members know each other and encourage them to communicate constantly and seamlessly. 

By working together, teams feel free to express their thoughts, receive positive criticism, and criticize other members positively. Watch this webinar by Beefree to learn how we easily collaborate across departments.

10. Provide feedback

Providing clear, practical, and useful feedback is critical for a remote team's productivity. It is the tool that helps evaluate work done and its progress. Feedback is not to discourage or negatively criticize teams but to provide tactical ways to improve.Feedback provision is a good trait in leadership that encourages growth. Whenever you do it, be sure to inspire team members with ideas to improve their work in the future.

Skyrocket your remote team's productivity with Beefree

The productivity of a remote team is essential for a company's survival, and to achieve maximum productivity, employers need to focus on key strategies. Offering leadership, using remote team management and productivity tools, providing knowledge to solve technical problems, developing standardized processes, and allowing remote teams to own projects can all contribute to productivity.One tool that can help remote teams achieve their goals is Beefree, an email design builder that allows teams to create beautiful, high-performing emails that convert – quickly and easily.Beefree's collaborative nature allows design teams (remote or otherwise) to communicate inside the builder and make edits in real time. Remote teams must work together to achieve their common goal, and effective communication is essential for building a highly satisfied team. The best part? It's free.By utilizing Beefree and other productivity strategies, companies can invest more resources in other key areas and provide better work devices and professional support to their teams.

Collaborating with a remote team comes with its challenges. From ensuring you’re giving and receiving effective feedback to using the right tools for your team. Here are 7 responses from industry experts on “how to collaborate on email campaigns with a remote team.”

Make Sure All Team Members Get the Test Send

“As you're working on an email campaign with your team, you're certainly going to push “test sends” before the campaign goes live. Make sure everyone on the team gets a copy of this test. Regardless of in-office, remote or hybrid status put the whole team on the test distribution list. They'll all have insights and perspectives that’ll make sure the finishing touches are taken care of before the email goes out to a larger audience.”Logan Mallory, Vice President of Marketing, Motivosity

When getting feedback from multiple team members, clear expectations must be outlined for each member to avoid vagueness. Here are our top tips on how to give helpful feedback.

Use Online Word Processors

"Nearly 44% of employees working remotely complain about clunky communication between colleagues. Poor communication doesn’t only slow down the time it takes to complete projects, it also impacts quality. Delayed responses force other team members to rush their responsibilities in hopes to meet what should have been reasonable deadlines.We've worked around this remote work caveat by using live word processors, like Google Docs, to create and collaborate on our email campaigns and copywriting projects. These tools allow writers to share their work and receive feedback in real-time. Editors can make direct changes to campaign documents without going back and forth with the original document owners. In this way, we've managed to streamline our campaign workflows despite the major transition to a remote workplace. You’ll be saying “goodbye” to delayed deliverables!”Brian Nagele, CEO, Restaurant Clicks

Brian Nagele hit it out of the park with this tip! Making communication a smoother, more efficient process was a huge goal for us here at BEE. Read about our latest efforts in this blog.

Schedule Consistent Check-Ins

"Working in a remote or hybrid environment can be tough when it comes to making sure everyone on the team is on the same page. One great tip for collaboration when developing emails and newsletters is to schedule consistent check-ins with colleagues. Having regular meetings, even if they’re just ten minutes long, can make a world of difference.This way, you'll be able to provide progress updates and troubleshoot any issues efficiently, all while promoting constructive collaboration between team members. It sounds like a no-brainer, but scheduling these check-ins will make sure everyone is always in the loop and working together as one cohesive unit."Travis Lindemoen, Managing Director, nexus IT group

Invest in Communication Technology

"Technology is key for remote collaboration. At Relay, we use Slack to work collaboratively on projects from software development notes to our company newsletter. With all of our employees working remotely, this provides us a way to share ideas and design documents.We frequently use specially designated Slack channels for specific projects. We can hold video meetings and share screens. It also includes integration with apps like Google Drive, which enables us to ensure version control when working on documents. We’ve found this to be more convenient and effective than traditional methods."Chandler Rogers, CEO, Relay App

Create Transparent Guidelines

"One important factor in effective collaboration is setting clear guidelines upfront. This includes agreeing on what the newsletter will look like, what topics it’ll cover, who will be responsible for writing and editing what content, and how it’ll be formatted.It's also important to establish communication protocols, such as how often everyone should check in on progress and whether there will be regular team meetings or conference calls. By taking the time to establish these ground rules upfront, you'll save yourself (and your team) a lot of headaches down the road."Kate Wojewoda-Celinska, Marketing Manager, Spacelift

Record Video Messages

“One tip we find super helpful for improving the remote design process at our email marketing agency is encouraging team members to make use of Loom videos to provide feedback for each other or to ask detailed and complex questions. Loom is great because it allows the creation of quick screen-share videos which are easily shared on any channel.This lets our team get a message across much more quickly than going back and forth in a chat or messaging platform and is more convenient than always setting up Zoom calls which can get off-topic fairly easily. We've found Loom to be the best way to share detailed thoughts and feedback on emails, newsletters, and other design tasks on the eCommerce projects we're working on."Ryan Turner, Founder, Ecommerce Intelligence

Automate the Process

"Asana is my favorite tool for ensuring everyone is on the same page during newsletter production. We publish a monthly email newsletter and work remotely. Asana keeps us on track and informed without redundant emails and meetings.The best thing we did was to build roles, responsibilities and best practices for using Asana. Sometimes we'll forget and still email something, but we've all promised to kindly remind each other to “put it in Asana!”Alison Meyer, Chief content marketing writer, Indigo Communications

You’re invited to: “How to easily collaborate across departments to achieve high-performing email campaigns,” A BEE Webinar

We’re kicking off our first webinar, talking about our favorite subject: collaboration. In our latest blog, we discussed our efforts to make collaboration more efficient, effective, and easier in 2022. Now, we want to show you.Join us on January 25th, 2023, at 10 AM PST to learn how to communicate and collaborate as a remote team easily. Register here.We hope to see you there!

Creating engaging high-converting landing pages is an essential part of any digital marketing strategy. Your page needs to convert visitors into customers. Otherwise, no amount of traffic will be enough. Although it might not seem easy at first, it is an achievable task, especially if you're ready to invest some effort.Taking up something new is always exciting, even though it can sometimes be challenging. You simply don't know where to start. This article will serve as a guide and helping hand for you to increase conversions as soon as possible.

What is a high-converting landing page?

To be good at something, you need to understand the basics. So what is a landing page, and why do you need a high-converting one?A landing page is a standalone web page created for specific products or categories and optimized for conversion. The main purpose of a landing page is to nudge visitors, either from organic search or PPC ads, to follow your call to action and make a purchase, leave an email address, or do whatever it is you want them to do.Only a certain percentage of people who visit a page end up going to the next step. The average conversion rate is a measly 2.35%. The top 25% of performers show conversion rates closer to 5%. While that’s not a huge number, it’s double the average! And it’s completely achievable with a few optimization tricks.Of course, a large part of converting users is attracting users who are interested in making a purchase in the first place. But even with highly relevant traffic, creating a high-converting landing page does matter.Once you attract the right people to your landing pages through marketing or clever choice keywords, you have to convince them your company has the best product. A well-made landing page should do just that for your business.See more: "20 Fresh Landing Page Statistics: The Stats to Know for 2022" by Email Vendor Selection

The structure of a high-converting landing pages:

A high-converting landing page is a page that converts visitors to customers. While the page structure of a high-converting landing page may vary on industry or offer, there are some key features of the page to always keep in mind:

1. Clear & compelling headline
2. The headline is the first thing your potential sees when they click on your page, and so plays a signification role in whether they keep scrolling or not. Make sure that your headline captures the main idea in a way that's appealing to the target audience.Statistically, you have only 8 seconds to grab a user’s attention, so the first thing they see on your website has to be impactful. Here are some examples of relevant and catchy headlines:
3. "Create beautiful emails and landing pages, fast."
4. "A Content Creation Platform Built For Agencies" 
6. "All-in-one SEO software made simple. Finally."
7. What is similar between these headlines (and why they work) is that they're clear and concise. At first glance, the audience knows what you have to offer, and who you offer it to, and its unique value proposition is highlighted -- "all-in-one" "fast" "built for agencies."
8. Clear content, simple words, and easy explanations
9. Speaking about clear and concise. The visitor to your landing page has to be able to scan the information and get the main idea easily. Some things to avoid are:
10. Using navigational links
11. Extra advertisements
13. More than one CTA
14. These can take away from the main goal of the landing page and offer too many opportunities for distraction for the reader.Instead, try to:
15. Make your page easy to scan by adding headers or images to break down content 
16. Visually discern the main elements of the page like CTA. Make CTA buttons large that are high in contrast with the rest of the page. 
18. Use photos that are diverse and inclusive and your audience can feel represented in
20. Use bullet points to get straight to the point
22. And again ... use simple copy and design elements
23.  Use the right keywords
24. The right keywords set the tone, guide the user, and capture attention. You may already know what words you want to emphasize in your text intuitively, but it's always better to check with a specialized tool.SE Ranking’s SEO keyword finder can help you with this. It’s a tool that facilitates both keywords discovery and keyword research. With SE Ranking, you can find the keywords your page and your competitors’ pages rank for and compile them into a list.You can also see how competitive certain keywords are and how much traffic they receive. This will help you set priorities in SEO. With a keyword list, you can add relevant keywords to your landing pages to improve on-page optimization. There is a free two-week trial is free for all new users.

1. Source: SE Ranking 
2. Stay consistent and on-brand
3. A new campaign doesn't equal a new brand. Maintain the overall style so that customers can instantly make the right associations. Colors, fonts, design style, and any other brand guidelines should remain consistent throughout all outgoing communications.  Creating engaging and high performing landing pages while staying on brand is easy with BEE’s landing page templates. With Team or Enterprise plans, import brand guidelines into your workspace and then further customize the template using content blocks, images, videos, gifs, and more. 

1. Optimize Landing Page for Mobile
2. In 2021, 70% of retail website visits came from mobile. There's no need to lose potential customers due to underestimating the importance of mobile responsive websites.
3. With BEE Pro, it doesn’t take much to create a page that looks as good on mobile as on desktop. Granted, it may take plenty of work if you’re coding it from the ground up, but BEE Pro is a drag-and-drop visual builder and editor that does the coding for you, rendering, and mobile optimized for you.
4. BEE Pro’s Mobile Design Mode lets you create emails and landing pages that work on any mobile device. On top of that, it facilitates all the best practices of mobile-first design like a limitation of colors and a one-column layout.

Tips to Create Engaging Landing Pages

Now that we got the must-haves of a landing page down, here are some additional ways to increase engagement and conversion.

1. Talk like your audience
2. It's no secret that you need to know what your target audience is like – how they talk, their interests, and what they're looking for. If you’re selling a B2C product to 20-year-olds, you don’t want to sound like you’re selling a B2B product to middle management in their late thirties.
3. The nature of your product dictates your audience, and audiences typically respond to different messages. Depending on your audience's age and profession, you may want to make your sales copy more or less formal.
4. The same goes for the choice of words in good copywriting: should you put a pun in there, use professional jargon, etc. In the example below, the company can afford to say their service is “the wowest” because their audience is professionals under 35 who’d probably appreciate the joke.

1. Source: SE Ranking
2. Competitor comparison table
3. Reviews have a significant influence on any business's reputation. Over 90% of B2B buyers read reviews and conduct other types of research before purchasing. This means reviews are a crucial part of successful landing pages. The problem is that since they appear on your website and not on a third-party platform, they’re less trustworthy by default. How do you deal with that?First, the reviews posted on the landing page should be personalized. This means adding a photo of the person giving the review and their position. Mentioning their company and adding their logo to the page can also improve conversions.Another thing you can do is ask your clients to provide video testimonials. They may be harder to obtain than written reviews, but they will improve trustworthiness.If your business has excellent reviews, they can serve as social proof and customer reviews. It will be a great addition to the landing page.

1. Source: beefree.io
2. Showcase reviews and social proof
3. Most people who visit your landing page are not going to buy outright. They will probably want to research the competitors to see what is out there and make an informed decision.You want to precede that and position your service in a favorable light. Consider adding a competitor comparison table to the landing page.The leads will look up your competitors anyways, so it certainly won’t hurt to mention them. This can serve as a narrative about your competitors that showcases your product’s advantages.

1. Source: Ecwid
2. Custom Illustrations or stock images
3. As mentioned earlier, landing pages are typically only scanned, not read. So try offering visuals to get your point across. There are many free custom illustrations or stock image sites in the market that you can add to make scanning the page easier for the visitor. This custom illustration example by Verblio explores the common pains of the target audience in a creative way.

1. Catch Attention with Videos
2. On top of illustration and interactive elements, videos can be a simple way to communicate the selling points of your product. The two most common video types for landing pages are explainer videos and video testimonials.Whichever video type you decide, you can easily add video content to your landing page with BEE Pro.

Keep Experimenting with BEE Pro!

The main thing when it comes to creating a high-converting landing page is experimentation! Try something different to your layout, copy, and/or design.BEE Pro allows you to easily duplicate any page and drag-and-drop additional content, move content around, or hide specific elements! Start from scratch or use one of BEE Pro’s 300+ landing page templates. We guarantee there is something for every industry or occasion.Happy Designing!

Why aren't people reading my emails?!

You just sent a very important email communication to a group of stakeholders. And you know its good and thorough. Everything anyone would need to know about this very important topic is in that very important email is there. I mean, you're not a copywriter, but who out there iswriting emails like a copywriter?Your focus is to be as detailed as possible. And every detail is right there. In the email that you just sent. To everyone who needed it.But somehow, the questions are rolling in. Silly questions. Questions that were clearly answered in that very thorough, very detailed, very important email communication.You're probably wondering "why does it have to be so frustrating?" and "why does this happen every. single. time."Maybe you work in Human Resources or Higher Education, or maybe you're the leader of a certain project or initiative. Whatever your specialty, you know you're a smart person with an important responsibility. You don't even hate compiling the information. It's part of the job.However, fielding a bunch of questions you've already answered is plucking your last nerve.Questions like:

• "What's the deadline for…" project you just sent the deadline for
•  "How do I…" do a thing that was clearly explained
• "Where do I locate…" info that is definitely in the email

You know... the email they never read.You don't deserve all that grief! So I've got some tips for you. While you're not a copywriter (and you don't have to be!), it shouldn't be difficult to get to at least read or engage with your emails, so here are some copywrite fundamentals to apply to your email communications that will stop those annoying questions from coming in.

Copy Fundamentals for Writing Emails Like A Copywriter 

Pro copywriters don't just communicate–they aim to elicit action. And they're often held accountable for the quantifiable success of their work. A lot is on the line when a pro copywriter takes to the keyboard!Writing emails like a copywriter requires an understanding of your audience and an emphasis on what they would perceive as valuable or beneficial. So put yourself in your readers’ shoes and ask, “What’s in it for me?”Also, consider the medium. The email channel in particular presents unique challenges, and these four tips can help you get your content up to snuff for more effective communication in the inbox.

1. Understand the Challenge

According to Statista "email volume increases globally every single year." We’re all inundated with welcome and unwelcome email messages. We find select emails useful and important, while other messages feel irrelevant, redundant, or just blend in with all of the other inbox noise.And email goes wherever we go. A report by HubSpot states that 41% of emails are access on mobile devices.So you’re not just competing with every other email in the inbox, you’re also competing with a myriad of external distractions like texts and social media apps. Marketers know it’s tough to stand out in a crowded inbox, and even more difficult to capture attention when email recipients are on the go.See more:Email Design for Mobile: Best Practices to Take Your Marketing Emails Up a Level

2. Focus on the subject line 

You’re probably putting loads of effort into your email body, but subject lines are often an afterthought. And that’s a big mistake. Here’s why:Nobody reads an email they don’t open.An effective subject line entices engagement. So think about how you could do a better job of drawing attention to your message.A common error is to choose a certain formula for your subject line and then apply it every single time. Consistency seems good in theory, but after a while, folks just glaze over it.The secret to subject lines that sizzle is unpredictability. So mix things up! Make each subject line wildly different from the last. Here are some ways to do that:

• Try really short subject lines, then really long subject lines.
• Drop in an emoji every now and then.
• Experiment with different psychological tactics. Some subject lines can be very direct. Others might capitalize on a sense of curiosity to find out what’s inside. 
• Be offbeat or funny. Wholesome jokes that resonate with your audience will definitely score an open.
• A sense of urgency—when used sparingly and appropriately—can also be effective. Just be careful not to overdo it.

3. Make It Scannable

Your audience should be able to quickly skim your message to get the key points. Content is most consumable when it has some visual hierarchy.Organize ideas into sections and subsections with bold headers. Bulleted lists are great, too, for making content more digestible. And be certain paragraphs aren’t dense walls of text.Another tip is to use one-sentence paragraphs to draw attention to important points.See what I did there? Of course you did!

4. Keep It Short & Sweet & Zombie-Free

Powerful copy eliminates unnecessary words. So consider how you can make all of your important points with fewer words.This article from Dr. Nadia Bashir, an expert copywriter who leverages her PhD in psychology to create persuasive content, has loads of terrific tips on keeping copy short and sweet. Take the time to give it a full read if you really want to level up your copy game.And there’s one tip I would add: The importance of writing in the active voice for clear, to-the-point communication.The opposite of active voice is passive voice, which is a clunky writing style that adds unnecessary bulk to your copy. But if you’re not a grammar nerd, it can be tough to tell the difference. So that’s why you have to give your content the zombie test!Here’s an example of a couple of sentences written in the passive voice:

To give this copy the zombie test, add the phrase “by zombies” after the verb:

Zombies are no good and you don’t want them in your email copy! So if you are able to add them, then you have written in the passive voice, and there’s an opportunity to be more direct and clear with the active voice.

Take it to the next level with an HTML email template

Now that you have the tools to start writing emails like a copywriter, it's time to take it one step further. Think about making your email communication visually stunning as well! Beefree.io offers the world’s biggest collection of free, professionally designed email templates for any use. With over 1,500+ to use, I guarantee you'll find something for any occasion.Best of all, no coding experience is necessary with the easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface.Happy sending!

It is no secret that over the last decade, there has been a focus on prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion. We have seen this shift in the workplace and in all forms of communication. Your audience today may include individuals from various generations, gender identities and expressions, and races and ethnicities. So, whether you're sending emails to your team or an external audience, here are some diversity and inclusion best practices.But first, let's go back to basics.

What are Diversity and Inclusion?

In short, diversity is acknowledging an individual's differences, such as race, gender, and sexual orientation.Inclusivity is the steps an organization takes to welcome and empower those with different backgrounds.Diversity and inclusivity are essential values for any organization to embrace. Doing so helps create a safe and supportive environment where individuals are open to offering alternative perspectives. This then helps develop new and innovative solutions that include everyone's unique needs.

Why is it essential to write diverse and inclusive emails?

Whether you're writing an email to generate sales or establish brand loyalty, it is vital that your audience feels involved in the conversation.The best way to do this is to start by acknowledging that your audience may encompass people with different disabilities and experiences who want to feel represented in a world that historically ignores them.Acknowledging this factor will help guide the content you write and how you write it. It will also show your audience that you are trying to create aninclusive space where their differences are acknowledged, accepted, and represented.

3 Diversity and Inclusion Tips for Better Emails:

To begin being diverse and inclusive, you should first get to know your audience and workforce. Listening to their experiences and stories will help identify how to better serve, support, and represent them in your content and organization.Once you've done that, here are 3 diversity and inclusion tips to implement in your next email:

1. Inclusive Language
2. When writing emails, it is easy to assume your audience only identifies as male/female based on the demographics found on your CRM. Unfortunately, many email clients have yet to include other gender identities, such as non-binary and genderqueer. The lack of options when choosing gender identity forces many to conform to the "male/female" binary. This results in the absence of diversity you see in your CRM.
3. So, what can you do?
4. When in doubt, use gender-neutral terms.
5. Switch "hey guys/girls" with "hey folks" or "hey friends."
6. Switch "she" or "he" (when references your audience as a whole and not a specific person) with "they/them."
7. Inclusive language also includes avoiding language historically used to discriminate against a group of people. For instance, "crazy" and "insane" have been used to belittle those with mental illnesses. Instead, try using "outrageous, bizarre, and intense."
8. These are only some of the language shifts you should begin to consider when writing your next email. Make it a priority to continue learning and educating yourself and your organization on inclusive language.
9. Show Diversity through Pictures
10. It is important to use photos and illustrations that help your audience see themselves represented in your brand. Stock images are a great and easy way to create more inclusive emails. When choosing images, ask yourself, "does this represent a wide range of different people?" If it doesn't, keep looking! Here is a roundup of our favorite websites to find diverse images
11. TONL: A diverse stock photography site with imagery representing different cultures, traditions, and individuals from various races and ethnicities. Monthly plans begin at $29.
12. nappy: A free stock image site representing Black and Brown people. Images may be used for free for commercial and personal use. They have a wide variety of different collections and categories.
14. The Gender Spectrum by Vice: A collection of free LGBTQ+ stock photos including trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming individuals. Some of the categories that can be found in the collection are lifestyle, technology, school, health, and more.
15. Remember to ensure that all images have alt text and code for those with visual impairments. Alt text is read aloud by screen readers when a person has images off or cannot see the images. To learn more, here is an article by Boldist on "The Art of Writing Alt Text for Accessibility."
16. Follow Accessibility Guidelines
17. If this is the first time you're hearing about Web Accessibility Guidelines, this step might take longer to implement.  At times, this might require you to revisit all of your email templates, brand guidelines, and design systems. In the meantime, here are some tips you can start implementing right away:
18. High color contrast: Some colors might be hard to differentiate for your audience with visual impairments. Using colors that are high in contrast will help separate content such as copy and background colors. This is especially important when designing for dark mode. A great platform to test the contrast of your colors is WebAim.Org
19. Use Large Font Size: For desktop, any font size below 16 pt might be difficult to read. With BEE Pro, the text size changes for optimal viewing on mobile.
21. "Click Here" as a CTA: Unfortunately, we are all guilty of this. Boldist states "focus on what the user accomplishes or will get instead of assuming how they interact." Making the switch from "Click Here" to something like "View The Shoe Catalog," provides more context and it is easier for your audience to understand where they are being redirected without having to read the entire email or when using a screen reader.
22. For more resources on Web Accessibility Guideines, visit the WCAG 2.0.  Also, make it a priority to hold trainings for your employees to understand and learn to apply Accessibility Guidelines in all that they do.

Bonus Tip #4: Continue to Stay Informed.  

The best way to ensure that you are working towards a more diverse and inclusive future is to continue to stay informed. Some ways to do this are:

• Make it a priority to continuously get feedback from other people in diverse groups in and outside of your organization.
• Staying informed about political and social climate. While some organizations believe that business and politics are to be kept separate, at BEE it is important to stand proud of our values and continuously hold space and support our team through tough social and political climates.
• Get training on DEI initiatives from outside organizations. Some really great resources include The Communication Network, AVIXA, and Council on Accreditation.

Overall being diverse and inclusive is a practice. It is how you honor people’s differences through every other decision that impacts the organization and those you serve. It is not something you will conquer overnight, as this sometimes requires systemic change, but writing more diverse and inclusive emails is a small step toward the right direction.

Email marketing is an essential part of your business, but it's something that can get expensivevery quickly. How can you create an email marketing campaign that doesn’t break the bank? Answer: By looking for free tools that help you produce high-quality content.With BEE, you can create a full email campaign set — even one with a built-in landing page with a form that collects user data. This type of email can give you a higher conversion rate, and although it might look complicated, it’s actually fairly simple to create. Here’s your guide to creating a free email marketing campaign in BEE.

How to build a landing page that matches your email marketing

You can create an entire email campaign set using BEE’s email marketing software, complete with an email that has a Google form embedded to collect user data. It’s easier for readers to enter their information directly into the email instead of having to open up a separate webpage, so by creating this type of email, you’re more likely to see a high conversion rate. Here are three simple steps you can take to create your free email marketing campaign. (P.S.: This example uses one of BEE’s free email templates and pulls in a Google form for the landing page, so the whole email campaign is completely free!)

Step #1: Create an email

Select one of BEE’s free templates and create your email message, complete with graphics, text, and images. In this example we’re promoting an event, so our email includes language that mentions the date, venue, and other need-to-know details. We’ve also added a call to action that asks people to RSVP by filling in a form — which we’ll create in the next step.

Step #2: Create a Google form

Save your BEE template and hop over to Google forms for the next step in the process. Open up a blank form and fill it out, leaving space for readers to give you any relevant information.

When you’re through creating the form, click the “Send” button in the upper right-hand corner and then click on the HTML symbol (this is the third option in the “Send via” row and looks like this: <>).Before copying the code, customize the dimensions so that the width is 100 pixels and the height is 670. By doing this, you ensure that the form will be responsive on both desktop and mobile. When you’ve adjusted the form size you can copy the HTML.

Step #3: Add the Google form to your email

Head back into the BEE editor and add an HTML content box to your email. Once you drag and drop the content box, you can copy and paste your HTML code from Google into the text box on the right sidebar, and your Google form will appear in the email. If the form isn’t the correct dimensions (100 x 670), scroll through the code in the text box until you find the width and height; then type in the right numbers. Save the email and download it, exporting the HTML. And that’s it! Your free email marketing campaign is ready to go.

Wrap-up: Free email marketing software

BEE’s free email marketing templates are the perfect way to create your next email campaign. By using BEE and other free tools such as Google Forms, you have an affordable method of making emails that will get conversions and help your business. Try BEE’s free templates today!

Confession: My email creation process is often haphazard. And that’s a problem. Inefficiencies, inconsistencies, poor planning… it all adds up to a disaster waiting to happen. It’s shameful to admit.I’ve been sending email campaigns for 20 years and educating people on email marketing for the last five. But I can’t keep telling folks, “do as I say, and not as I do,” because my sloppiness has led to some pretty epic email fails, including those I talked about at the last BEE webinar (now available on-demand!).Yeah, I should know better. And I’m working on it! This article actually started as my personal playbook. And my friends at BEE thought these tips might be handy for you as well. So if you too are looking to improve campaign creation, collaboration, and deliver more engagement-worthy messaging, here are four simple steps that any team can adopt.

Step One: Identify the Audience, Objective, and CTA.

I teach an email strategy workshop several times a year, and when I ask attendees who completes a brief for every campaign, only one or two hands are raised. “Yeah, me neither!” is usually my response. In an ideal world, every email campaign starts with a campaign brief, but we skip this step way too often.A complete campaign brief can be pretty in-depth, so we can’t always be bothered. But friends, we have to do better.At a bare minimum, be certain to document these three essentials and share them with all campaign stakeholders and contributors.

• The Audience: Who is on the receiving end of this email campaign? What are the criteria for inclusion? What actions have they taken (or not taken) which qualify them for the targeted segment?
• The Objective: What is this email campaign meant to accomplish? How will it advance meaningful bottom-line goals? Be specific and cite relevant baseline KPIs and your goals for improving them whenever possible. For example, statements like “Enhance brand awareness” are a cop-out, while “Boost email-generated blog traffic by 30%” cites a crystal-clear objective.
• The Desired Recipient Action: Define exactly what you want the recipient to do. This action must directly support your objective. Do you want them to register for an event? Request a demo? Purchase a cross-sell based on a previous purchase? Be LITERAL.

Step Two: Give The CTA the Attention it Deserves

Repeat after me: The message matters most.We do a gazillion things to create and deliver great emails that we get so bogged down with minutiae and don’t give the copy all the love and attention it deserves. But if your message stinks, it doesn’t matter if you have a gorgeous email design. It doesn’t matter if you send it at the optimal time for opens. It doesn’t matter that you’ve cleared every spam filter or if it’s been fully QA’ed on every email client under the sun. Copy should never be an afterthought, and it doesn’t play second-fiddle to design and development.The success of your campaign usually hinges on clicks, so give your CTA the attention it deserves and build the rest of the campaign copy around it. And be certain it doesn’t include phrases like “Click Here” or “Learn More.”Your CTA should align directly with the desired recipient action you already defined during Step One. Now that might seem like a bit of a no-brainer, but we sometimes expect our subscribers to figure these things out for themselves.When I worked with the higher ed vertical, I had a university client who said the desired recipient action for a campaign was for students to speak to an admissions rep—yet there was no mention of admissions on the email or landing page.More recently, I spoke to a business coach whose lead nurture campaign was falling flat, yet none of her emails invited subscribers to book an informational call about her services. Be certain that the CTA drives the very literal action you want recipients to take.Following CTA copy, compose the subject line and preheader (because you can’t get the click if you don’t get the open!), followed by the headline and body copy. Finalize all copy as much as possible before email design begins.If the team members contributing to strategy and copy have some clear design ideas, pass a rough sketch along to your email designer before they get started.

Step Three: Communicate Constructively

Prepare your creative team for success by ensuring they understand the audience, objection, desired action, and any constraints or rules. For example, is there a cap on the word or character count? Should the CTA appear above the fold? Are stock photos off-limits? Be sure to communicate all of those expectations.And never, ever offer vague, subjective criticism. If you request revisions on copy or design, there should be a clear business reason and clarity on the next steps.“I just don’t like it” is not a business reason. “I’ll know it when I see it” offers zero direction.Valuable feedback might sound like this: “Let’s be certain there are at least 40 pixels of white space around the CTA, so it stands out and is easier to tap on a smartphone.”If you can’t define a reason for a change that aligns with the campaign’s business objective, don’t ask for it. Let creatives do their job.If you need a little more help on this front, check out this advice for working with remote email creation teams.

Step Four: Use An Email Design Tool with Strong Collaboration Features

I’ve been using BEE for about a year now, and I am stoked that they recently added so much functionality to the free version! Providing design feedback is much easier when it’s centralized right where the email is created, and now that functionality is available to all users.With the free version of BEE Pro, an unlimited number of team members can comment and contribute to the email creation process.And if you are looking for a more sophisticated collaboration tool, BEE Pro for Teams offers user roles and permissions. For instance, Viewers can access commenting but not editing, while Editors can create and modify templates and locked content. Get started with the Free version of BEE Pro, or test out the Team Plan for free—no credit card required.Previously I had to send out message drafts and field feedback through email, Slack, and even WhatsApp! Now all comments are centralized right where the email design lives. And I have no more excuses for skimping on the email creation process. I feel much more confident there will be fewer email fails in the future.

A carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gas created through our everyday tasks.According to Statista, “the sending of one email is estimated to produce 0.000001 tonnes of CO2.” While this seems small, it's important to note that over 306 billion emails are sent each day. For decades, email has been an essential part of how we communicate for decades. It serves as a way to connect with people from all over the world and has become an integral part of how businesses communicate internally and externally. So, could we really reduce our email carbon footprint when it is such an essential part of our everyday communication? And if so, what small steps make a difference?

How Does Email Have A Carbon Footprint?

The process of creating an email requires electricity. The electricity comes from burning coal, gas, and oil. The burning of this fuel then emits large amounts of carbon dioxide, causing climate change.According to SEDNA, when compared to daily activities, email only accounts for 0.3% of the world’s carbon footprint. Although this is not a lot in the grand scheme of things, by building better email habits this number can be decreased.A research by Ovo Energy shows that “even just sending one less ‘thank you’ email a day would save over 16,433 tons of carbon a year, which is the equivalent of taking 3,3343 diesel cars off the road.”

Good Email Habits That Benefit The Planet: 

Here are some small steps you can take to make a difference.

Ask your audience to delete your emails once they’ve read them.

Saving emails requires electricity. If your email isn’t informational or offers tips your audience can look back on, suggest they delete it! It’s a small way to show your audience your sustainability efforts and may encourage them to make this an email habit of their own.You can easily do this inside of BEE Pro with our saved row feature.

Send emails to only a few segments

Email marketing is all about sending the right message to the right people at the right time. Not everyone in your email wants or needs to hear about every campaign. Your ESP should offer the option for you to organize your email list by where they might be in the buyers’ journey.You may also provide the option for your readers to opt-out of campaigns they’re not interested in. Here is how One6Creative offered subscribers to opt-out of her latest offer

Send one less email

As stated earlier, even one less email makes a difference. Next time you want to send a “thank you” email, try combining it with other offers. Take this email template by Martin Nikolchev, for example. This is a “thank you for signing up email” paired with more information about the product, shopping recommendations, and a discount code.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Use a Design Tool That Makes Creating Emails Quicker. 

The less time you spend creating an email, the less electricity consumed. BEE Pro allows everyone to create and send emails all within the platform quickly. The multi-user support also makes it possible for teams to co-edit in real-time.

How We Are Taking Actions at BEE

Environmental impact of delivering our services: All BEE services are hosted on Amazon Web Service (AWS), which has made a substantial commitment to running sustainably. AWS ensures that our activities are being carried out most efficiently and ecologically. And have set a goal to power all operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025. Net Zero Website:This smart label also automatically compensated for all the CO2 emissions our website generates. Our system plants trees to offset the calculated emission by tracking the website usage. So far, we have planted 1,642 trees, capturing 558.72 tonnes of CO2.HTML Generator: BEE's HTML generator creates lighter and more compact HTML which results in a 50% decrease in a standard email's carbon footprint.

Should We Stop Emailing Altogether?

The short answer is no. Email is still the most effective and sustainable way of communicating across a distance. However, even the smallest of efforts make a difference so why not start building better email habits?

In preparation for Earth Day, we’ve curated a few emails templates to inspire your audience to take action. View them here

According to the Adobe Financial Analyst Meeting, there will be 900M Communicators and 68M Creative Pros by 2024. The democratization of design and the arrival of free design tools makes it possible for just about anyone to create content with ease and flexibility.As a result, designers and marketers are coming together to create beautiful, engaging, and effective marketing material such as responsive emails and landing pages.Over the years, we have seen a growth in new and free design tools that allow anyone to produce content like a designer. Here are some of our recommendations:

Four Free Design Tools You Need

When choosing which design tool is right for you it is important to choose one that is easy to learn and whose capabilities grow with your skillset.

• BEE Pro Free: BEE Pro Free is a drag-and-drop email and landing page editor that makes it easy to create responsive emails. With over 1100+ free templates, it’s perfect for non-designers to create quick and beautiful emails and landing pages. For those with design experience, it is detailed and customizable enough for you to design from scratch.
• Figma:  Figma is an “all in one design platform” mostly used for web design and prototypes. This platform offers a variety of easy-to-follow tutorials for new users to explore their creativity. Designs created in Figma can be exported into responsive design tools for sleek and polished graphic design.
• Pitch: Pitch is a presentation platform where your team can design presentation decks for any occasion. It turns what used to be a boring task into a creative process. A great way to start incorporating Pitch is by promoting its use in internal meetings and presentations. This allows your team to experience the power of design for themselves.
• Canva: Canva is an online tool that allows you to create social media graphics, flyers, videos, and more for free. The resulting content does not have HTML attached so be careful when using it for web and email.

While many of these tools are intuitive, learning a new design tool is a process. It’s important to give your team the opportunity to explore each platform and see how they can use it to make their job more efficient.

How to support your team when using free tools

While design tools matter, it’s not a silver bullet for producing content like a designer. Integrating the right systems and workflows to support your team is essential.

Have Strong Brand Guidelines 

In our latest blog on Design Systems, we spoke to Crystal Ledesma, Engineering Manager for the design systems team at Zillow. She shared with us that before Zillow began implementing design systems, the emails they sent their audience looked so different from each other that customers began marking them as spam.Luckily, there’s a way to avoid this.Brand guidelines are great examples of design systems at work. They ensure that your brand’s messaging and style remain consistent and easily recognizable through every touchpoint.These guidelines should include:

• Information on logo usage including size and spacing
• Guidelines on how to use color palette along with HEX and RGB codes
• Different font usages and sizing
• Design elements such as patterns, icons, and photography

Brand guidelines should be easy to share and understood by everyone in your organization. That way, every email and message that goes out looks like it’s from your organization (thank Crystal for this tip!).

Have Workflows 

According to Lucidchart, a workflow can be described as a guide that “defines the steps involved in the process of getting work done.”Workflows are especially helpful in collaborative environments to ensure that everyone is working in an efficient and timely manner to achieve a common goal. Workflows promote transparency by allowing team members to share their progress openly.When creating one, make sure to lay out every step of the process from an idea to a final product. A simple example of a workflow for writing an email can look like:

• Determine the goal for the email. 
• Plan your outline. 
• Write the content based on the goal and audience. 
• Provide feedback. 
• Incorporate feedback and make final tweaks.  
• Publish to the public.  

Workflows are effective because of their simplicity and repeatability. They can be used each time you are working on a similar project. Make sure your workflow includes who is responsible for each task and/or phase, due dates for each phase, and when to give feedback.

BEE Pro, free for everyone.  

If you’re ready to start embracing the democratization of design within your own organization, we have something for you.On March 30th, BEE Pro is launching a new plan available to everyone for free! BEE Pro Free is our easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor that allows anyone to create beautiful emails and landing pages from scratch or using our template catalog.We know the importance of design when it comes to emails and wanted to create a product that is accessible to all. Learn all about the BEE Pro Free here.

Your brand is more than its first impression. You may remember your first Coke but what keeps you coming back is knowing you’ll get that same flavor every single time.In the same way, your customers need to know what to expect from your brand messaging and visual identity. That’s where email design systems come in.Brand loyalty is built through repeated communication with your audience. If that communication looks or sounds different from message to message, your audience becomes wary.Crystal Ledesma, Engineering Manager for the design systems team at Zillow, provided a great example during our IG Live.Before implementing a design system, the emails Zillow sent their audience looked so different from each other that customers started marking it as spam. Instead of trusting the email, they would assume a hacker was posing as Zillow because the branding and design were off.https://www.instagram.com/p/CbONMjapVCI/Luckily, Crystal stepped up to the plate by applying design systems thinking to email. She shared some of her best tips during our Live and we’ve summarized them in this article.

Reasons designing emails feels slow 

Most marketing teams, large and small, have bad habits that run rampant. Some of these include:

• Building designs from scratch every time
• Constantly shuffling responsibilities around the team 
• Assigning tasks to the wrong team members
• Relying too heavily on marketing or creative teams to make assets

Design systems put an end to this by creating components in advance so that the creative team can pass ready-made templates and components to marketing, sales, and beyond.It takes time to implement a proper design system. Once you have it, it saves time and increases revenue by keeping everyone on the same page, strengthening your brand, and freeing up time for your creative team to work on other projects.

What is a design system?

A design system is a set of guidelines and principles that outline the components and patterns that make up your brand. Then, designers can create what Crystal refers to as “legos”: small design components that can be combined to make a complete design.In essence, design systems enable modular design. Instead of making everything from scratch, pre-made pieces let you build an email or landing page as if you were stacking legos.By including things like an icon library, a predefined color palette, and a list of approved fonts, you can create consistency quickly. Your employees are not overwhelmed with each new product and your customers are not confused by your brand. Everyone is on the same page.

Example of predefined styles in an email design system built with BEE ProImagine a procedural system that doesn’t depend on that one person who has master permissions to the main template or content draft check-ins with the creative team.With this clear framework every executive, new hire, and contract worker can design and develop materials for your brand. Teams can increase email production speed and decentralize the production process, while staying in control of brand identity.

The email design system revolution

Shifting to this perspective has launched a revolution in email for marketers. Using design systems in emails used to be difficult, if not impossible. Technology has made it easier than ever to save and re-use content.Repurposing and repetition don't limit your messaging. In fact, it’s needed to keep up with communication while maintaining a strong brand identity.When developing your email design systems there are two main components.

• Template
• Module

The template outlines the flow of the email. It sketches what should go where and allows you to test the design, while still allowing for changes. The module is the boxes that fill in the outline. You can fill these boxes with anything: text, videos, pictures - whatever you want to share.Implementing an email design system is the easiest way to produce content and quicken deliverability without reducing quality. Instead, you choose your template, add your brand constants, and drag and drop what you want from there.

Example of reusable content blocks in an email design system built with BEE Pro

Top tips for implementing your email design system

Understanding how to implement an email design system will completely change how you grow. Here are a few of the top tips to implement an email design system no matter where you are.

Center your brand instead of trends

When you build from scratch, it’s tempting to follow every new trend. Breaking your brand into reusable pieces forces you to really think about what makes your business unique. These are components you want to use over and over again, so what do you really want your brand to represent?

Choose the right tools

The tool you use determines the ease of your implementation. Having a program that stores your brand kit preferences or can easily export your emails and landing pages to the marketing platform of your choice is essential.Your tool should also help you save time and error-free at every step of the process. For instance, BEE Pro synced rowsmakes it easy to keep design systems updated. Simply change the contents of a row in one of your templates, and the changed automatically "sync" in all areas where that row takes place.

Encourage collaboration

Involve relevant team members and stakeholders early on. It’s easy to ask for feedback on specific components, allowing the different strengths of each of your team members to shine. Before you would need to screenshot and email different concerns.With tools like BEE Pro, you can create a comment, start a thread, and tag those who can provide feedback.

Build Email Design Systems in BEE Pro

As a no-code design tool, BEE Pro makes it particularly seamless for you to build and maintain an email design system. Using templates and modules for both emails and landing pages, you can create a design system that integrates quickly and easily with teams of all sizes.

Example of reusable templates in an email design system created with BEE ProReduce the stress and frustration of your email campaigns with a tool that's easy to use and doesn’t require any technical skills or have any usage adoption delays.From the solopreneur looking to cut down on marketing expenses or a Fortune 500 need to collaborate across multiple platforms, BEE Pro is the fastest, no-code email and landing page design suite.Editor’s Note: This post was updated on February 2023 to ensure accuracy and comprehensiveness. 

According to a 2020 study by Android Authority, 81.9% of participants use dark mode on their phones and 64.6% of participants expect sites and apps to automatically apply a dark theme or at least offer the option. Popular email providers like Gmail and Outlook have already launched dark mode as an option for their users, changing the game for email marketers and designers. So, what’s the hype with dark mode? By turning light background colors dark (typically a shade of gray or black), it creates a new user experience that:

• Enhances accessibility and reduces eye strain on those with light sensitivity.
• Preserves battery life on devices by reducing screen brightness and using less energy. 
• Offers a slick and cool dark interface that many prefer.

With the increase in user screen time, it’s clear to see why users want this option.It’s time for marketers and designers (I’m looking at you) to stop ignoring dark mode when designing. Taking the extra step enhances user experience, ensures that your content is accessible to all, and prevents your emails from being sent to the dark place - aka the SPAM folder.

The Cold Hard Facts about Dark Mode You Can’t Ignore

Dark mode is becoming the norm. Almost every email client has adopted their version of it and readers expect a consistent experience.

Your readers matter.

The number one rule for content marketers and designers is to put the audience front and center. Considering and testing how content looks in dark mode vs. light mode shows your readers that you care about creating a consistent, cohesive, and accessible experience for all.

Email clients are unpredictable.

Depending on the email provider, there are three different ways that email clients might change the look of your content:

1. No changes at all: In the case of Yahoo mail and Apple Mail there is no impact on how emails are viewed. 
2. Partial color invert: Email clients like Outlook only detect light-colored sections and turn them into darker colors. 
3. Full color invert: This is where everything is inverted. All the areas with light turn dark and vice versa. This is the Gmail apps MO. 

It is important to make sure that designs are rendered as well as possible in both light and dark mode. If readers don’t recognize where the email is coming from, they will ignore it, delete it, and may unsubscribe altogether. This hurts your email deliverability in the long term.Take the extra step to ensure that your reader experience is consistent and enjoyable, regardless of their preferred mode.

How to optimize emails for dark mode

Designing for dark mode doesn’t have to be hard. Here are some of our best tips to start implementing today.

Avoid using true black

The high contrast between true black backgrounds (#000000) and true white (#FFFFFF) will make things more difficult to read, defeating the purpose of dark mode altogether. Instead, use dark gray (#121212) as the background color to soften the contrast.

Saturated Brand Colors

While your saturated brand colors look great in light mode, these colors are too bright and will affect readability.Before you run away, we’re happy to say there is no need to call your design team for reinforcement. Instead, have fun and experiment with a desaturated or muted pastel version of your brand colors.

Optimize Images and Logos 

For many email marketers, this seems to be the biggest challenge when it comes to optimizing emails and landing pages for dark mode, but again, it doesn’t have to be. Here are a few ways to optimize images and logos.

1. Use a logo that uses a brand color that isn’t black or white. 
2. If you have an image or element with a black background, add a white outline to improve its visibility and avoid it from fading into the background. 
3. Ensure images and logos are PNG format with transparent backgrounds.
4. Keep things minimal. Dark backgrounds can give the illusion of limited space so keep things simple to not overwhelm the reader. 

3 Dark Mode Design Examples

Are you a visual learner? Oh Good! We have a few examples of designs we love and why they work.Example 1: Apple Fitness AppThe Fitness app is a great representation of how using bold colors against black backgrounds is still possible without it being too harsh on the user. Dark mode shouldn't compromise the purpose behind the app. In this case, the final result is the same: it inspires movement and gets us excited to work out.

Apple Fitness AppExample 2: Notion AppTheis works because it exemplifies how dark mode shouldn’t hurt the essence of the product or the user experience. If anything, it enhances the experience altogether. Dark mode offers a level of sophistication and makes us feel fancy. All of these use different shades of gray to offer depth and create shadows without it feeling boring.

NotionExample 3: Google home screen

GoogleFinally, Google's dark mode offers a simple and elegant interpretation of dark mode. Notice that they don't use true black (the background color is #202124) and they differentiate the search and "I'm Feeling Lucky" buttons with a shade of grey (#303134). Everything else is white, so that CTAs are clearly readable.

It's time to stop ignoring the facts

Previously, email marketers and designers (looking at you again) have ignored the effects dark mode has on emails and landing pages. Partly because no one could have predicted how many users required this feature and partly because it seemed like a difficult task. We hope that we debunked that with this article. If we didn’t, then our apologies, but we want to offer you some hope.

The solution: Dark Mode Preview Toggle 

How can you adjust your email designs to account for dark mode? BEE Pro has the solution. Starting March 16, 2022, our email and landing page design suite will feature a new Dark Mode preview toggle that will help you create emails with dark mode in mind.By simulating how your messages display in dark mode, it will help you recognize and avoid main design issues that may occur when an email message is received by a reader that has dark mode enabled.

Preview how your email will render in dark modeThis handy feature will help spot common “design mistakes” and ensure that you are creating cohesive and consistent experiences for your readers without limitations based on the mode they choose to use.We hope that you’re as excited as we are. If you’re new to Beefree get started for free. You can also check out our HTML professional email and landing page templates and choose one that is dark mode friendly (refer back to our tips above).