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In our latest blog post, we explored the importance of email newsletters and the value that they can bring to your organization. In short, they serve as a way to ensure consistent and timely communication between businesses and their diverse audience. While many factors influence the outcome of your email newsletters, there are a few tried and true strategies and steps for creating newsletters that we suggest following to ensure their success.Whether you're a seasoned marketer or a small business owner venturing into the email marketing realm, this step-by-step guide, enriched with tips and insights, will illuminate the path from conceptualizing your newsletter to hitting that send button and beyond.

What is the Purpose of a Newsletter?

The purpose of email newsletters is often condensed to brand awareness, promotion, education, and retention, but what's underneath that:

• Brand Loyalty: By providing useful content, tips, or insights, you can add unimaginable value to your audience that, in turn, will make you the go-to brand for your audience in your specific niche.
• Stronger Relationship: Sending consistent, cohesive, and timely communications keeps your audience engaged and helps nurture a relationship between your brand and its followers.
• Traffic: If your content resonates with your audience, they'll want to learn more. This helps drive traffic to your social, website, and any other resources linked in your email newsletter. 

A step-by-step guide to creating an email newsletter

Navigating through the nuanced newsletter creation process, we'll explore a 10-step journey that marries strategic thinking with creative execution. Each step, from defining your newsletter’s purpose to meticulously tracking its performance, serves as a crucial milestone, ensuring your message not only lands but also captivates and engages your audience.

Step 1. Define Your Newsletter Goal

Embarking on the newsletter creation journey without a clearly defined goal can make defining your email's content, design, and overall strategy a challenge. Whereas a clearly defined goal helps harmoniously align each element towards a singular purpose.Let’s delve into a few examples of newsletter goals to spark your inspiration:

• Engage and Inform: Keep your audience abreast of the latest industry news, trends, and insights.
• Drive Sales: Promote new products, offers, or discounts to boost sales.
• Increase Participation: Encourage participation in events, webinars, or surveys.
• Build Community: Foster a sense of community among subscribers by sharing user-generated content or stories.

In addition, your goal should also take into consideration the following:

• Who is your audience? Identifying your audience's demographics, preferences, and behaviors will help tailor the goal to an action you know your readers will take. For example, you wouldn't promote events in New York if most of your audience is based in Australia. 
• What's the primary value of this email? Every newsletter delivers something of value - be it knowledge, discounts, or entertainment.
• What are our business goals? Internally, what is your organization trying to achieve, and what is your current focus? 

Step 2. Build a Newsletter Subscriber List

Building a robust, engaged subscriber list is paramount to ensuring your newsletter’s voyage is fruitful and impactful. A subscriber list isn’t merely a collection of email addresses; it’s a community of individuals, each with their unique interests, preferences, and needs, all uniting under the banner of your brand.Here are a few tips to guide you in building your subscriber list:

• Craft Compelling Sign-Up Forms: Ensure your newsletter sign-up forms are visible, accessible, and enticing across your digital platforms.
• Leverage Multiple Channels: Utilize your website, social media, and other digital channels to promote your newsletter sign-up.
• Offer Incentives: Entice potential subscribers with exclusive content, discounts, or insights available only to newsletter crew members.
• Ensure Ease of Subscription: Make the subscription process as seamless and straightforward as possible to encourage sign-ups.

Step 3. Segment Contacts and Create Lists

As your subscriber count grows, understanding and organizing them becomes pivotal to ensuring that your newsletters resonate and engage with your unique audiences. Segmenting your contacts allows you to tailor content to their specific interests, allowing for highly personalized experiences. This action helps build a deeper connection between your brand and its audience. Here are some tips for audience segmentation:

• Understand Subscriber Preferences: On your sign-up form, ask questions beyond the simple "name and email address" to understand their interests. For example, something as simple as a job title can provide much insight. 
• Monitor and Adapt: Continually assess the effectiveness of your segments, and their actions will help you make necessary changes to optimize your email newsletter's design, content, and overall strategy.

Step 4. Select an Email Newsletter Tool

Finding the right tool for you and your team can be a formidable quest. Yet, it’s a pivotal step in ensuring your newsletter engages and delights your audience.When embarking on the selection of an email newsletter tool, consider the following key features:

• User-Friendliness: Find a tool that allows anyone on your team to seamlessly craft, edit, and visualize your newsletter without too big of a learning curve. Complex tools can often result in a loss of productivity. 
• Deliverability: Your email newsletter tool should ensure your emails are rendered beautifully regardless of email client or device to ensure your newsletters reach the inbox, not the dreaded spam folder.
• Template Variety: Mostly, every email tool offers templates to help you kick-start your email newsletters. Before committing, ensure those templates align with your brand, audience, and needs. Extra points if the platform allows you to create, save, and reuse your own

PRO Tip: Find a tool that allows collaboration to happen within the platform to minimize juggling between multiple tools and further increase your team's productivity.Now, an email newsletter tool is not to be confused with an email-sending platform or an email marketing platform. While these may overlap, an email newsletter tool is often an additional tool added to help optimize your email design process. Because of this, it is important that the email newsletter tool you choose should seamlessly integrate with your existing sending platforms like HubSpot, Mailchimp, or Gmail.A great example of this is Beefree.

Beefree: Email creation without limits.

Beefree is an intuitive email builder whose agnostic nature allows easy export to your sending platforms of choice. Its collaborative features allow for decentralized teams to work together on email newsletters and campaigns effortlessly. With a catalog of 1,600+ email templates, we pride ourselves in having something for everyone, and our drag-and-drop editor makes the learning curve a breeze.

Step 5. Start From Scratch or Use a Template

You have two choices when it comes to creating a newsletter: to personalize an existing template or to craft your own from the blank canvas of possibility. Both paths, while divergent, lead to the creation of a newsletter that is uniquely yours. Let’s explore these two options, ensuring your newsletter is not only a reflection of your brand but also a beacon that resonates with your subscribers.

Option 1: Personalize an Existing Newsletter Template

This path allows you to embark on your newsletter journey with a sturdy vessel crafted by experts and ready to be infused with your unique brand essence. This option comeswith its own range of benefits:

• Efficiency: Save time and resources by starting with a pre-designed structure.
• Consistency: Ensure your newsletters maintain a consistent, professional appearance.
• Inspiration: Draw inspiration from expertly crafted designs.
• Flexibility: Adapt and modify the template to align with your brand and message.

As mentioned, Beefree’s newsletter template library offers thousands of free options, ready to be molded, adapted, and transformed into a newsletter that speaks your brand’s language and connects with your audience.

Option 2: Start with a Blank Newsletter Template

The "start from scratch" approach allows you to build your newsletter from the ground up, ensuring every element, from layout to content, is meticulously curated and distinctly yours. This path unveils its own unique advantages:

• Unbridled Creativity: Experience the freedom to explore your creativity without being bound by pre-designed constraints.
• Unique Design: Develop a newsletter that is distinctly yours, ensuring it stands out in the crowded inbox.
• Full Control: Maintain comprehensive control over every component, ensuring each aspect aligns perfectly with your brand.
• Tailored Experience: Design a user experience that is meticulously tailored to your audience’s preferences and journey.

Step 6. Must have elements to have in your email newsletters

Let's get to work designing your newsletter with Beefree, where designing your newsletter becomes a seamless blend of creativity and functionality. While the ensuing steps are crafted with Beefree’s email editor in mind, these are all elements that any email newsletter must have to ensure your newsletter design is visually compelling and effectively communicates your message, regardless of the tool you choose. Let’s dive into the meticulous art of newsletter design.

Carefully Crafted Layout

Whether you're starting from scratch or using a template, the content sections needed will be determined by the purpose and goal of your newsletter. Ask yourself: "What is the information that my readers need to know to be enticed to complete the desired action?"The layout of your emails should be placed in a manner that is easily digestible and helps guide and engage the reader through the newsletter. This can be done by maintaining a balance between text and visual elements.Tips for adding content:

• Maintain Consistency: Ensure your content aligns with your overall message and brand voice.
• Be Concise: Craft your message to be clear and to the point, respecting your reader’s time and attention.

With Beefree, drag and drop your content blocks, such as text, images, and buttons, into your email. If you're starting with a template, our first suggestion is to first assess the email and see if any sections don't align with you. Like we did for our template below:

Regardless, a well-crafted layout is has a balance of text and visual elements, ensuring your content is both engaging and easily digestible.

Visual Elements

Long gone are the days of text-only emails. Images, videos, and GIFs are visual anchors in your newsletter, capturing attention and enhancing your narrative. They also help provide balance in your emails to help guide and break up text-heavy sections.Tips for including images:

• Quality Matters: Ensure your images are optimized for emails viewed on desktop and mobile. 
• Alignment: Your images should be visual representations of your brand and the message that you are trying to convey in the email. Otherwise, they might distract the reader from your message rather than engage. 

If you're starting with a template on Beefree, you can easily change the images by clicking on the image and clicking "change image" on the sidebar. If you're starting from scratch, you can navigate to the “Content” tab and simply drag the “Image” content block into your template. You can upload your own images and store them using our File Manager to retrieve them for future use.Beefree also offers a stock image and GIF library to incorporate visual elements into your newsletters easily.

Brand Elements

Infusing your newsletter with your brand elements ensures that your emails are recognized immediately by your readers. Brand elements include your logo, brand colors, pre-defined fonts, icons, etc.Tips for adding brand elements:

• Consistency is Key: Ensure all elements, from colors to fonts, are consistent with your brand guidelines.
• Visibility: Ensure your logo is placed prominently, ensuring immediate brand recognition.

Within Beefree, you can easily set your style guidelines to ensure everyone on your team can design on-brand messaging. You can also save content blocks that are frequently used to save time when building your emails.All of these are better known as "email design systems," which are built to help you save time, resources, and cohesiveness in all of your communication efforts.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCmxbuk4PRA&t=56s

Prominent CTA Buttons

CTA buttons should be influenced by the goal you want the reader to take. They should be placed throughout the newsletter to ensure the reader can take action at any time.Tips for creating CTA buttons:

• Stand Out: Ensure your CTA is visually prominent. This means not hiding them in between elements, adding ample spacing around the CTA, and ensuring the color of the button doesn't blend in with its background. Although it should stand out, it should still remain harmoniously integrated into your overall design.
• Concise Text: Use clear and concise copy that clearly communicates the action you want the reader to take. Do not leave any room for interpretation.

In Beefree, you can create pre-defined CTA buttons that align with your most frequently sent emails. Adding new buttons is as easy as dragging the “Button” content block into your email.

Step 7. Make Sure Your Newsletter is Legally Compliant

Navigating through the realm of email marketing also involves ensuring that your newsletter adheres to the various legal standards and regulations that govern digital communication. Ensuring legal compliance is not merely a step but a fundamental pillar that upholds the integrity and legality of your email marketing endeavors. From adhering to data protection regulations to ensuring transparent communication, legal compliance safeguards your brand, reputation, and the trust that your subscribers place in you.Here are some general suggestions to ensure your emails are compliant:

• Adhere to Regulations: Ensure your newsletter complies with regulations such as GDPR or CAN-SPAM, safeguarding both subscriber data and communication.
• Transparent Opt-In: Ensure that your subscription process is clear, transparent, and provides adequate information regarding the nature of your newsletters.
• Easy Opt-Out: Provide a clear and straightforward process for subscribers to opt out of your newsletters anytime.
• Protect Data: Ensure that subscriber data is stored, processed, and protected in adherence to relevant data protection regulations.

In addition, email footer requirements are upheld by email-sending platforms. In Beefree, under "Rows," you will see various footer options that adhere to HubSpot and Mailchimp guidelines ready for use. If you use a different ESP, be sure to build your footer with their unique requirements in mind.

Step 8. Preview and Test Emails

In the final stages of our newsletter creation journey, previewing and testing stand as crucial waypoints, ensuring that your crafted message is not only visually appealing but also functionally flawless across various email landscapes. This step involves scrutinizing your newsletter through the lenses of different devices and email clients, ensuring that each subscriber, regardless of their digital window, experiences your message in its full splendor.

Beefree "preview mode"Here are a few tips to ensure your previews and tests lead to a standing ovation in every inbox:

• Multi-Device Testing: Ensure your newsletter shines across all devices, from desktops to smartphones.
• Different Email Clients: Verify that your design and functionality remain intact across various email clients, such as Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo.
• Link Functionality: Ensure all your links, from CTAs to social icons, are functioning and leading to the correct destinations.
• Spelling and Grammar: A final check on the language, ensuring that your message is not only clear but also error-free.

Step 9. Track Performance and Create Iterations

This final step involves diving into the analytics, exploring how our subscribers interacted with our newsletter, and uncovering triumphs and areas ripe for enhancement.This step is crucial for ensuring that each newsletter is a stepping stone towards deeper engagement and connection with our audience.Here are some navigational tips when it comes to tracking performance:

• Analyze Engagement: Dive into metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and engagement with specific content.
• Subscriber Feedback: Pay attention to any direct feedback or responses from your subscribers.
• Iterate and Enhance: Use the insights gained to refine and enhance subsequent newsletters, ensuring continual improvement.
• A/B Testing: Consider employing A/B testing in future sends, exploring what content, design, and strategies resonate most.

Start Creating Your Own Newsletters Today

The path to creating your own successful newsletter lies ahead! We hope that with the knowledge, insights, and tools shared, you feel equipped and ready to start forging connections, telling stories, and engaging your audiences in a way that is unique to you!If you need somewhere to get started and inspired, browse through our extensive catalog of free templates. We guarantee you'll find something that fits your needs ;)Happy designing!

Email marketing is a powerful tool for reaching your audience, but it often comes with its fair share of challenges.

One of the most common dilemmas that marketers face is the need to create visually appealing and accessible emails without the support of a skilled HTML developer.

This challenge has led many marketers to resort to image-only emails, which may look great but often lack when it comes to accessibility. For instance, screen readers can’t read text that is contained within an image, rendering much of your email content inaccessible to those with visual impairments.

Fortunately, there's a solution: Beefree.

In this blog post, we will explore how Beefree can help you improve your email production process and enable you to build beautiful, responsive, and accessible emails. We'll demonstrate how this intuitive drag-and-drop email builder empowers marketers to create emails faster, ensuring they meet accessibility standards and best practices.

Why Marketers Resort to Image-Only Emails

Here are some common reasons why marketers might choose image-only emails:

Visual Appeal: Image-only emails can be visually striking. Marketers may believe that a well-designed, image-heavy email will capture the recipient's attention and leave a memorable impression.

Simplicity: Creating image-only emails can be straightforward. For marketers without HTML coding skills, using an image as the main content is an easier and more efficient option.

Design Control: With images, marketers have more control over the design, layout, and aesthetics of their emails. They can create visually appealing content without relying on complex coding.

The downsides of image-only emails

While sending image-only emails may have certain advantages in terms of design, they can pose several issues and drawbacks, which can negatively impact your email marketing efforts and give some users a poor experience.

Here are some of the key issues associated with sending image-only emails:

Accessibility Concerns: One of the most significant issues with image-only emails is that they can be inaccessible to recipients with visual impairments or those who rely on screen readers. Since the email content is embedded in images, it cannot be read aloud by screen-reading software, effectively excluding a portion of your audience.

Reduced Engagement: Image-only emails may have lower engagement rates compared to emails with a mix of text and images. Because images don’t always render properly or are compatible with screen readers, recipients may be less likely to engage.

Spam Filters and Deliverability: Many spam filters and email clients view image-heavy emails suspiciously. Sending image-only emails may increase the likelihood of your messages ending up in recipients' spam folders or being flagged as potential spam.

Mobile Responsiveness: As mentioned above, image-only emails may not be mobile-responsive. This causes them to display poorly on smartphones and tablets, leading to a poor user experience and decreased engagement.

Slow Loading Times: Emails consisting of large images can take longer to load, especially for users with slower internet connections. Slow-loading emails may lead to frustration and decreased reader patience, which can cause a bad brand reputation.

Lack of Fallback Content: In cases where images fail to load for some recipients (due to email client settings or other factors), image-only emails provide no fallback content, leaving the email effectively blank.

It's advisable to use a balanced approach in your email marketing campaigns to address these issues. Incorporate HTML text, alt text for images, and a good mix of text and visuals to ensure your emails are accessible, engaging, and capable of reaching a broader audience.

Additionally, consider using responsive design techniques to optimize the email's display on various devices and screen sizes.

Introducing Beefree

Beefree is an email marketing game-changer. It's a user-friendly drag-and-drop email builder that empowers marketers to create stunning emails while adhering to best practices and accessibility standards.

Key Features and Benefits of Beefree

• Drag-and-Drop Interface: Beefree's intuitive interface lets you build emails by simply dragging and dropping elements onto your canvas.
• Responsive Design: Ensure your emails look great on any device with Beefree's responsive design capabilities.
• HTML Text: Easily add HTML text to your emails for improved accessibility.
• Bulletproof Buttons: Create CTA buttons that work seamlessly across all email clients, ensuring a consistent user experience.

Now, let's put Beefree to the test by recreating an image-only email with accessibility and best practices in mind.

The Experiment:
Recreating an Image-Only Email with Beefree

Step 1: Selecting a Sample Image-Only Email

To showcase the capabilities of Beefree, we've chosen a sample image-only email as our starting point.

For example, this email on Email Love from Last Crumb features some stunning photography and engaging content; however, the whole thing is made with images. While, the overall look and feel of the email could easily be recreated with HTML using Beefree.

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The Last Crumb’s image-only email at least uses descriptive Alt text, but we think we can significantly improve the email’s accessibility with Beefree.

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Step 2: Recreating It Using Beefree

1. Extract the images from the original email

The first step in this process is to extract those delicious-looking cookie photos from the original email and any other elements that we want to keep as an image. In this particular email, most of the text can be easily recreated with HTML text in Beefree.

2. Adding HTML Text for Improved Accessibility

One of the key improvements we’ll make is to add HTML text to our email. This ensures that the content is accessible to all recipients, including those who rely on screen readers. Once we have added our images, you can easily use the Paragraph content block to add your text. The text font, color, line height, and spacing can all be adjusted to replicate the look of the image-only email.

There are a couple of limitations when using HTML text over images. Firstly, Beefree offers a range of Google and Websafe fonts that will work in most email clients, but there were custom fonts used in this Last Crumb email that we could not exactly replicate. Last Crumb also uses multiple fonts in a single paragraph, which could not be replicated in Beefree – A small price to pay for improved accessibility.

3. Incorporating Bulletproof Buttons

Next, we’ll replace the image-based buttons with bulletproof buttons that render consistently across all email clients. This ensures a better user experience for our subscribers.

Step 3: Comparing the Original and Recreated Emails

As you can see, the recreated email looks great and adheres to accessibility standards and best practices.

ACCESSIBILITY AND BEST PRACTICES IN EMAIL DESIGN

Email accessibility is a critical consideration for modern marketers. Beefree makes creating emails that everyone can access and enjoy easier than ever. This is how the Beefree email looks with images turned off—a significant improvement over the image-based email.

Our Tips for getting the most out of Beefree

• Set Clear Objectives: Before you even start designing, clearly understand what you want the email to achieve. Whether it’s a promotional campaign, an announcement, or a newsletter, the content and design should align with your goals.
• Use Templates: Beefree offers over 1000 templates! Start with these and customize them to match your brand rather than building from scratch. This can significantly reduce the time it takes to produce an email.
• Drag-and-Drop Builder: Familiarize yourself with all the features and tools available. The more comfortable you are with the interface, the faster you can create emails. The key things to understand are how rows work, what you can do with content blocks, and how to customize the look and feel of your content. I recommend playing with Beefree’s padding and spacing features to make your emails look right.
• Consistent Branding: Set and use a consistent color palette, font selection, and logo placement for all emails. This not only establishes brand consistency but also streamlines the design process. This can quickly be done in the settings of Beefree.
• Mobile Responsiveness: Always preview and test your email on mobile devices. Your email may not stack correctly or your padding may make some parts of your email look strange. Don’t worry; Beefree enables you to show and hide content on mobile and desktop, so your email looks right across devices.
• Use Custom Blocks: If you use a particular design or content block often (like a particular footer or header), save it as a custom block. This lets you quickly insert it into future emails.
• Integrate with Other Tools: Beefree allows integration with numerous other platforms. Ensure that your email designs can be easily exported and used in your email marketing tool, whether Mailchimp, SendGrid, or others.
• Images: Use high-quality images, and always optimize them for the web to ensure faster load times. Beefree provides tools to resize, crop, and adjust your images.
• Test, Test, Test: Before sending out to your entire list, send test emails to yourself and a small team. Check for broken links, visual consistency, and any other issues that might arise. You can do this directly from Beefree.
• Collaborate: If you’re working with a team, use Beefree’s collaboration features. Get feedback directly in the platform and streamline the review and approval process.

Make Accessibile Emails a priority with Beefree

Beefree has proven to be a great tool for email marketers with limited design and coding experience. It empowers you to create visually appealing, accessible, and best-practice-compliant emails without the need for coding skills. Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or starting, Beefree can streamline your email marketing efforts and help you deliver better results to your subscribers.

Ready to supercharge your email marketing with Beefree? Sign up for free today and experience the difference for yourself. Your subscribers will thank you for it.

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Black Friday is a massive shopping event that causes consumers to scramble to find the best sales from their favorite retailers. Black Friday is considered “the” season to achieve maximum holiday savings, with a staggering $9.12 billion coming from online sales alone in 2022. This is a 2.3% increase in sales from 2021. 

With 116.5 million emails sent during Black Friday, it is clear that email marketing plays an essential role in alerting customers of high-value deals and generating excitement for brands and their consumers. However, the mere volume of emails brings us to the biggest hurdle email marketers will experience: getting their emails to stand out in a crowded inbox and getting them open.

While we know you’re tired of hearing it, it is important to say that the success of an open email lies with a subject line. In fact, statistics show that 64% of people will decide whether or not to open an email based on the subject line. Let's get started!

Key Elements for Eye-Catching Black Friday Sale Email Subject Lines

The average open rate on Black Friday is 12%, which is quite a bit lower than the ongoing daily average of 21.5% across all industries. These statistics show why following tried and true subject line best practices is critical to ensure your email is opened on what is deemed the craziest email day of the year.

Some elements to consider when writing catchy Black Friday email subject lines are:

• Brevity: Short and punchy subject lines are easy to digest. To stay “mobile-friendly,” keep them under 10 words (or 30 characters). 
• Urgency: Phrases like "Last chance!" or "Ends tonight!" cause readers to open the email and take immediate action.
• Offers: Highlight the value in your subject line, such as "50% off" or "free shipping."
• Personalization: Subject lines personalized with names, products of interest, or other tailored content can drive opens.

High-Converting Words for Your Black Friday Email Subject Lines

Yes, subject lines must be kept short due to their character limit, but it goes beyond that. With only having 8 seconds to attract your reader, every word counts. Here are some high-converting words to attract and encourage an email opens:

• Best sale of the year 
• Unbelievable deals
• VIP access
• Special offer 
• X # of Savings 
• Today ONLY
• Last chance

Most Effective Types of Black Friday Email Subject Lines

There are many approaches to creating the best Black Friday email that you can take. Each is designed to entice the readers to open for different reasons. Here are five popular types of Black Friday subject lines:

• Teaser 
• Announcement 
• Percentage discount 
• Exclusive access 
• Limited-time offer 

50 Example fo the Best Black Friday Email Subject Lines

Now that we’ve explored what makes up a great Black Friday email subject line, let’s see some examples of theory in practice. We also share some of our favorite Beefree Black Friday templates and pair them with a unique subject line for you to steal ;)

Although some of the templates may appear industry-specific, all of our templates are completely customizable to fit your needs, branding, and maximize sales.

Teasers

Stir curiosity without revealing the punch line using a teaser subject line. A good teaser will hint at a secret, something exciting, or special savings to entice the reader to open the email.

1. Psst… Black Friday is Coming!
2. Your Early Access to Black Friday.
3. Huge Black Friday Savings Ahead!
4. Exclusive Black Friday Offers Are Coming
5. Your Special Offer is Inside!
6. Guess How Much Will You Save
7. Can You Keep a Secret?
8. Be the First to Know How to Save Big
9. Early Bird Catches the Deal!
10. What’s blue and will save you green?

Teaser email in the wild: 

Pair this Black Friday gaming template with the subject line "Deals you've dreamed of & more." A subject line like this pairs well with the header "This Is What You Were Waiting For" and acknowledges that the reader knew a deal was coming up soon but doesn't give too much into what the deals are - just that they go beyond expectations.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Announcements

Unveil new products or sales using an announcement subject line. Announcements generate excitement for something new or to celebrate; loyal customers will want to join the party.

1. Our Biggest Sale of the Year is Here!
2. Deals on Your Favorite Items
3. Black Friday Sales Start Now!
4. Black Friday Early Specials Are Live!
5. Black Friday Starts Today!
6. Black Friday Deals Start at Midnight!
7. Sales Too Good to Resist
8. The Savings You’ve Been Waiting For
9. Black Friday Mega-Sale!
10. Our Lowest Prices Ever!

Announcement email in action:

Can you imagine if Apple launched its latest technology during Black Friday at a discounted price? It's safe to say that the lines would quadruple in size. Use this Black Friday electronic launch email template with the subject line "New products just in time for the holidays" to maximize sales and incentivize consumers to buy now vs. later.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Percentage Discounts

Highlight the deal specifics to entice readers to open your email. On Black Friday especially, the deal is king and what’s at the top of the reader’s mind.

1. 50% Off Everything!
2. Black Friday: Up to 70% Off!
3. Score Big: 50% Off Everything!
4. Save This: 60% Off for Black Friday Only!
5. Deals Galore: Get 50% Off Site-Wide!
6. Ready, Set, Save: Up to 70% Off!
7. Pre-Black Friday Savings Up to 50%
8. Our Biggest Sale Yet: 50% Off
9. Shop More With Deals Up to 80% Off!
10. Black Friday 70% Super Savings!

Black Friday Discounts for everyone: 

Don't only tell your customers what the discount is, but show them what they can get with it! P.S. This is a great way to use personalization and dynamic content. I mean, think about the impact an "abandoned cart" email can have when you offer an extra discount on top.The following email template showcases the discounts and eligible products, allowing consumers to maximize savings and stock up on their favorite items! Pair it with " (name) your favs are 75% off " for a personalized feel.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Exclusive Access

Give your subscribers the feeling of specialness by inviting them to be a VIP! With exclusive access, early savings, and VIP sales, your recipients will want to see what perks they get for being loyal customers.

1. Exclusive VIP Black Friday Pre-Sale
2. Private Access to Black Friday Deals
3. Exclusive Early Bird Deals
4. Members Only: Deals You Won’t Believe
5. Get a Head Start on Black Friday
6. Your VIP Pass is Here: Shop Now
7. Black Friday Savings Just for You
8. Top Secret Black Friday Sales
9. For Your Eyes Only: Black Friday Sales
10. Black Friday Priority Access!

Exclusivity offers for the win:

Further evoke the feeling of "exclusiveness" by sharing Black Friday emails pre-Black Friday. In the email above, the "save the date" subheading shares the sentiment that the reader has been invited and is the "first to know" about the sale before it goes live. This also gives readers peace of mind by allowing them to search for their items ahead of time and not have to rush on the day of. This email template, along with the subject line "You're invited to indulge," will do the trick.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Limited Time Offer

Drive your readers to take immediate action with time-restricted deals they won’t want to miss out on. When you put a clock to your offer, you inspire a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out), and no one wants to be left out of a good deal!

1.  Black Friday Sale Ends at Midnight!
2. Say Bye to Black Friday Deals!
3. Only 12 Hours Left to Score!
4. These Black Friday Deals Won’t Last!
5. Hurry, Black Friday Ends in 3…2…1…
6. Today Only: Black Friday Discounts
7. Final Hours to Save on Black Friday Deals!
8. Last Call on Black Friday!
9. Last Chance to Save!
10. Tick Tock!

Time is ticking: 

Urgency is the name of the game during Black Friday. Everyone knows that BF offers are usually limited to once a year. Providing gentle reminders to your audience that the sale is ending helps them make more informed decisions. In the e-commerce email template below, the brand reminds the consumer that the sale ends at midnight with a bold header that's hard to miss. Use the subject line, "And the countdown begins," to further remind your audience of the deal expiration date.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Increase Black Friday Conversions with Eye-Catching Email Designs

Don't let time be the barrier between you and the opportunity to maximize sales on Black Friday. With Beefree, it's never too late to start planning your campaigns. Browse from our thousands of free templates and transform them into compelling emails that entice action. With these subject line tips and our easy-to-use design tool, you'll be well on your way to driving record-breaking sales this Black Friday.Happy designing!

For busy email marketers finding a tool that enhances efficiency, productivity, and betters their marketing efforts is essential. To meet the demands of their job features like a user-friendly interface, contact management, automation, and scheduling make life just a little less stressful. 

But with the rise of email software in the marketplace and their expected growth from $7.5 billion in 2020 to $17.9 billion by 2027, finding the perfect tool has become a challenge.

That's where HubSpot comes into play. 

One platform that has been successful in making things easier for users since its inception in 2005 is HubSpot. With over 184,000 global customers, HubSpot has quickly become a favorite among many teams because of its capabilities to bring Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service together in one platform.

For email marketers specifically, their "Marketing Hub" has everything you may need to drive revenue, save time with automation, and optimize your campaigns.

Let's discuss some of the main features of HubSpot as a CRM that email marketers can leverage.

Contact Management 

Effective email marketing begins with managing your subscriber list (contacts) and keeping it free of invalid addresses and duplicates. For email marketers, keeping a clean list is essential for email deliverability and to stay out of the spam inbox.

Import Existing Contacts

Existing contacts can easily be imported into HubSpot's CRM system, making contact management a breeze. Keeping everything in one centralized location becomes important when working across different teams with different marketing objectives.

Inside HubSpot's CRM, you can ensure that the proper data is being captured and make segmentation decisions and how each contact engages in your email campaigns.

Collect New Contacts

HubSpot also shines in its ability to help you collect new contacts and grow your email list. You can engage and convert visitors into contacts through features like sign-up forms.

A university's email marketing team, for example, can use these features to collect information from potential students who show interest in different courses. Information collected from sign-up forms is then stored inside the HubSpot CRM for future use in marketing or communication efforts. 

Segment Contacts

Segmentation is another way to manage your contacts and allows you to "group" subscribers into "buckets" to send personalized messages to the right people at the right time.

Some of these "buckets" include: interests, demographics, or behaviors and allow you to send personalized messages that better align with your unique audiences. Here are some ways to use segmentations:

• Sort past customers who haven't purchased your product in X amount of days and send automated re-engagement campaigns. 
• Create different groups based on geographical locations. This is useful for sending personalized messages based on holidays and seasons. 
• If you host webinars regularly, segment customers based on "attended" and "didn't attend" to send customized messages that move them through your funnel. 

Sending Emails with HubSpot

Once your contacts are properly managed, you can start creating emails. HubSpot provides several basic templates and an easy-to-use editor to create engaging emails that resonate with your audience. 

Email Design

Emails can be done directly in the HubSpot app making it easy to keep everything in one place. HubSpot's email design tools are intuitive and the drag-and-drop editor allows you to easily add elements like images and CTAs that can be A/B tested to improve the performance of your emails over time.

Sending and Scheduling Emails

Scheduling emails is a great way to ensure your emails are being sent at the right time, without the need to be on your computer ready to press send (we've all been there). This feature is great for businesses to ensure that emails land in the recipient's inbox at the right times.

A great way to put the scheduling feature to use is to send a monthly email newsletter on the first Tuesday of the month at 10:00 a.m. That way your readers know exactly when to expect a message from you. 

Automation and Workflows

The ability to create, send, and schedule automated emails is another valuable feature of HubSpot.

Using automated workflows, you can easily send welcome emails to new subscribers, along with a few email sequences for them to learn more about you, your services, and offers. For instance, a retail shop can set up a workflow to send emails with a special savings promotion to new email list sign-ups received from their website.

Read: Email marketing 101: What is email automation?

Analyze Marketing Email Performance

HubSpot provides insightful analytics to help you measure the performance of your email marketing campaigns. This is essential when determining what works (and what doesn’t) and identifying what you can improve on next time. 

Track Email Metrics

As mentioned above, email metrics can be used in the decision-making process when identifying your future campaigns and their KPIs. Some of the most important metrics to look at include:

• Open rates to see how effective was the subject line.
• Click-through rates to determine how good was the content.
• Bounce rates to asses our email deliverability.

A college campus sending an email to alums will be able to note the engagement rates of their emails and target specific individuals who appear highly engaged with a fundraising campaign at a later date.

A/B Test

In email marketing, minor changes can sometimes lead to significant results. HubSpot’s A/B testing feature allows you to test different versions of your emails to see which performs better. For instance, you can try other subject lines to see which gets more opens or test different CTA phrases to see which gets more clicks.

Create Reports

HubSpot allows you to create detailed reports following your email campaigns. These reports provide valuable insights into your campaigns' performance over time. An e-commerce business can use these reports to understand which types of emails generate the most revenue for their company.

Beefree x HubSpot for Email Marketing 

While HubSpot is a powerhouse all on its own, when paired with Beefree the possibilities are endless. Beefree offers email marketers a new level of design flexibility with Mobile Design Mode. The no-code drag-and-drop builder ensures all emails and landing pages are optimized for any device and email client. Another feature is Beefree's extensive catalog of fully customizable email and landing templates created for any industry, season, or occasion.Beefree's capability doesn't end at email design. Part of the email creation process means getting feedback from various departments, which Beefree makes effortless through design-specific commenting and build-in approval workflows for Enterprise plans. Here's what our users have to say:

But don't take our word for it, try our free plan for yourself!

If you’re an enterprise looking to expand its digital footprint through email marketing, you’ve come to the right place. Email marketing can significantly boost your brand's visibility, enhance customer relationships, and drive revenue growth when done right. A huge factor in the success of your email marketing program lies in the platform you choose. An effective and efficient platform should effortlessly scale alongside your enterprise's growth, ensure optimal deliverability, offer advanced automation capabilities, and seamlessly integrate with your existing tech stack.However, before diving into the work of email marketing platforms, let’s go through the basics.

What is enterprise email marketing?

Unlike conventional email marketing campaigns, which cater to a broader audience, enterprise email marketing focuses on nurturing long-term relationships with individual customers or prospects, making it a powerful tool for businesses seeking to cultivate brand loyalty.If you’re wondering if you should consider “enterprise-level” email marketing, first ask yourself:

• Does your email marketing program require various user roles and permissions?
• Are there various of your email sequences that could benefit automation? 
• How extensive is your customer or prospect base? Does it require a high level of segmentation to deliver personalized and impactful messages?

Of course, there is nuance to everything, but overall the primary distinction lies in the scalability and complexity of your email marketing program.

Most common types of enterprise email marketing:

Now that we’ve identified what an enterprise-level email marketing program looks like - let’s explore some common strategies enterprises use to build long-term relationships with their customers.

Newsletters

Newsletter emails are a great way to offer consistency to customers because they are sent on a regular basis, usually to announce updates, news, events, or share resources. If you’re a B2B company, you’ll be happy to know that according to the Content Marketing Institute, “81% of B2B marketers say their most used form of content marketing is email newsletters.”

Transactional Emails

Transaction emails are one of the most effective email marketing tactics, with a 70.5% higher open rate than others. They are automatically sent in response to specific customer behavior, such as making a purchase or sending a payment.Because they are focused on individual customers, transactional emails aim to provide personalized, real-time customer communications, making them an indispensable tool for nurturing customer relationships and building trust.

Lead-Nurturing Automated Sequences

Much like transaction emails, lead-nurturing sequences are sent when a customer (or prospect) completes an action. In this case, typically, a sign-up form.Lead nurturing sequences, also known as “welcome campaigns,” are a great way to engage, educate, and guide potential customers through the sales funnel. However, be careful not to overwhelm a new lead. When evaluating email marketing platforms, consider their capabilities in setting up and automating sophisticated lead-nurturing sequences that align with your enterprise's marketing objectives and cater to the diverse needs of your potential customers.

Shopping Cart Abandonment Emails

For enterprises with e-commerce platforms, abandoned cart emails are indispensable in re-capturing lost sales. According to Barillance, these emails alone have an 18% conversion rate!These emails remind customers of the items left in their carts and can include incentives like discounts or free shipping to entice them back to complete the purchase.

SMB vs. enterprise email tools

When comparing email marketing platforms used by small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and enterprises, you will notice a vast difference in capabilities and features.More specifically, a good enterprise email tool should save your team time, improve the security of information, integrate with your tech stack, and increase the number of marketing activities you can complete. These factors will help justify the inevitable difference in price between SMBs and enterprises.

How to evaluate enterprise email platform features

Let's explore the key features you should have when opting for an enterprise tool. With these in mind, you will confidently select an enterprise-grade email marketing platform that empowers your team to drive impactful campaigns, nurture customer relationships, and achieve sustainable growth in the competitive digital landscape.

1. Email automation 

Timing is everything in email marketing. A seamless and efficient automated email sequence and multi-step campaign can guide customers through the sales funnel and help meet your business goals.Learn more: Email Marketing 101: What is email automation?

2. Advanced segmentation and personalization

Enterprise tools take personalization and segmentation to a whole new level. An enterprise solution will allow for advanced segmentation capabilities based on intricate criteria such as purchase behavior, browsing history, geographic location, and more.As for personalization, an enterprise tool can allow for dynamic content, making emails such as abandoned carts possible.Both of these features allow for highly targeted email campaigns, maximizing customer engagement and conversion rates.

3. Priority support 

When it comes to enterprise email marketing, reliable customer support and training are critical. Enterprise tools provide dedicated account managers and priority support to address any issues promptly and provide personalized guidance.

4. Integrations

It is invaluable to have your various platform effortlessly integrate and work well with one another. A simple integration can save you time and hassle exporting and importing data. Make sure that your enterprise email marketing tools integrate with your CRMs, e-commerce systems, analytics tools, and more.

5. Custom reports and dashboards 

Enterprise tools offer in-depth reporting and analytics capabilities. This comes in handy when tracking whether your campaign performance is meeting your KPIs or not and offers insight into what needs to be improved. These custom reports also offer insight into user behavior that allows you to create tailored campaigns. Some of these analytics features include A/B testing, detailed click-through rates, and conversion tracking.

6. Email templates and design 

When it comes to enterprise organizations with different departments with different email marketing initiatives, brand consistency is key.By ensuring uniformity across your email communications, you reinforce brand recognition and trust with your audience, making them more likely to engage with your content.A robust enterprise email marketing platform may offer a wide range of customizable email templates and design features that allow you to stay on brand.

7. Multi-user access

As mentioned previously, as an enterprise, you probably have different departments or teams collaborating on one project, making collaboration an essential part of your organization.A powerful enterprise email marketing platform should offer multi-user access features for smooth collaboration amongst teams and provide granular control over user permissions.

Beefree for Enterprise 

If you’re already in love with your ESP or MAP but need an enterprise tool that offers more control over your email design and collaboration, you’re in the right place. Beefree Enterprise allows multiple users to simultaneously work on email campaigns, view real-time changes, and provide design-specific feedback, streamlining the review and approval process. With Beefree Enterprise, you also enjoy the ease of having a built-in “Review for Approval,” made to reduce the time it takes to finalize and deploy email campaigns.The best part? Beefree integrates with your favorite enterprise email marketing platforms fitting seamlessly into your existing workflow. Some examples include HubSpot, Mailchimp, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, ActiveCampaign, and more.

Streamline your email marketing

Choosing the right enterprise email marketing platform is a critical decision that can significantly impact the success of your marketing efforts and the growth of your business. As you navigate the vast landscape of email marketing solutions, keep in mind the unique needs and objectives of your enterprise. Consider the importance of collaborative features, testing, data security, and integration.In the end, the best enterprise email marketing platform for you should be a seamless extension of your marketing strategy, empowering your team to engage, nurture, and convert your audience effectively.

Email marketers aim to send meaningful email content that engages readers and, perhaps, even motivates them to take action. However, this goal can be challenging to accomplish when you consider that competition in the inbox is high and that 74% of Americans subscribe to somewhere between 1-10 email newsletters.With these challenges already top-of-mind, it's no secret that email marketers fear the new Gmail unsubscribe tool.In an effort to help users improve their inbox quality, Gmail prompts them to automatically unsubscribe from emails they no longer engage with.But how exactly does the auto-unsubscribe Gmail tool impact email marketers? Keep reading to dig a little deeper.

How is the Gmail Unsubscribe Tool Beneficial?

If a user unsubscribes from an email list, they become ineligible to receive future emails from the sender unless they re-subscribe. Following the U.S. CAN-SPAM rules, if a user unsubscribes from an email list, the sender has 10 business days to remove an unsubscribe from the list. Don’t fret; unsubscribes aren’t all that typical – the average unsubscribe rate from an email is only 0.17%.While the Gmail auto unsubscribe tool might cause a few more unsubscribes to your list, it’s important to recognize the value it also provides. Every marketer should have the goal of keeping a healthy and active mailing list. Removing people who don’t want your emails will improve overall email deliverability, open rates, and click thru.This service also provides value to email users by making the unsubscribe process easier. Here are a few ways users unsubscribe from an email list in Gmail:

• Reporting a sender as spam will unsubscribe the user
• Blocking a sender will unsubscribe the user
• Recognizing unsubscribe links in the email and moving them to the top for greater visibility by the user
• Prompting the user to unsubscribe to subscribed emails they no longer open

Features of Gmail Auto Unsubscribe that Email Marketers Should Know

Is the Gmail unsubscribe button truly a negative impact on email marketers? After all, Gmail accounts for more than half of the U.S. email market, and it’s offering up the unsubscribe option on a silver platter. The answer is: not necessarily.As email markers, one of the top goals is to keep a clean and engaged mailing list. If anything, the Gmail unsubscribe option is one way of doing this.We know it’s easy to get caught up in fluffy metrics like list size, but the truth is that if your list isn’t engaging with your emails, it’s not a quality list. So take advantage of Gmail's opportunity to keep your least clean and up-to-date.Here’s how Gmail determines when to feature the unsubscribe option:

• An automatic prompt is served for emails in the Promotions inbox if they haven’t been opened for 30 days or more.
• Automatic unsubscribe Gmail suggestions are served when the user’s open rate for a specific sender is low.
• If the sender includes either the list-unsubscribe or list-unsubscribe-post snippets in their email code, it will move the unsubscribe option to the top of the email.

How to Avoid Penalties from the Gmail Unsubscribe Button

The Answer is Simple. Be Transparent.As mentioned earlier, email marketers should view the Gmail unsubscribe button as a valuable way to improve email deliverability by keeping a clean and engaged contact list.One of the reasons the U.S. CAN-SPAM regulation exists is to empower users to take more control over the contents of their inboxes. For subscribers, reporting emails as “spam” has historically been an easy way to unsubscribe. They don’t understand the repercussions that this action has on the organizations sending the emails, and truthfully, it’s not something they should be concerned with! It is the job of email marketers to make sure that you’re being transparent about the option to unsubscribe.By including the required “Unsubscribe” link in your email footer, you’re giving the recipient an easy way to let you know they’d no longer like to receive your content. Obliging their request is in your best interest to avoid costly fines from the FTC.Here are some other ways email marketers benefit from Gmail unsubscribes.

1. Keep an Updated Email List

By removing unsubscribes from your email list, you are eliminating contacts who are no longer engaging with your emails. This practice is an excellent way to clean them from your list because keeping them lowers your open rates. It’s a standard process to regularly clean an email list of low-engaged recipients to avoid future unsubscribes or spam complaints.For example, if you’re emailing a list of college-aged students and notice a substantial spike in bounce rates, it’s a good sign that those email addresses are no longer active. If you’re using an email service provider, they may be charging you to keep those names in your database, so it’s best to clean them out when you know they’re no longer active and save expenses.

2. Remove Inactive Contacts

Once every quarter to every six months, it’s a good idea to review your contact lists and remove inactive contacts – people who haven’t opened your email for a long time. Yes, it’s sad to see them go, but if they’re not opening your emails anymore, they’re just taking up space and bringing down your open rates.

3. Implement Requalification Emails

If removing inactive contacts is hard, try a requalification email first. This type of email is one more attempt to get the subscriber to re-engage with your brand. If you utilize an email automation platform, this is an easy email to set up and trigger to send when a contact becomes inactive for a certain amount of time.Using Bee’s email templates makes designing a requalification email a breeze. Check out our notification email templates here.

4. Segment Audiences

The mass unsubscribe Gmail offers can incentivize email marketers to up their game. Start by segmenting audiences more thoroughly and sending more targeted email messages. Then, by curating content for specific audiences, you should see improvement in email open rates.5. Build Targeted and Relevant EmailsThe end goal of features like auto unsubscribe in Gmail is to challenge email marketers to create better content. Experiment with dynamic content and more engaging subject lines to grow readership. Improving email design can also help with email deliverability – read these easy tips from BEE.

Key Takeaways on Gmail Unsubscribe Options

Instead of losing email subscribers or worrying about how does Gmail unsubscribe button works, email marketers should engage them with more targeted and intriguing email content. While Gmail presents the unsubscribe option in various ways to users, receiving an unsubscribe is one way to improve overall campaign performance.Campaign performance is always top-of-mind for BEE! Check out our easy-to-use email builder and selection of ready-to-use templates that make creating quality emails a breeze.

Gmail is the most popular email service platform. With over 1.8 billion global users, Gmail has become the go-to email service platform for individuals and businesses alike. 

According to Finances Online, more than 90% of startups choose Gmail as their primary email service for their organization. 

And for good reason. 

For starters, with the number of users it has, it is likely that everyone is familiar with the platform; therefore, there's a quick learning curve. Also, being that Gmail is part of the Google ecosystem, it is a great centralized tool for keeping all assets under one domain.

However, harnessing the power of Gmail can extend beyond the purposes of everyday business communications and cross the line into use for marketing purposes. And if you're new to Gmail for email marketing, you might be wondering, "Can I send Gmail mass emails?"

The short answer is yes. At times this might even be the most convenient answer to send marketing emails. Not only does this save you oodles of time, but it also allows you to send higher-converting personalized emails to multiple contacts at once.

But is Gmail the right tool for this? Keep on reading. 

Top Ways People Send Mass Emails in Gmail

Here are some of the most common ways people accomplish this.

Mail Merge

A mail merge function merges a copy template with a data source, such as an Excel spreadsheet. If you’ve ever created personalized letters or labels in Microsoft Word, you’re probably familiar with the basic functions of mail merge. You can access a mail merge process in Gmail to send personalized emails by installing a mail merge extension in Chrome.

BCC in Gmail Mass Email 

Also known as “Blind Carbon Copy.” BCC is the best way to include multiple recipients in a single email without them knowing who else the email was sent to. You can utilize the BCC tool in Gmail to send mass emails. However, this option limits your ability to personalize email content.

Mass Marketing Extensions 

Similar to the mail merge extension, you could choose to add a mass marketing extension to Gmail. This extension allows you to track email metrics and include HTML designs.

PRO tip: Copy and paste the HTML from your BEE Pro design into Gmail if you're looking to create more engaging emails. Read "How to Use BEE Templates for Gmail" for more.

Limitations of Gmail Mass Email

While Gmail is a suitable option for some small businesses, for others, it might be a deal breaker. Here are some reasons why:

• 24-hour send limit: Gmail caps the number of emails you can send in a 24-hour period to 500. 
• High spam scores: Bulk emails sent from a personal email address (like @gmail.com) are likely to be flagged as spam.
• Risk of temporary account disability: Too many emails flagged as spam may cause Gmail will disable your account to investigate.
• Manual and tedious design: Since Gmail is originally a tool for personal communication, their interface for designing HTML marketing emails takes some time to learn.
• Need extensions: You will need to research, install, and test different extensions in order to send personalized Gmail bulk emails, which takes time.
• Lack of tracking metrics: Gmail doesn’t provide sophisticated email tracking metrics to show you open rates, click rates, etc.
• No formal opt-in: There is a legal risk to not tracking opt-ins and opt-outs for mass marketing emails.
• Limited helpful marketing tools: Because Gmail is not an email marketing platform, you won’t have access to features like scheduling, testing, or design.

Why Sending Mass Emails is Better with an Email Marketing Service

It’s understandable why so many startups choose Gmail as their email service provider. It’s easy to use, employees are comfortable with it, and it’s free. However, when it comes to sending mass messages, our suggestion is to opt for an email marketing service that is made for delivering mass messages.

Email Design Support

Great email design is an essential part of the success of your email marketing. Not only does it helps promote a strong consistent brand, but also, design helps sell products and convert buyers. With the average person receiving around 121 emails per day, an engaging and on-brand email is essential to stand out in the inbox.Creating impactful email designs doesn’t have to be hard, either. There are many platforms, such as BEE Pro, that are agnostic and integrate with your preferred email service platforms.

BEE Pro also has over 1,500 email templates that are easily customizable for any industry or occasion.

Email Limits

Unlike Gmail, most email marketing services allow for more than 500 emails to be sent within a 24-hour period. Most EMS offer flexible packages depending on the size of your email list and how frequently you send emails.

Compliance

Email regulations are growing around the globe. In Europe, there’s GDPR; in the United States, there’s CAN-SPAM and California’s CCPA; Canada has CASL.

With the growing sensitivity around information privacy and the right to choose who you receive email from, there’s a risk with bypassing automated tracking.

Email marketing services platforms have integrated these regulations into their structures, helping with compliance and reducing stress for you.

Performance Metrics

When it comes to sending marketing emails, tracking performance metrics is a necessity. Email marketing services allow marketers to monitor open rates, click-thru rates, unsubscribes, bounce rates, and anything in between to track the success of their efforts.

Start Improving Your Technology Stack

While Gmail is a great platform for personal use, when it comes to being a fully fleshed-out email marketing tool, it is not ideal. While the sending mass email capability is useful in some instances, when it comes to marketing emails that convert - there are so many other amazing options.As technology has evolved, email marketing platforms have become more user-friendly, intuitive, and cost-effective. In some instances, you can even use them for free!If you’re a die-hard Gmail user, we challenge you to try something new. Maybe you're not ready to fully switch out platforms and are committed to sending Gmail mass email; how about an email template using BEE Pro to spruce things up? It's free ;).For more on this topic, read: "How to Use Gmail for Email Marketing."

The Afrocentric Communiversity is a consulting firm based in Fort Worth, Texas. Since 2017 they have been working with what they like to call “Activistpreneurs.”Activistpreneurs are individuals, businesses, or organizations that are working towards the holistic liberation of their communities.Activists of all kinds work with The A.C. when looking for guidance in “aligning culture, activism, and entrepreneurship.” Their services range from strategic coaching, consulting, organizational development, and project management.What makes them unique is that we are an anti-capitalist for-profit institution, which sounds like an oxymoron.But all that this means is that they do not prioritize profit over their partners (also known as clients). “We are serious about helping folks redefine how to exist peacefully and joyfully in a capitalist system,” says Jalyn Gordon, Founder, and Visionary of The Afrocentric Communiversity (The A.C.)Here is a little more on their story:

What are the unique challenges that your audience has and how do you help them?

"One of the biggest challenges that our partner's share is staying focused and rooted in their mission. In an era with many distractions, it is easy to be pulled in many different directions.How we help is first by affirming that everyone is already brilliant and excellent at their unique work. Then, identify the action plan to help them get to where they want to be. With ease.This can look like a variety of different ways depending on the service."

Over the last 5 years in business, what has changed in your industry, community, and marketing efforts? 

With the racial reckoning that happened in 2020, my industry saw an influx of organizations that were interested in DEI and Accessibility services and trainings.However, over the last few years, we've seen that everyone is beginning to look internally to ensure that their own infrastructures reflect DEI and Accessibility principles. Even, the companies that offer these services.Community-wide, we have seen a lot of trauma and how that has affected the work. A lot of folks are afraid to participate in courageous conversations because there’s always something in the back of their heads wondering if the facilitators could adequately handle the space. Not just that, but also adequately support Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Latine folk's trauma-unique experiences.These changes have influenced our marketing efforts because we’re now really focused on how folks interact with our communication channels. For instance, we've learned that email marketing is a great place to speak to large organizations that need DEI and Accessibility work. In fact, our largest partnerships and collaborations have come through email marketing!Email newsletters really allow us to be consistent in our communications efforts. We learned that the secret rule is that it takes folks seven times to see you or to experience you before they move towards purchasing or signing a contract with you. And email is the best way, easiest, and most cost-effective way of showing up.Each of our newsletters is personalized for what our subscribers need (whether community event listings or tools and resources). As well as serve as a reminder of what we do here at The A.C. as an anti-capitalist and Black-centered consulting firm.

What tools do you use for your email marketing efforts? 

BEE Pro to design &Mailchimp to send!Our Strategist and Designer introduced us to BEE Pro after our rebrand in August 2022. With the rebrand, it was important to produce high-quality designs. We needed a tool that allowed us to be consistent and minimized any gaps in quality, messaging, or branding.In comparison to the editor of our ESP, BEE Pro was much more malleable and adaptable. It is also a lot more flexible, fluid, and easy to implement into our workflows.As a small team, it is important to use tools that are user-friendly and that allows us to work together easily. BEE Pro has been a great tool to create templates for each of our newsletters which have vastly different audiences.

How does your newsletter serve your audience? 

It’s really important for us that our newsletters provide our readers with useful materials to pursue their Life Work.One of the ways we do this is by offering resources. We share book recommendations, spotlight organizations that are supporting the community, upcoming local events, news, and of course tools, workshops, and workbooks.These resources vary by newsletter since each one has a specific purpose and audience.

What is the change you want to see in your community?

We want to see a world where people have the most radical dreams and feel supported to make them a reality. A world where people are brave and courageous and step out to do the hard things.We want to see more people being loud, bold, and brave about their gift and their values.That's the change that we want to see in our community.

The Afrocentric Communiversity x BEE 

Thank you to The Afrocentric Communiversity for using BEE Pro and using it to spread their message.Don't forget to follow The Afrocentric Communiversity on Instagram!

Save and Reuse Content your create in BEE Pro! Saved rows allow you to save time on your daily design activities and keep your workspace well-organized.By saving and reusing content blocks, you can create emails and landing pages much faster, and avoid recreating content that already exists.Easily find and reuse the rows you've saved, such as footers, headers, CTAs, and more. You can build an entire email design system in BEE Pro by using templates, styles, and reusable content.How do you create reusable content in BEE Pro? Follow these steps to save a row.

1. Drag and drop your content.
2. Plug in videos, images, buttons, stickers, paragraphs, lists and more - directly into your empty row.
3. Customize the text, apply some final edits and your row is good to go.
4. To save this row directly in the editor, you’re going to hover over the row you just created. Between the commenting button and delete button, you’ll see the Save button. Click on it.
5. It will take you to a popup where you can Save your Row. This allows you to save the specific row you just created, name it, and categorize it, so you can easily find it and use it again in future designs. After naming and categorizing your row, click Create.

You can also organize and edit your saved rows & categories in your workspace library. Store up to 2000 saved rows so your content is ready to grab and go when it comes to designing new emails and landing pages.Thanks for watching! Sign up for a Free BEE Pro plan to try this out!

We are living in an era of remote work. According to Zippia, “experts predict that there will be 36.2 million Americans working remotely by 2025, a 417% increase from pre-pandemic levels.” This means that now more than ever, there is an emphasis on collaborative email design to communicate and connect in and outside every organization.The problem with this is that smooth and collaborative email design is not always.Some reasons for this are:

• Over-relying on designers to maintain the visual identity of outgoing emails. 
• Having to design from scratch every time. 
• No organized central location for project communication. This can result in delays in getting elements reviewed and approved.

Luckily, the rise of remote work has led to the democratization of design and the creation of new and innovative design tools. With the right email design tool, collaborative email design can become a smooth process.Here are 3 must-have features to look for in your search for the perfect email design tool.

1. Reusable Content Blocks

According to the Litmus' 2020State of Email Workflow Report, "52% of email teams spend two or more weeks producing an email from beginning to end." This is most likely due to the time spent designing (and coding) repetitive content blocks such as footers, headers, and CTA's.Reusable content blocks are a great way to increase email production and productivity.These ready-made templates are described as "legos" that allow everyone within your organization to build emails and pages quickly.Although these templates might be time-consuming to create at first, the result is a clear framework in one centralized location that allows anyone to design on-brand emails fast.BEE Pro is a great example of a tool that makes creating and implementing reusable content blocks easy. Rather than starting from scratch, there are over 1400 ready-to-use emails and landing page templates. Along with the Saved Row feature, it's easy for anyone to drag and drop reusable content blocks.Long gone are the days of spending hours on repetitive email content blocks.Reusable content blocks help your team focus on what's important - the content.

2. Style Guidelines

As previously stated, collaborating can get tricky when there is too much emphasis on one team (or person) to do a job. Style guidelines are a great way to helpdecentralizeemail design by empowering everyone to take charge of creating on-brand digital communications.Style guidelines are assets such as color palettes, fonts, text, and title sizes, predefined by designers. They are then used by the entire organization to help ensure that all digital communications are consistent with the brand's identity.Design tools have made it fast and easy for anyone toproduce content like a designerby creating "workspaces" where design assets are centralized in one space. For instance, with BEE ProEnterprise, you have the opportunity to create multiple workspaces, each with unique style guidelines. This plan is perfect for organizations with various product lines, business units, or agencies that manage multiple clients.

3. User Roles & Permissions

Givinguseful and accurate design feedbackis essential to collaboration and effective communication. That’s why finding a design tool that allows you to add members and assign User roles is essential.User roles help improve your email creation workflow and empower your team with specific tasks and responsibilities, so everyone is clear on their roles.With BEE Pro, members can simultaneously design and receive content-specific feedback by commenting on the parts of the designs, speeding up email, and landing page creation.If you are concerned that various people collaborating on one email design sounds overwhelming, finding a tool that offers User Roles & Permissions is essential.

Learn more about User Roles & Permissions here.

Improve your collaborative email design workflow with BEE Pro.

As we have admitted many times throughout this article, collaborating on email design sometimes gets messy.While it is not a task you can tackle overnight, finding the right tool that is easy and quick to learn and use is the first step.BEE Pro is a free email and landing page editor that makes it easy for you to build and implement all of the design systems that make collaborative email design easy. Its no-code drag-and-drop functionality makes it particularly easy for anyone to learn and use right away.

Benefits of collaborating with BEE Pro:

• Quickly drag and drop reusable content to build emails and pages
• Organize your team’s assets in one centralized workspace 
• Empower your team by assigning specific roles 
• Stay consistent with style guidelines 
• Share and receive feedback across teams

If you're ready to give us a try, sign up for a free account. We recommend starting by browsing one of our professionally designed templates. With over 1400 to choose from, we are sure you'll find the perfect one for your next email campaign.

If you’ve done email marketing for any length of time, you’re probably familiar with the name HubSpot. Founded in 2006, HubSpot is famous for having a wide range of products that are used for marketing and sales. What you might not know is how to create email templates in HubSpot. And if you’re looking to save time while creating strong email marketing campaigns, HubSpot email marketing is an essential skill to develop.Today we’re walking you through how to use the BEE email editor for HubSpot email marketing. Read on to learn how to create your campaign step-by-step, following up on prospect actions with well-designed emails to make them want to learn more.

If you’re looking to save time while creating strong email marketing campaigns, HubSpot is a must-have choice for you.

How to create HTML email templates in HubSpot

If you have a BEE Team or Agency plan and at least a HubSpot Marketing Hub Professional subscription, it’s simple to use the BEE email editor with HubSpot to design your marketing emails. Connect your BEE and HubSpot accounts by going to “Settings” and “Connectors” in BEE Pro. Click “Connect” for HubSpot and then follow the prompts.

You can also export BEE email templates directly to your HubSpot account by clicking “Export message” and choosing HubSpot as the destination. The message will show up in the “My templates” section of your HubSpot account.Ready to get started with HubSpot email marketing? Here’s how to create email templates in HubSpot and use them for specific marketing scenarios.

If your customer asks for a password reset

Transactional emails have higher open rates and click-through rates than non-transactional emails. Take advantage of this valuable opportunity by creating a high-quality message anytime you send a transactional email. This Password Reset template by Jesus Albusac can be used for HubSpot email marketing anytime a customer requests a link to reset their password.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

If you’re having a sale

Create an email template in HubSpot to advertise your holiday discounts and promotions. This pastel Easter template designed by Kristina Bazaeva is a great way to share your products with customers.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

If someone makes an order

Send your customers a receipt via email with our Restaurant Order Receipt template created by Derek Brumby. Customize the template with your logo, images and other on-brand design elements. Then export the finished email to HubSpot. From there, you can set up the order receipt as an automated message that customers will receive upon making a purchase.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

How to create plain text emails with HubSpot

HTML email campaigns can have a lot of benefits for your business. But in some cases, plain text messages might be a better fit. A plain text email is appropriate to share more solemn or serious company news. It’s also normally the preferred email type when reaching out with cold emails. Best of all, plain text messages are fast and easy to design and send.Design your HubSpot cold email templates using the BEE email editor. We recently introduced a new feature that allows you to change the setting of your email, moving the text to the left so you’re building a plain text email.To utilize this feature, open your favorite HubSpot cold email template in the BEE editor (or start from scratch and build your own message). Click “Settings” and you’ll see an option labeled “Content area alignment.” Select “Left” to move the text of your template. Here’s what this feature looks like in practice (using the Personal Presentationtemplate designed by Andrea Dall'Ara):

Use the BEE email editor to support your HubSpot email marketing whether you’re sending HTML emails or a plain text message.

Wrap-up: Create email templates for HubSpot

Now you know how to create email templates in HubSpot and it’s time to start building your campaign! Check out our HubSpot email templates to start designing your message in the BEE editor. Then export the email to HubSpot to set up an automated campaign.

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You've spent a long time working on a beautiful email campaign. As a call to action in the email, you want to bring people to a landing page that provides more information or allows people to submit a form or fill out a survey. How can you do so quickly, without starting from scratch?

Go from an email to a landing page in seconds with Beefree

From the "email details" section, click on "Generate page" and transform it into a landing page, so you can leverage images, text, styles, and more, saving lots of time.

And you can also go the other way around, starting from a landing page, clicking on "Generate email," and creating an email from it, so you can quickly design an email marketing campaign to bring people to the landing page.

In both cases, Beefree helps you go faster and design a multi-content marketing campaign in no time. Watch the video for a quick intro to time-saving features, and then go try yourself by signing up for a free account.
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