Creating effective and engaging emails is essential for any business looking to grow and engage with their audience. However, the email creation process can be time-consuming and overwhelming, especially for teams with limited resources.In fact, according to Litmus, it can take teams over 2 weeks to complete a single email. We asked 5 industry professionals across different industries to explore the challenges that teams face when streamlining their email creation process and share tips on how to overcome them. From using email automation and collaborative tools to setting aside time for revisions and defining guidelines and roles, these tips can help you streamline your team's email creation process and achieve your marketing goals.
1. Use Email Automation
This is the most obvious, yet forgotten, form of streamlining your email creation process. Email automation is the act of creating triggers that starts an email sequence, typically unique to the specific action your audience takes.A common email automation you might be familiar with is the series of emails you receive after making a purchase or leaving something in your cart. These can be categorized as welcome or abandoned cart emails. These series are created in order to inspire you to take action and make a purchase (or come back for another purchase).Paul Somerville, Editor-in-Chief, of Electric Scooter Guide, shares that he even uses email automation to “monitoring of performance indicators like open rates and click-through rates to enhance upcoming email campaigns.”In simpler words, the entire goal of email marketing is to deliver the right message, to the right audience, at the right time – email automation makes that happen, all while freeing up your team to work on other important tasks.Janice Wald, Blogger, at Mostly Blogging, shares with us how his team uses automation.“Our team uses automation for email streamlining. We do all the heavy lifting before starting email campaigns.First, we choose the template and sign-up form. We place the sign-up form in visible spots on our website homepage and in our web content.Next, we select the time we want newly published content to go out, and we operate on autopilot. Our email vendor sends our emails to our list members on the selected day and time after publication.Most email services have this automation feature.This streamlines our email creation process and has for years.”
2. Take Advantage of Collaborative Email Tools
You’ve heard us say this a million times, but finding collaborative tools really is where it's at ;)The most effective email collaboration tools should be user-friendly so that everyone on your team can effortlessly integrate them into their everyday.The collaboration tool should also allow you to establish clear brand guidelines so that every outgoing message is on brand; as well as, allow you to minimize the number of tools you’re using on an everyday basis.Jamie Irwin, Director, at Straight Up Search, shares that “collaborative tools allow multiple team members to work together on specific projects or tasks in real-time. This could include assigning roles, sharing documents and files, and providing feedback.Utilizing such tools can help streamline the communication process and ensure that all team members are up-to-date on the progress of the project.These tools also provide an effective way to track changes in emails and who is working on what so that everyone stays organized and informed without wasting time searching for information or trying to keep track of who said what and when.Collaborative tools reduce manual labor in email creation by automating certain processes, such as adding signatures or inserting predefined templates into emails.”Read more: 7 Tips For Collaborating on Email Campaigns With A Remote Team.
3. Set Aside Time for Revisions
An underrated tip is creating time with your team to review email content together.Dakota McDaniels, Chief Product Officer, Pluto shares that “whether you're writing from scratch, using email templates, or designing from modules, you will more than likely have to make some revisions, even if only minor ones.Be sure to schedule time dedicated to this so they don't put your team behind schedule.Depending on the nature of the necessary revisions, this could require a substantial amount of time and effort. You'll want to ensure that you set aside an adequate amount of time to perfect your messaging.”We recommend making sure that your collaboration tool is one that makes the revision process as streamlined as possible. For instance, BEE Pro Enterprisehelps get the job done faster by allowing you and your team to leave design-specific comments and design simultaneously.
4. Clearly Define Guidelines and Email Templates
Paul Somerville, Editor-in-Chief, of Electric Scooter Guide, states that “setting up strict guidelines and templates for email content and style is one way to streamline the email creation process within a team.This process helps reduce the need to start from scratch with each email. As well as, helps ensure consistency in messaging and branding while also saving time.Standard components, including the welcome, introduction, body, call to action, and signature, should be included in the standards and templates. Avoiding superfluous jargon or lengthy sentences, the language should be simple and direct.”We couldn’t have said it better than this.Read: Why Every Team Needs An Email Design System.
5. Assign Clear and Specific Roles and Responsibilities
This is a great tip shared by Joe Flanagan, Founder of 90s Fashion World. He states to “clearly define roles and responsibilities for each team member involved in the email creation process. This is important so that everyone knows what they handle, their expected outcomes, and when their work is due.”He continues, “there should also be clear communication channels that facilitate effective collaboration and communication across the entire team. This helps ensure that everyone is aligned on the goals of the email campaign and that the final product meets the needs of the business.”Take it one step further and follow the advice of James Nathan, Founder of Market Jar, “assign one point person who should be informed of all communication pertinent to that specific project or job is helpful, especially when several people are working on it.”
Streamline Your Email Creation Process With BEE Pro
82% of BEE Pro users see improved speed when creating emails. As a fully remote team, collaboration and streamlining your team's process is what we're good at. After all, it's why we exist.
We know there are more important tasks at hand. That's why it is our goal to make everything from copy to design, to reviewing and exporting effortless. Our new and improved "Review for Approval" workflow allows BEE Pro Enterprise teams to streamline your email creation and collaboration all inside our tool. The flow automatically begins when you send a request for approval and guides your team toward an on-brand and approved design.
Say goodbye to stress because your team's email creation process just got a whole lot faster. Give BEE Pro a try for free.