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Tutorial: How to Add Anchor Links in Emails

Beefree team
Beefree team
May 22, 2020
Tutorial: How to Add Anchor Links in Emails
Tutorial: How to Add Anchor Links in Emails

Do you use HTML anchor links in your email campaigns? Anchor links in email are incredibly useful for newsletters that are long and content-rich. They give your subscribers a chance to quickly scroll down and directly skip to where they want to read. And when your emails are easier to navigate, your readers are more likely to stick around and take in the entire message. Let’s take a look at exactly how anchor links can help your marketing and what you need to do to use them.

Anchor links in email are incredibly useful for newsletters that are long and content-rich. They give your subscribers a chance to quickly scroll down and directly skip to where they want to read.

Why use anchor links in emails?

What exactly is an email anchor link? An anchor link is a hyperlink in an email. When that hyperlink is clicked, it takes you to another part of the email instead of opening a separate window. Anchor links are most helpful for long messages, which is why they’re generally used in email newsletters instead of sales emails.You might choose to include just a single anchor link, or add a full anchor menu in your email header. This menu acts like a table of contents so readers can see at a glance what’s included in the message.Anchor links are huge for your email UX (user experience). Keeping your email simple can capture a user’s attention. And adding an anchor menu is a great way to simplify your message.Here's a quick example from Mobile Marketing Watch, a company that adds anchor links at the top of their daily newsletter so readers can use a table of contents to quickly navigate to each section.

mobile marketing watch anchor links in email

The MintLife Blog also uses anchor links (the three bullet points at the top) in its email newsletter. Like Mobile Marketing Watch’s newsletter, this email is plain text. The anchor links are helpful since these messages don’t have any colorful HTML subheadings to aid in navigation. A plain text email can be difficult to scan — anchor links eliminate the problem and make navigating these emails a whole lot easier.

anchor link menu

How to create anchor links in an email

Good news! Adding an anchor link in your email campaign is easier than you might think. All you need is a basic know-how of the HTML link structure of your anchor links. As we'll see, an anchor link is made up of two parts: the URL link and the actual anchor tag that the link is "jumping" to in your email.Let's look at a specific newsletter example and show you how to replicate its anchor links using the BEE email editor. Follow along in this quick video recap or keep reading for a step-by-step tutorial:

Email anchor links example

We've always admired how anchor links were put to good use in Lenny Letter, a newsletter created by actor/director Lena Dunham and her best friend/director Jenni Konner. Lenny focused primarily on long-form content such as thought-provoking essays and stories, providing that content in the email itself. In this one, the header includes colorful anchor links to each corresponding story within the email. Here's how the links look across the top (starting with Jessica Grose and ending with Lena Dunham):

lenny header anchor links

Each color corresponds with the author's story. If a reader wants to read Kaitlyn Greenidge's story first, tapping her name (the orange anchor link) takes the reader directly to her story section (where the title, "I Love Betty," is also in orange). Click here to see the newsletter (trimmed because of its length).

Getting started

Now that you're familiar with the concept of anchor links in emails, let's walk you through how to add them in the BEE editor. Open up the free BEE email editor to follow along.

Step 1: Build the email

To start, we'll recreate the Lenny email in BEE. The header is simple: Using a basic one-column design, drag in the Lenny image and add the text (in Courier) beneath it. Next, drag in a four-column structure to arrange the top anchors.

lenny anchor links in email

Continue to add text and images to recreate the header, intro and first story.

lenny email

Afterformattingthe color of the text, get ready to add the links.

lenny anchor links in email

Step 2: Choose an anchor link name and its position

Now it's time to name and position the first anchor in the correct section of the email. For this step, we'll be using the custom HTML content block in BEE from the Content menu to add our anchor (think of it as a bookmark).

html block

Drag and drop the HTML block to where you want the link to "jump" down to. In this case, it's right above Grose's story, titled "Namaslay."

anchor links in email

This is how the HTML block looks onceit's in position but before we add code:

anchor links in email

To create the anchor, paste in one line of HTML code in the Content Properties field of the custom HTML block on the right:

<a name="grose"></a><br />

anchor link html example

The name in quotes ("grose") can be whatever you want. Just keep it simple and easy to remember — ideally one word — as this is the keyword you’ll use when linking to this anchor tag.

Step 3: Link the anchor

Now that the anchor's position has been specified, the text in the header needs to be linked to it. Simply select "Jessica Grose" and choose the Insert Link selection in the toolbar.

how to add an anchor link

In the menu, link to the anchor by entering #grose in the URL field.

Adding a link to an anchor in your email

For the link to work, it's important to include the hashtag (#) before the name and to make sure the name matches the one you chose earlier. The shorter and simpler the name, the easier it'll be to remember.Now you’ve created the two parts of your anchor links: the anchor text and the link pointing to it.Duplicate that HTML content block, then copy it and drag it to the next section. Update the name that’s within the quotes and link the text at the top to the new anchors you’ve created.

anchor links in email

Step #4: Send a test email to test the anchor links

send test email

Once you receive the email (BEE’s “Send test” feature lets you send a test email to yourself), click on the anchor links and watch the magic happen:

giphy anchor links in email

Voilà! If you’d like, you can add additional anchor links at the bottom of each section with text that says “Top of page” or something similar. This will let readers go back up to your anchor menu with a single click. But otherwise, your anchor links in email are ready to go.

Creating anchor links in email with BEE

Use the BEE email editor to create a table of contents with anchor links in your own emails. Our new Menu feature is the perfect way to add your links! With this feature, you can create an internal email menu that links to either internal or external links.Adding the menu is simple. Open up an email template in the BEE editor and drag a menu block onto the message. Click “Add new item” in the right-hand sidebar; this will allow you to add your text and then hyperlink that text with internal links. Set the link type when you add the URL’s.After you’ve set up your menu and added links, you can customize the layout and text of the menu to make it more visually appealing. You can also turn on the “Mobile menu” to access some additional design options. Mobile menus aren’t compatible with every email client. But for the clients that do support this option, this setting will optimize your menu for mobile viewing.BEE’s new Menu feature makes it easy and fast for you to create an anchor link menu for your email newsletters.

Email client support for anchor links

Anchor links are not supported by all email clients, so keep this in mind when deciding whether to add a table of contents to your newsletters. Here’s a quick report with some of the most popular email clients:Email clientSupport for anchor linksGmail (Web)YESGmail (Android app)YESInbox by Gmail (Android app)YESGmail (iOS app)NOApple Mail (iOS)NOYahoo! Mail (Web)YESOutlook.com (Web)YESOutlook (Android app)NOOutlook (desktop)YESOutlook for MACNOSamsung email app (Android)YESWindows Mail (Windows 10)YES(This table is based on our own data and data from Can I Email.)

Wrap-up: Using anchor links in email? Go Pro!

Email client support issues aside, adding anchor links to your email can be an effective and simple design tactic to help your subscribers read your content. Sign up for a BEE Pro free trial and follow the instructions in the workshop above to easily get this email marketing tactic down!Updated on July 21, 2020.

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Anchor Link in Email Cover

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4. Mobile-responsive designs out the box

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Read more about Folderly’s success story with Beefree here

How to Conduct a Robust Email Marketing Audit

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Email remains one of the most effective marketing channels around, but what do you do when your campaigns aren’t getting the desired results? If your click-through rates and conversions are languishing way below your targets, it may be time for an email marketing audit. 

Regular audits make sure every area of your email marketing is fine-tuned, whilst also keeping you compliant with data protection regulations. Keep reading for our tips on conducting a comprehensive audit that will get your email marketing in top-notch condition.

How to audit an email marketing program

There are many aspects that go into creating high-performing email marketing campaigns and an audit aims to address all of them. Here’s how to make yours as successful as possible. 

Preparing for the audit 

Before doing anything else, it’s best to decide what your goals are. Your priorities will likely be primarily performance-based but don’t forget about your data privacy responsibilities along the way. Adopting a risk management solution early on can help you monitor security and compliance, so you can efficiently find and address any vulnerabilities. 

This will give you peace of mind as you also work towards improving the results of your email campaigns. Whether it’s boosting engagement or improving conversion rates, having a clear idea of what you want to achieve will guide your efforts. 

For example, if your main goal is to improve customer retention, it’s a good idea to focus your email audit on metrics that reflect engagement over time. Another thing you want to organize before you get started is the right tools. Just as you need the right free proxy list for your IT department, you need to look at the tools that will best serve your email campaigns.

Start with your email service provider (ESP) dashboard to plan which metrics you want to look at. An email analytics platform is also an important tool to help you track your progress, ideally one that integrates with your SP, so you have everything in one place to assess progress and make informed decisions. 

Reviewing email content 

Take a good look at your email content. Does it reflect your brand voice? Is it consistent with your messaging across other platforms? If you think there is room for improvement, an AI email assistant can be a big help. 

Start with your subject lines and consider whether they are clear, inviting, and engaging. A subject line works best when it makes the recipient curious but also gives them a clue to what’s in the email. Look at the body of the emails next and assess whether there is continuity in style and tone across your communications. 

What’s more, is it in line with the goals of your campaign? You want the messaging to be engaging with relevant content. Plus, it’s advisable for every email to have a strong call to action (CTA) that will drive your email clicks, and make them enticing and actionable for the best results. 

Finally, take stock of the visual elements of your emails, are they adding value? Do they look good on all kinds of screen sizes? Getting the email design elements right will maintain a professional look and also help the engagement rates of your campaigns. 

Analyzing email metrics

Another important part of an email marketing audit is tracking the right metrics. They will give you the information you need to make changes and create a more effective email marketing strategy

  • Open rates: It’s good to get a clear idea of how many people are actually opening your emails. However, bear in mind that some privacy features, such as Apple’s Mail privacy Protection, can skew this data so it’s not always reliable on its own.
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  • Bounce rates and unsubscribe rates: A high bounce rate indicates deliverability problems, suggesting you may have a lot of invalid email addresses or potential email list management issues. Unsubscribe rates, on the other hand, will tell you whether your recipients are switching off from your content.  

A/B testing as an optimization tool

To really understand email performance metrics, A/B testing is required. It’s a valuable tool for achieving continuous improvement within lifecycle email marketing and will help you to understand what’s working (and what isn't) much quicker. 

For the best results, test one element at a time. That could be the subject line, the CTA, or even the time of day you send the email. Send two different versions to small segments of your email list and analyze the performance metrics to see which one does better. Going forward, you can keep the best elements of each test to optimize every email you send. 

Email list hygiene and segmentation 

Regular housekeeping of your subscriber list will keep it clean and make sure your emails are received by an engaged audience. A good starting point is to try re-engagement email campaigns to get inactive subscribers involved again. Still, it’s also wise to routinely identify and remove those who remain inactive after a reasonable attempt at re-engagement. 

You can also improve the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns through segmentation, which targets specific demographics or behaviors for a more personal approach. Use data from your CRM platform and CRM call center software to create more precise audience segments and tailor the content of your emails for the biggest impact.

It’s also vital to maintain compliance with regional data protection laws such as GDPR email marketing requirements by carefully managing consent and acting on unsubscribes efficiently, thereby safeguarding your brand reputation and the security of your data. 

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Building a future-ready strategy 

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10+ Years of Evolution in The Email Industry

Justine Jordan, Head of Strategy and Community at Beefree shares how she has seen the email industry evolve over the last 10+ years and her hopes for the future.
Justine Jordan
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Hi! In case we haven’t met before, I’m Justine Jordan, the Head of Strategy and Community here at Beefree. Over the past 16 years, I’ve worn many hats: designer, developer, marketer, community builder, and even the occasional cat GIF curator. I’ve been fortunate to build a career based on deep expertise in all things inbox, where I’ve seen firsthand the incredible potential of using email to connect people and businesses.

Way back in 2007, I fell into the email industry almost by accident. Fresh out of college, I started my career as a designer focused on creating print and brand assets. Frustrated by what felt like a lack of impact and respect in my design role, I wanted to be seen as someone who could help drive business success. Unlike brochures, email design offered instant feedback—opens, clicks, and conversions could tell a story.

I was hooked. And as the industry grew, so did my appreciation for email's ability to forge direct connections with people, right in their inboxes.

And yet, we all know that 16 years in any field (especially email!) is a long time. Email today is vastly different from the scrappy marketing channel I stumbled upon in 2007—even though its core mission remains the same: building meaningful, personal connections that drive business results. So, let’s dive into the fascinating, often underappreciated evolution of email and explore why it remains as relevant and impactful as ever.

A decade of opportunities and challenges

Personalization and the journey to hyper-relevance

When I started, email was largely one-size-fits-all. Campaigns were often “send and pray” or involved very simple or binary yes/no personalization. 

Today, personalization has evolved beyond first names in subject lines to sophisticated, data-driven approaches. Marketing teams can now leverage insights from browsing behavior, purchase history, and even real-time data, adapting dynamically to each recipient’s preferences and past interactions. This technology is still advancing rapidly—it’s hard to believe that it was barely possible two decades ago. 

Rendering issues

In the past, we’d spend hours making sure emails looked as good in Outlook as they did in Gmail—and, going further back, in Lotus Notes! The visual building tools in most ESPs were buggy and produced bloated HTML that was ready for the web, but didn’t meet the unique constraints of email.

Fast forward to today, and while rendering challenges haven’t disappeared entirely, they’re far less consuming. Gmail's support for embedded CSS was a game changer, signaling an era where our designs could focus more on creativity and less on workarounds.

Rendering tools made this process easier, and drag-and-drop editors like Beefree produce clean, email-friendly HTML. What once required hours of coding and testing now takes minutes, freeing email marketers to focus on crafting their messages instead of debugging their code​​. 

Mobile-first and responsive design

Mobile-optimized email design used to be a “nice to have,” but today, it's essential. 

Brands must deliver a seamless experience across a wide range of devices and subscriber preferences​. This shift required us to think beyond just fitting content on smaller screens; it required a rethinking of layout, typography, and hierarchy. Today, it's about more than just looking good on mobile—it's about providing immediate, relevant, and accessible information.

Interactive and accessible emails

Today’s email campaigns go beyond static images and blocks of text. Interactivity, whether through embedded videos, polls, or even checkout functionality within the email, is changing the game. We’re offering richer experiences that invite users to engage directly within their inboxes​. 

At the same time, accessibility has become a critical consideration. Making sure that everyone can receive and understand your message, regardless of any disabilities or assistive devices they may be using isn’t just good practice, it's an industry standard.

Privacy, authentication, and the role of trust

Over the past decade, privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA along with authentication requirements from major receivers like Gmail and Yahoo have reshaped how people view the inbox and their relationship with brands that send email. 

While the introduction of these new regulations initially posed considerable questions, confusion, and challenges, they also served as a valuable reminder that great marketing starts with trust, transparency, and consent. This shift encouraged brands to communicate with audiences in a more transparent, respectful way, reinforcing the idea that consumers own their data.

Email’s place in the C-Suite

Email marketing has always had champions, though convincing executives of its strategic value hasn’t always been easy. Over time, email advocates—often the Email Geeks among us—have successfully positioned email not as a tool for increased revenue but as a trusted channel for delivering essential information and building long-term relationships​. Today, email is often recognized as a valuable asset in C-suite conversations about customer experience, retention, and ROI.

The power of community

The email industry has grown from a niche group into a thriving community that shares, supports, and learns from one another. I’ve had the privilege of being part of a community that openly shares best practices and fosters innovation. 

Events like Unspam, Email Camp, and Litmus Live highlight just how much email professionals have pushed boundaries over the past decade​. This spirit of collaboration keeps the industry strong and forward-looking.

My #1 Lesson: Put People First

If there’s one lesson I’ve learned, it’s this: email should serve the audience, not just the business. 

Reaching people in their inbox is a privilege, not a right. Too many brands treat email like an ATM, pumping out sales and promotions without considering the impact on loyalty, retention, or the user experience. Yet the companies that treated their emails as conversations rather than megaphones? They’re the ones that thrived.

Email is unique because it arrives in a personal space (the inbox) where people are expecting personal messages and relevance. It’s an honor to land in someone’s inbox, so the content should meet that privilege with empathy and value. 

Some of my favorite brands—like Going—understand this: they craft emails that feel like they are speaking directly to me—thoughtful, helpful, and human​​. That’s the level of care that builds trust and loyalty. 

Advice for the future: Embrace empathy and experiment

Reflecting on the past decade in email marketing feels like watching an old friend evolve. I've seen firsthand how a channel that is frequently sidelined and declared “dead” has become a pivotal player helping businesses grow and connect with their audience. 

With each email renaissance comes new trends, innovations, preferences, and technology. 

Every few years, email redefines its role in our lives as marketers, business leaders, and as humans. Email's journey has been one of resilience, adapting to new trends, regulations, and consumer expectations while remaining at the heart of customer engagement. 

For anyone starting off in email, my biggest advice is always keep your audience at the heart of your campaigns. Email marketing is both art and science, and finding that balance is what makes this industry so rewarding. 

Don’t be afraid to test your ideas—measure, refine, and get creative with how you deliver value. But always remember, the inbox is personal territory. If you respect that space, you’ll have a powerful, lasting connection with your audience.

I’d also suggest building a solid understanding of the complexity behind email—learn the basics of deliverability, the role of email in multi-channel lifecycle and marketing campaigns, connecting data and APIs, multivariate testing, and stay current with the latest tools and platforms. 

With AI, privacy regulations, and rising consumer expectations, we’re bound to see even more shifts in how we approach email. Knowing how these elements work under the hood will only make you a more effective, innovative marketer. 

But one thing remains: the need to make email human-centric. This will mean staying adaptable and continuing to create value-driven content that aligns with the subscriber's needs. Far from dead, the real magic of email is the central role it plays in our lives—and it’s not going anywhere. Here’s to another decade of email evolution 🙌

5 Reasons Why HubSpot Users Love Beefree

HubSpot’s design tools can sometimes feel restrictive for marketers looking to create distinctive branding or highly customized designs. This is where Beefree comes in.
Shaun Quarton
Shaun Quarton
5 Dec
2024

HubSpot is one of the world’s leading CRMs, seamlessly merging sales, marketing, and customer service into a single, powerful dashboard. With tools for email marketing, lead generation, and landing page creation, HubSpot enables you to connect with customers more effectively and drive meaningful results.

However, HubSpot’s design tools can sometimes feel restrictive for marketers looking to create distinctive branding or highly customized designs.

This is where Beefree comes in—the ideal solution for HubSpot users looking to flex their creative chops in designing emails and landing pages. With drag-and-drop editing, advanced customization options, and an extensive template library, Beefree makes it easy to capture your brand’s identity and stand out in today’s crowded market.

https://uevi.co/7371IQEF 

1. 1,700+ free customizable email and page templates

HubSpot’s templates work for simple designs, but users often describe them as “bland” or “limiting.” 

Beefree users are spoiled for choice with over 1,700 free customizable templates that go far beyond HubSpot’s basic designs. These templates serve as the perfect starting point for building impactful campaigns.

Beefree’s intuitive design tools let you tweak the template in real time, making it easy to produce professional-quality creations that perfectly reflect your brand’s identity—no design experience required. These pre-built layouts are major time-savers, too, with 82% of users reporting faster email creation using Beefree.

https://uevi.co/7371IQEF

2. Advanced design elements for true creative freedom

Customization can be a challenge for many HubSpot users; for instance, some report that it’s “impossible” to create a table without coding the design yourself. Unfortunately, not every user has the technical skills—not to mention the time—to perfect their emails with HubSpot alone. 

Beefree elevates your designs with an extensive collection of creative elements, all easily customizable using its powerful editor.

Some of these elements, like rounded corners and unlimited columns, aren’t available in HubSpot. Others, like creating a table to present data in a clean and organized way, are far easier to build in Beefree.

These creative elements make it that much easier to showcase your brand identity, communicate your message effectively, and design beautiful, original campaigns. They help you move beyond cookie-cutter designs and deliver something truly unique.

Remember: Eye-catching emails grab your audience’s attention instantly, helping your message stand out in crowded inboxes while staying true to your brand.

https://uevi.co/9986ULYW

3. Reusable content blocks for always-on-brand campaigns

Beefree’s reusable content blocks make it simple to maintain consistency across all your campaigns.

Simply save your branded elements—headers, footers, logos, and CTA buttons—once, then re-use them in future designs with a single click of a button.

This convenient feature helps HubSpot users streamline their workflow by eliminating repetitive design tasks — potentially saving you hours per campaign. 

https://uevi.co/1491YKUH 

4. Mobile-responsive designs out the box

Beefree’s editor includes built-in mobile responsiveness, which means your emails and landing pages automatically adjust to any screen size with no extra effort. This ensures your campaigns look great on every device, from desktops to smartphones.

For even greater control, Beefree supports mobile design mode, enabling HubSpot users to fine-tune your designs for smaller screens. Simply select the device size you’re optimizing for and make adjustments using the intuitive visual editor.

This allows you to deliver a tailored, on-brand experience, no matter how your audience views your content.

https://uevi.co/4690JNKE 

5. Easy integration

Whether you're crafting unique branded elements or designing dynamic content, Beefree gives you the tools to create campaigns that align perfectly with your brand vision. Best of all, integrating HubSpot with Beefree takes just seconds. 

Beefree and HubSpot: A match made in email heaven

Integrating Beefree with HubSpot offers a powerful solution for marketers looking to elevate their email campaigns. HubSpot provides the engine for powering your marketing, while Beefree boosts the creative aspect, letting you bring your brand vision to life with ease.

For example, one of Beefree’s customers, Folderly—an all-in-one email deliverability platform—experienced significant improvements by combining HubSpot and Beefree. 

By designing emails in Beefree and sending them using HubSpot, Folderly streamlined their workflow, reducing campaign creation time from days to hours. This efficiency freed the team to focus on other key tasks, while maintaining high-quality, on-brand designs.

This integration not only sped up their processes but also boosted open rates by 15%, demonstrating the effectiveness of combining Beefree's advanced design tools with HubSpot's marketing automation.

“With Beefree, we can create beautiful designs and quickly integrate them into our workflows. By connecting our HubSpot account to Beefree, we can easily transfer the email designs to HubSpot, making the entire process highly efficient and smooth.”

- Kate Lavrenchuk, Marketing Lead at Folderly

Read more about Folderly’s success story with Beefree here

How to Conduct a Robust Email Marketing Audit

An email audit is a health check of every aspect of your email marketing campaigns. It means analyzing your current efforts to identify areas for improvement. Here's how to conduct a robust email audit.
Beefree team
Beefree team
27 Nov
2024

Email remains one of the most effective marketing channels around, but what do you do when your campaigns aren’t getting the desired results? If your click-through rates and conversions are languishing way below your targets, it may be time for an email marketing audit. 

Regular audits make sure every area of your email marketing is fine-tuned, whilst also keeping you compliant with data protection regulations. Keep reading for our tips on conducting a comprehensive audit that will get your email marketing in top-notch condition.

How to audit an email marketing program

There are many aspects that go into creating high-performing email marketing campaigns and an audit aims to address all of them. Here’s how to make yours as successful as possible. 

Preparing for the audit 

Before doing anything else, it’s best to decide what your goals are. Your priorities will likely be primarily performance-based but don’t forget about your data privacy responsibilities along the way. Adopting a risk management solution early on can help you monitor security and compliance, so you can efficiently find and address any vulnerabilities. 

This will give you peace of mind as you also work towards improving the results of your email campaigns. Whether it’s boosting engagement or improving conversion rates, having a clear idea of what you want to achieve will guide your efforts. 

For example, if your main goal is to improve customer retention, it’s a good idea to focus your email audit on metrics that reflect engagement over time. Another thing you want to organize before you get started is the right tools. Just as you need the right free proxy list for your IT department, you need to look at the tools that will best serve your email campaigns.

Start with your email service provider (ESP) dashboard to plan which metrics you want to look at. An email analytics platform is also an important tool to help you track your progress, ideally one that integrates with your SP, so you have everything in one place to assess progress and make informed decisions. 

Reviewing email content 

Take a good look at your email content. Does it reflect your brand voice? Is it consistent with your messaging across other platforms? If you think there is room for improvement, an AI email assistant can be a big help. 

Start with your subject lines and consider whether they are clear, inviting, and engaging. A subject line works best when it makes the recipient curious but also gives them a clue to what’s in the email. Look at the body of the emails next and assess whether there is continuity in style and tone across your communications. 

What’s more, is it in line with the goals of your campaign? You want the messaging to be engaging with relevant content. Plus, it’s advisable for every email to have a strong call to action (CTA) that will drive your email clicks, and make them enticing and actionable for the best results. 

Finally, take stock of the visual elements of your emails, are they adding value? Do they look good on all kinds of screen sizes? Getting the email design elements right will maintain a professional look and also help the engagement rates of your campaigns. 

Analyzing email metrics

Another important part of an email marketing audit is tracking the right metrics. They will give you the information you need to make changes and create a more effective email marketing strategy

  • Open rates: It’s good to get a clear idea of how many people are actually opening your emails. However, bear in mind that some privacy features, such as Apple’s Mail privacy Protection, can skew this data so it’s not always reliable on its own.
  • Click-Through Rates (CTR): If your recipients actually open your emails, how many then take action? Your CTR will show you how good your email engagement is and tell you how well your content is working.
  • Bounce rates and unsubscribe rates: A high bounce rate indicates deliverability problems, suggesting you may have a lot of invalid email addresses or potential email list management issues. Unsubscribe rates, on the other hand, will tell you whether your recipients are switching off from your content.  

A/B testing as an optimization tool

To really understand email performance metrics, A/B testing is required. It’s a valuable tool for achieving continuous improvement within lifecycle email marketing and will help you to understand what’s working (and what isn't) much quicker. 

For the best results, test one element at a time. That could be the subject line, the CTA, or even the time of day you send the email. Send two different versions to small segments of your email list and analyze the performance metrics to see which one does better. Going forward, you can keep the best elements of each test to optimize every email you send. 

Email list hygiene and segmentation 

Regular housekeeping of your subscriber list will keep it clean and make sure your emails are received by an engaged audience. A good starting point is to try re-engagement email campaigns to get inactive subscribers involved again. Still, it’s also wise to routinely identify and remove those who remain inactive after a reasonable attempt at re-engagement. 

You can also improve the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns through segmentation, which targets specific demographics or behaviors for a more personal approach. Use data from your CRM platform and CRM call center software to create more precise audience segments and tailor the content of your emails for the biggest impact.

It’s also vital to maintain compliance with regional data protection laws such as GDPR email marketing requirements by carefully managing consent and acting on unsubscribes efficiently, thereby safeguarding your brand reputation and the security of your data. 

Email deliverability and technical settings

Technical configurations are responsible for getting your emails into recipients’ inboxes. Email authentication protocols such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC verify them and prevent them from ending up in a spam folder. 

Keep reviewing email frequency and send times too, as sending them at the wrong time can harm engagement and present issues with deliverability. Additionally, keep up to date with email practices to avoid spam traps and protect your reputation. 

If you’re handling sensitive customer data, getting your infrastructure in line with SOC 2 audit requirements will make sure that your email system is in full compliance with security and privacy standards. You can then be confident that your customer's data will be kept safe and their trust maintained.

Building a future-ready strategy 

A successful email marketing audit will give you the knowledge to develop a strategy to scale and continuously improve in the future. You might identify opportunities to automate repetitive tasks to improve the consistency of service and save time. 

Another way to improve your campaigns is a content calendar, which will keep you on track with your goals and important events. You might also consider integrating your email with other channels, such as SMS marketing, to create continuity in omnichannel communication

Remember, if you do incorporate SMS marketing, TCPA compliance is essential. It regulates how and when you can send marketing messages to customers. This is important from a legal standpoint, but will also make sure you don’t damage the trust your customers have shown in you by sharing their contact details. 

Your first steps towards a better email strategy 

An email audit is a health check of every aspect of your email marketing campaigns. It means taking the time to analyze what you’re doing currently so you can work out where you’re most in need of improvement. The result is a detailed picture that allows you to take action and optimize your email marketing efforts for better engagement, clicks, and conversion rates.

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