Beefree blog

19 Must-Know Resources for Email Designers

Beefree team
Beefree team
Oct 17, 2017
19 Must-Know Resources for Email Designers
19 Must-Know Resources for Email Designers

Hey designers! The BEE team is heading to this year's Adobe Max conference, so we've definitely been thinking about all the different resources for email designers.We all know the internet can be a little... overwhelming, especially when you're on your own as a freelance or contract designer.It's time-consuming to track down what you needwhen you need them to work quickly and efficiently. That's why we've rounded up some of our favorite resources for email designers to help with collaboration, organization, and inspiration. Use these tools to work better, and let us know which ones you can't live without so we can add them to the list!Tools To:Work Smarter | Work Together | Work Faster | Think Bigger

Resources for Email Designers

Image by Raw Pixel via Unsplash

Work smarter.

Keep your design knowledge and skills sharp by tapping into great resource aggregators: email design blogs. These blogs cover all things email design and routinely put out inspiring, useful content. Of course, the blog you're reading right now, our very own Email Design Workshop, is intended to be a place where you can get inspired and learn how to build better emails. We're grateful to have you as a reader. Here are some of our other favorite resources for excellent email design content.

#1. Really Good Emails

The name says it all. Really Good Emails is a go-to resource for finding hundreds of inspiring emails all in one place (though Pinterest is great too). Created by MailChimp, the archive is searchable by keyword and category. Plus, the blog also has a resources sectionwith posts on email marketing and design. We're fans of the RGE newsletter, too.

#2. FreshInbox

FreshInbox creator Justin Khoo says he created the FreshInbox blog when he realized that "email is finally growing up and is starting to adopt cooler new capabilities such as media queries and interactivity." The FreshInbox blog is where he writes about just that. With posts going back to 2013, the blog has tons of in-depth goodies for email geeks, from responsive roll-over images to CSS animations. It's a must-read.

#3. The Better Email

Litmus project manager Jason Rodriguez is the mastermind behind the Better Email, a blog and resource destination for email designers.Rodriguez's resource list includes a treasure trove of links to email design tools, courses, blogs, and more.

#4. Litmus

There's no question Litmus is an email industry giant. From theLitmus Live conferences to webinars to the blog, Litmus is a valuable place to keep up with the latest in email.

#5. Emma

The Emma blog is a great place to find email marketing tips and strategies, plus plenty of fun email examples to draw inspiration from.

Work together.

When it comes to pulling off a great email marketing campaign, collaboration is critical. Designers need to coordinate with developers, project managers, art directors, clients, and others. There's a lot to juggle—which means it's super important to be organized and to communicate well. Here are a few of our favorite resources for staying on top of project coordination and communication.

#6. Trello

Trello is a free and easy way to keep track of what you're working on. Designers can use it to prioritize to-do’s, set due dates, and manage their workflow. Plus, you can collaborate with others and do everything you need to on the move with the mobile app.

#7. Google Drive

If you or anyone you know uses Gmail, chances are, you also use Google Drive. It's an incredibly easy, intuitive place to create, share, and store docs, spreadsheets, presentations, and more. (We personally love the ability to create in-email surveys). It's a powerful resource for storage, creation, and collaboration.

#8. Slack

Slack seems to be everyone's favorite communication tool. It's free and intuitive to use. Plus, it integrates well with Trello and Google Drive, giving you a powerful combo of team organization and communication.

#9. Workfront

Agencies and enterprises often opt for a robust cloud-based project management tool that can be used across teams—like Workfront. The tool helps teams collaborate and work better with visual calendars, custom dashboards, and time-tracking features.

Work faster.

What about the tools to help you work faster and better when it comes to actually making good design? We've got a few ideas. If you missed our previous post,21 Email Design Tools to Transform Your Emails, here's a quick roundup:

#10. Font, icon, and stock photo tools

#11. Photo editing tools

#12. GIF and meme tools

#13. Prototyping and video tools

#14. Chart, graph, and survey tools

Plus, here are a few apps designers told us they liked: Sketch(a design toolkit) and Coda (HTML Editor). And there's even more at DesignResources.Party.

Think bigger.

The design industry is huge and amorphous, with email design occupying one particular niche. There's a lot going on. Occasionally—or regularly, depending on your preference—email designers need to tap into the bigger picture for perspective and inspiration. We do that by listening to great voices in the design industry on a few fantastic platforms, including:

#15. AIGA

Conferences, job boards, conversation, meet-ups—when it comes to design thought leadership, AIGA has it all. After all, it has earned the claim of being the oldest and largest professional membership organization for design.

#16. HeyDesigner

HeyDesigner has hundreds of posts and resources on everything from typography to mood boarding to product design and beyond. You can opt to receive their newsletter on a daily or weekly basis to keep your finger on the pulse of all things design.

#17. Skillshare

Need to brush up on your design skills? Sometimes a YouTube tutorial just won't cut it. Skillshare offers a huge selection of classes you can take from home at your convenience—including design courses aplenty.

#18. Adobe

No designer can do his or her job without coming into contact with an Adobe product, from Photoshop to InDesign to Spark and more. You can find tutorials, guides, and instructions for any of their products on the site, plus a wealth of info on their digital marketing blog.

#19. Dribbble

Dribbble is "show and tell" for designers. But it's more than a website: don't miss design expertise extolled via its podcast, blog, or in meetups.

Share your go-to resources for email designers

The design universe certainly stretches to the far reaches of the internet, but we hope this is a valuable starting point for your must-have email design resources. Let us know your favorite resources in the comments!

Email strategies you’ve likely heard of but haven’t implemented yet

While email marketing has come a long way and is changing faster than ever, there’s only so much you can do within 600x1,500 pixels. However, there are no limits to where your creativity can take you. 
Kruti Shah
Feb 5, 2025

How to Leverage Email Campaigns to Gather Sincere Product Reviews

What do customers think about your brand’s products? The best way to find out is to ask them directly, which you can do via strategic email campaigns. Keep reading to learn how!
Beefree team
Jan 22, 2025

How Beefree is Helping Email Makers Scale Their Production

2024 was a banner year for email markers everywhere. From sleek newsletters to interactive promos, you flexed your creative muscle to new heights and did it with a level of speed and efficiency that made crafting award-worthy emails look easy. Let’s dive into the numbers, trends, and stories that made this year unforgettable for email makers like you.
Beefree team
Jan 6, 2025

Email strategies you’ve likely heard of but haven’t implemented yet

While email marketing has come a long way and is changing faster than ever, there’s only so much you can do within 600x1,500 pixels. However, there are no limits to where your creativity can take you. 
Kruti Shah
Kruti Shah
5 Feb
2025

Now, let's be honest—you’ve likely heard about all of these rotating for the last few years. While email marketing has come a long way and is changing faster than ever, there’s only so much you can do within 600x1,500 pixels. However, there are no limits to where your creativity can take you. 

Let’s get into it.  

#1. Unique, tailored experiences 

Damian Grabarczyk, the co-founder and growth marketer of PetLab Co., says, “We faced the challenge of connecting meaningfully with an audience that expects more than one-size-fits-all communication.” 

When we speak about crafting tailored emails we mean going beyond the recipient's first name in the subject line. We’re talking about optimizing your entire email strategy to design multi-stage touchpoints to nurture leads across the customer lifecycle. As well as, leveraging data to send hyper-personalized, relevant, and engaging emails that feel less like a broadcast message and more like a conversation. 

Many are using AI machine learning algorithms and AI automation to analyze customer interactions, past purchases, browsing habits, website visits, and even social media behavior to curate engaging email content that resonates deeply with the real-time needs of recipients.

For PetLab Co this looked like including content such as an individual’s pet health history or product usage timelines. Damian Grabarzyk expands, “This approach transformed the conversion rate and strengthened customer loyalty. As we look ahead, I see brands in 2025 moving beyond generic personalization to adopt strategies that make customers feel truly understood and valued.”

On the other hand, many are leaning into user-generated content (UGC) for crafting tailored experiences. Customers today are more likely to trust the opinions of peers over branded messages. UGC like customer reviews, testimonials, videos, and photos are the best form of social proof depicting real people using and benefitting from your products or services. 

We see the benefits of using both AI and UGC to get the most out of your email conversions ;). 

#2. AI tools as an addition, not a substitution

Experts at NordPass state, "AI-powered content generation tools are not here to replace email copywriters and marketers. These tools make us more efficient. The smarter the tool is, the better equipped we are to create high-performing email content that drives results." 

AI tools can support us by significantly enhancing the speed, precision, and effectiveness of your emails. For instance while traditionally A/B testing has required a lot of time to analyze small variations with AI you quickly implement and test multiple email elements and make adjustments based on real-time engagement data. There are AI algorithms that can even predict which variations are most likely to resonate with different audience segments, leading to more accurate targeting and faster optimization.

In short, AI tools are revolutionizing the way we craft and optimize our email’s deliverability. There are many different types of AI solutions so we suggest finding the right one for your needs. 

#3. Even more transparency around data

With AI continuing to rise, folks are more and more concerned about where their data is going. That’s where zero-party data collection becomes a key strategy in email marketing, allowing you to gather data directly from customers rather than relying on third-party sources. 

Zero-party data includes information that consumers willingly share, such as preferences, interests, and purchase intentions. This data is often collected through surveys, preference centers, quizzes, or interactive content and is highly valuable because it is shared explicitly, ensuring accuracy and deeper personalization without privacy concerns associated with third-party tracking.

As privacy regulations tighten, zero-party data will empower you to deliver hyper-personalized email experiences while respecting user privacy. This approach will help you build trust, as customers feel more in control of their data, and you gain insights that lead to more relevant and engaging email content.

#4. The death of static emails

With attention span getting shorter day after day, digest-format emails are expected to rise in popularity in 2025. Presenting email content in an easy-to-scan, organized, and minimalistic layout will surely help deliver the most relevant information in a fraction of the time. 

Additionally, interactive emails will allow recipients to directly engage within the email without having to visit a landing page or website. Interactive elements like product carousels, polls, and quizzes create a dynamic experience that keeps subscribers engaged, especially in visually driven industries like fashion brands

So what now? 

You’ve heard these strategies before, but now it’s time to actually put them into action. The brands that win at email marketing in 2025 won’t just be sending emails—they’ll be creating experiences. Whether it’s hyper-personalized content, AI-driven efficiency, zero-party data collection, or interactive emails that break the mold, the key is to stay ahead of the curve.

So, what’s the first strategy you’ll finally implement? Your inbox (and your audience) are waiting.

How to Leverage Email Campaigns to Gather Sincere Product Reviews

What do customers think about your brand’s products? The best way to find out is to ask them directly, which you can do via strategic email campaigns. Keep reading to learn how!
Beefree team
Beefree team
22 Jan
2025

What do customers think about your brand’s products? The best way to find out is to ask them directly, which you can do via strategic email campaigns.

Email makes gathering authentic product reviews quick and easy. By collecting sincere feedback, you can build trust, increase sales, boost loyalty, and innovate product improvements. 

That said, requesting reviews via email requires precise timing, personalized messaging, and lots of engagement optimizations. But don’t worry—we’ll walk you through some key steps to create email campaigns that deliver the valuable feedback you need.

Why product reviews matter

Product reviews do more than confirm that you're meeting customers’ needs. Sincere feedback drives loyalty and sales, offers valuable customer insights, and helps you develop a strategic product development roadmap.

  • Fosters customer loyalty: Requesting and listening to feedback makes your customers feel valued and heard. It demonstrates that you prioritize customer satisfaction, which helps you build stronger, long-term relationships. Review requests also act as re-engagement emails by starting new conversations with customers.
  • Increases sales: Social proof drives sales. According to a recent survey by Power Reviews, 90% of potential customers use online reviews to make purchasing decisions. In fact, reviews have more influence over purchasing decisions than product prices. Turning product reviews into customer testimonials and encouraging reviews on third-party sites can significantly boost sales.
Image sourced from powerreviews.com
  • Builds Customer 360 insights: Customer feedback delivers insights into customer needs and sentiments, enriching Customer 360. Exactly what is Customer 360? It’s a unified, 360-degree view of customer data. It empowers you to tailor products and customer experiences to meet individual needs and preferences. 
  • Drives product improvements: Sincere customer feedback reveals what target customers like/dislike about your products. It provides key insight into their value, functionality, and usability, unlocking large-scale development opportunities.

How to create an email campaign to collect product reviews

Want to unlock the power of product reviews? Let’s explore how to create email campaigns that encourage customers to share their feedback.

Segment your audience

Like promotional emails, product review requests shouldn’t be sent to every subscriber.

If subscribers haven’t had the chance to try your product, product review requests will feel irrelevant and may trigger unsubscriptions. So, only send review email requests to customers recently trying your product.

You can do this by segmenting your email list based on where customers are in the buying cycle. Target loyal customers, recent purchasers, and first-time buyers with tailored email campaigns. This ensures that you’re sending emails to customers most likely to respond with insightful feedback.

Write a compelling email subject line

According to Superoffice, 33% of people open an email based on the subject line. 

Image sourced from superoffice.com

To get the click-through rates you want, your email subject lines should be personalized, relevant, and engaging. Here are some examples:

  • Did you love [product]? Or hate it? Let us know!
  • We value your opinion — help us improve!
  • We want YOU to help us make our product better!
  • Up for a discount? Share your feedback for 10% off! 

Learn more > Tips for writing open worthy subject lines.

Optimize for customer engagement

A successful email marketing strategy relies on customer engagement. Here are some key email elements you need to encourage interactions.

  • An attractive email design: With the right layout, color scheme, typography, and images, you ensure easy readability and promote interaction. Use these engagement-boosting email design best practices to help you create a design that boosts conversion rates.
  • Gratitude and value: Thank customers for reading the email and explaining why their feedback is so important. Also, consider including a personalized Gmail email signature with your content details to build trust and encourage customers to engage with your review request. 
  • Personalized, relevant content: Personalized email content motivates engagement. Use customer data platform (CDP) data to tailor messages to individual customers. What is a CDP? It’s a centralized platform that collects and unifies customer information, building comprehensive customer profiles. 
  • Incentives: Offering a small discount can motivate customers to leave reviews, especially first-time buyers. That said, incentives can (sometimes) generate insincere reviews, so stress the importance of honesty. 
  • A strong call-to-action (CTA): Your CTA should direct readers straight to the reviews submission page. Use clear CTAs with bold buttons and typography to make it stand out.
  • Mobile responsiveness: If your emails are slow to load or don’t display correctly on mobile devices, your bounce rate will spike. Leverage solutions that offer advanced mobile optimization features — such as Beefree— to create responsive emails every single time.

Ask specific, concise questions

Complex, drawn-out questions that are too open-ended can disengage customers. So, get straight to the point with concise, direct questions. Here are some examples:

  • What did you think of [specific product feature]?
  • How often do you use our product?
  • What are your favorite/least favorite features?
  • How likely are you to recommend this product?
  • What could we do to improve our product?

Use a mixture of closed and open-ended questions to increase your chances of receiving meaningful responses.

Make it easy to respond

The easier it is for customers to leave a review, the more responses you’ll receive. So, make the process as seamless and convenient as possible. One way to do this is with survey emails.

Email surveys have high response rates. They can be completed within the email with minimal effort, which is a big plus for busy customers. And, they can generate a wealth of quantitative data and metrics that are quick to analyze, leading to faster improvements. BeeFree has an extensive collection of email survey templates to suit every need.

For longer review requests, include a CTA that directly links to the review submission page. Review forms should use simple, clear language, be optimized for mobile, and have a progress bar. 

You could even provide your telephone contact details to allow customers to leave a review via telephone. It’s the preferred communication method for 55% of Baby Boomers according to Hubspot, so it’s worth considering. 

Leverage small business telephone services from Vonage to access call center capabilities like virtual receptionists and CRM integrations, streamlining processes.

Also consider directing customers to leave reviews on popular review sites, such as Google and Amazon.

Optimize email timings

If you send product review requests too early, there’s a chance your customers won’t have tried your product yet. But if you send them too late, your customer might have forgotten their experience. 

So, when’s the best time to request reviews? 

Aim to send review requests within 7-14 days post-purchase. This gives customers a chance to try the product a few times, leading to more sincere, meaningful reviews. Plan for seasonal surges such as Black Friday and incorporate them into your schedules.

Key takeaways

Do email campaigns work for gathering valuable product reviews that drive improvements, boost trust, and increase sales and loyalty? 

Absolutely — but they need to be strategic.

To generate sincere reviews and valuable data, ensure your marketing emails are personalized, engaging, and optimized for convenience. And, use email list segmentation and marketing automation to ensure they’re sent to the right customers at the right time.

Stay informed on all email trends

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