6 Steps to Choose the Best Email Builder
Instead of relying completely on intuition or friends' recommendations, we should remember about six key criteria that help to choose the most suitable email builder and editor.
Now dozens yet hundreds of tools for creating email designs are present. Whether you are a marketer, developer, or a small business owner, you may be confused about what exact tool to choose and how to do that.
Using email template builders is beneficial for email marketing since it speed-ups campaigns launch and impacts email deliverability. Without the help of such tools, marketers and developers spend much time designing and previewing emails.
While we may listen to what our friends or colleagues recommend, the most effective way to pick a suitable too is to begin with our needs.
To choose an email template builder, one should think about the set of key characteristics.
Type
You should start by understanding the type of upcoming emails. If you're going to launch a campaign with heavy and colourful HTML messages, a good builder is required. Perhaps, you just want to send a short informative message using a preset template. For this purpose, any free editor would be sufficient.
If you are a traditionalist preferring a plain text message, so probably there's no need for an HTML email editor at all.
In parallel, you are a user of popular email sending platforms like Mailchimp, Sendpulse, or alternatives. Many of them have built-in template editors, which may be a decent option for a start.
In any case, you must remember that responsiveness is critical. Your messages have to be rendered perfectly on all devices and mail clients. Therefore, you should definitely consider one of the responsive email template builders as an option.
Users
Ask yourself one simple question: who will use this tool most? A developer? Marketer?
It's important to recognize users of the tool you're selecting. For example, many marketing specialists and regular users would prefer a drag-and-drop approach to creating emails. They may consider Chamaileon, MailerLite, Stripo, or other alternatives.
Certainly, it's easy to implement, and both newbies and professionals can handle that. You just place blocks (sections) with written or visual content in a way you want. By utilizing drag and drop builders, you can create a responsive multi-column email without much effort.
There are editors giving their users WYSIWYG opportunities (CKEditor, TinyMCE). Some people may consider this type as unnecessary anymore since there are advanced options to create heavy emails.
As an illustration, developers or tech enthusiasts may go with HTML generators (Cerberus or Mosaico). With the help of such type, one can create an email by coding and, eventually, turning this frame into an own template.
Simply put, the capabilities of the email builder should match the abilities of its main users.
UI
No matter you like to dive into coding or prefer ready-to-use solutions, user interface is significant. Not only a tool's capabilities but their visual components and convenience should be tested.
A user-friendly interface may be a rather subjective concept. Hence, pick up an editor that personally you (or potential users) like. Spend some time on UI check: visit the company's site, watch short lessons, YouTube reviews, find screenshots, or even try a free version. Then, you can easily decide which interface strikes you most.
Availability
We all embrace mobility, so the majority prefer cloud-based tools regularly. Email editors are not exceptions. Many modern editors are cloud-based (BEE, Postcards, and dozens of others). It's really convenient – you can reach them from any device, have team collaboration sessions, and more. Some such cloud-based solutions can be enhanced by additional plugins, say for HTML editing or integrating into other applications.
Simultaneously, there are traditional desktop versions with the installation. If you prefer such classics, you should check MailStyler.
Price
Evaluate price ranges or subscription plans of various email editors.
Many tools provide free but usually limited options. Since you may have already clarified what you want from the builder, you should ask yourself another important question: how often am I going to change templates?
Answering it allows you to estimate what price or its absence works best for you. If you plan to launch many campaigns with different templates, it's ok to pay some extra for the tool. Meanwhile, if you just want to try or create a couple of templates, you may find a nice free option.
Extras
Combining all the other characteristics, don't forget about some extra features. For example, by subscribing to a paid plan, you can receive image editing options, plugins installation, image libraries, integration opportunities, etc.
When knowing all the extra features, you may choose an email builder that you didn't consider as a choice before.
In Summary
On the one hand, choosing an email editor is not rocket science. On the other hand, there are many variations of them, and the significance of this tool shouldn't be underestimated – we all love well-designed things. We want to send visually attractive and error-free emails.
To go with the best option, rely on six described steps. After clearly defining what you need, you should compare the details of each suitable platform. Comparing price, available templates, extras (image editor, libraries), integration options, HTML download, you'll choose the most suitable email builder for your needs.
Photo by Chris Barbalis on Unsplash