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Show HN: Mail Studio – IDE for designing responsive emails

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Re: Show HN: Mail Studio – IDE for designing responsive emails

#121

Post by GordonS »

prepend wrote: post #13

This is desktop software, why is there a monthly fee? I occasionally want to send “nice looking” emails but get asked by lots of comms people about it. Recommending a monthly fee service is a non starter, but buying some software is pretty easy to decide. “Should I pay once? Or pay forever?” Is there anything in the functionality that takes advantage of SaaS? Other than updates and whatnot? Of course the price/value…

I agree with this - for desktop software, a perpetual license and optional annual maintenance is the expected model. Moreover, this seems to me to be a tool you'd use once to create a template, and then your content gets slotted dynamically into.

As some pricing feedback, I'd personally prefer to pay something like $75-85 as a one-time fee, with $20-30 optional maintenance to get access to the latest version and continued support - $20/month is way too high; yes, creating nice emails that work across clients is a PITA, but there are some very popular OSS templates out there that work great.

Re: Show HN: Mail Studio – IDE for designing responsive emails

#122

Post by arendtio »

zwaps wrote: post #73

I receive a lot of newsletters and communiqués, some of which I even signed up for. So, I don't know what designers use to receive e-mail, but here in the non-designer / non-linux world, Outlook is pretty popular. Now, Outlook - at least all configurations I have seen, has pictures via HTML disabled. I have sampled a few IT departments only, of course, but I feel like this is probably a pretty common policy. So let m…

To be precise: it is not like pictures are disable, but instead 'external resources' are disabled. So if you embed the picture into the e-mail it will be shown. For small pictures that is quite reasonable.

Re: Show HN: Mail Studio – IDE for designing responsive emails

#123

Post by GordonS »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #54
prepend wrote: post #13

This is desktop software, why is there a monthly fee? I occasionally want to send “nice looking” emails but get asked by lots of comms people about it. Recommending a monthly fee service is a non starter, but buying some software is pretty easy to decide. “Should I pay once? Or pay forever?” Is there anything in the functionality that takes advantage of SaaS? Other than updates and whatnot? Of course the price/value…

Because if it's a one time fee, there will be no recurring income and the developer will have to stop development. The alternative is to do what older desktop apps did: release a new paid version / upgrade, often with a load of fluff added or a redesign to try and sell that an upgrade is worthwhile to the customers.

> Because if it's a one time fee, there will be no recurring income

That doesn't have to be true - a lot of desktop software uses a perpetual license plus optional annual maintenance. It's pretty much the standard for non-SaaS apps.

Re: Show HN: Mail Studio – IDE for designing responsive emails

#124

Post by ihaveajob »

smalltalks wrote: post #70

The developer is super smart , it's Bootstrap Studio[0] rebranded as something new. I remember Michael Seibel talking about YC company "launching multiple times" because you shouldn't be stopping until you find your product market fit. This time it's seems like the right shot , but the pricing is quite high for what is it... [0] https://bootstrapstudio.io/

I had your same intuition and went on to find out more. They also produced https://epicbootstrap.com which is probably a nice way to get some SEO juice. Good for them.

Re: Show HN: Mail Studio – IDE for designing responsive emails

#125

Post by nsp »

onion2k wrote: post #64
PaulHoule wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It works for Adobe.

It's what Adobe does. That's not the same as saying it works for them, and it definitely isn't the same as saying it's the optimal pricing model for them. You have no way of knowing whether they'd make more or less money by moving to a different strategy. Copying what someone does without understanding how it works for them or why they did it is literally the definition of cargo cult behaviour. That's usually a bad i…

Adobe made a very successful switch from one off payments to SaaS for their creative suite, there's a pretty clear before and after to look at. https://producthabits.com/adobe-95-billion-saas-company/

Re: Show HN: Mail Studio – IDE for designing responsive emails

#126

Post by prepend »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #54
prepend wrote: post #13

This is desktop software, why is there a monthly fee? I occasionally want to send “nice looking” emails but get asked by lots of comms people about it. Recommending a monthly fee service is a non starter, but buying some software is pretty easy to decide. “Should I pay once? Or pay forever?” Is there anything in the functionality that takes advantage of SaaS? Other than updates and whatnot? Of course the price/value…

Because if it's a one time fee, there will be no recurring income and the developer will have to stop development. The alternative is to do what older desktop apps did: release a new paid version / upgrade, often with a load of fluff added or a redesign to try and sell that an upgrade is worthwhile to the customers.

> Because if it's a one time fee, there will be no recurring income and the developer will have to stop development.

I’ve bought software for decades and reality disagrees with you.

There’s software that I’ve bought as a one time fee years ago that still releases small maintenance patches. I don’t want to run your business for you, but there’s typically multiple products and the work developing new paid major updates or other products allows for some small amount of maintenance.

A really niche product called Moneydance has done this well, I think, and I’ve used them since 2009. I think I’ve paid $50-100 once or twice but would never pay a monthly fee. It’s software that runs on my desktop.

It’s certainly possible, but some companies think they make more money with monthly subs. And they might.

Re: Show HN: Mail Studio – IDE for designing responsive emails

#127

Post by prepend »

ihuman wrote: post #103
prepend wrote: post #13

This is desktop software, why is there a monthly fee? I occasionally want to send “nice looking” emails but get asked by lots of comms people about it. Recommending a monthly fee service is a non starter, but buying some software is pretty easy to decide. “Should I pay once? Or pay forever?” Is there anything in the functionality that takes advantage of SaaS? Other than updates and whatnot? Of course the price/value…

It free for non-commercial use, so it only costs money if the emails will make you money. https://mailstudio.app/pricing

I would use it in a commercial setting, but the emails don’t make me money. So I don’t think this license is ok for me.

Specifically, every once in a while I send out product updates to groups of people inside my org.

Re: Show HN: Mail Studio – IDE for designing responsive emails

#128

Post by passivate »

contravariant wrote: post #89
onion2k wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're talking about optimization. In your opinion emails with fancy layout and "on-brand" design will get a lower level of engagement than plain text with well-written copy. You may well be right (in a lot of cases.) But you don't know that. It's a guess based on your biases and assumptions. This is why it's critically important to measure things when you optimize them. Believing that you should engage with your cus…

Normally you'd think the burden of proof would be on the side requesting considerable resources and infrastructure to send something that doesn't render properly under the most basic privacy settings and cannot be displayed text-only (like in notifications).

Normally I would agree with this sentiment, but what kind of proof are you looking for here? We're not discussing logical absolutes or claims of absolute fact! We're discussing peoples preferences - what they like and/or expect an engaging email to look like. This area is highly subjective and contextual (culture, region, age, demo, etc). Neither your nor OPs experiences invalidate each other. Both of you can be correct at the same time.

Personally, I've seen engagement metrics increase when marketing added more "fluff" to their emails. Its no different than those obnoxious thumbnails people use on YT - it works - maybe accidentally, but it does, for now. That may change at any time in the future, just like what people like to see in emails/magazines/brochures is bound to change in the future.

Re: Show HN: Mail Studio – IDE for designing responsive emails

#129

Post by GoblinSlayer »

zwaps wrote: post #73

I receive a lot of newsletters and communiqués, some of which I even signed up for. So, I don't know what designers use to receive e-mail, but here in the non-designer / non-linux world, Outlook is pretty popular. Now, Outlook - at least all configurations I have seen, has pictures via HTML disabled. I have sampled a few IT departments only, of course, but I feel like this is probably a pretty common policy. So let m…

Here we have a newsletter which is wholly one big raster screenshot without any fancy html and no trace of text.

Re: Show HN: Mail Studio – IDE for designing responsive emails

#130

Post by crixlet »

cies wrote: post #100
patrickserrano wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any chance you could share some more details around how you integrated mustache with MJML? I did a project almost 3 years ago now where we used MJML and Handlebars, but I was never happy with the end result and have been thinking about going back and taking another stab. Did MJML add any support for templating engines as part of the rendering process? That didn't seem to be an option when I did the original process s…

The solution we have is quite complex, as it also includes a builder where client can drag-drop blocks to create template (with text variables) for mailings. Mustache is used for color/font substitutions and also for text variable (like $recipient_name) substitutions. So: JSON representation of an email -> HTML+Mustache -> HTML+Mustache (only variables) -> HTML For (live during email building) previews we skip the la…

which builder are you using? i hav ea similar mjml + mustache setup, and am using blocksedit.com for client drag/drop. would love to see your setup!
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