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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

#71

Post by pc86 »

jacurtis wrote: post #34
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…

Like anything, this is a matter of perspective. The right team would find value in it. I used to manage a marketing team at a large e-commerce company and we spent tens of thousands a month in email design fees. We rotated through a group of freelancers to design emails. Even an email that was simply following one of our "tried-and-true" templates still would cost us $400 - $500 or so for a single email. That is just…

$500 to update the content of an email is downright robbery. Unless it's not actually "updating content" but is changing what side the images are on, tweaks layouts, adding a graph that wasn't there before, etc.

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

#72

Post by zwaps »

cpursley wrote: post #46
inetknght wrote: post #30

Any HTML email that arrives to my inbox is usually marked as spam and phishing. Emails need to be clear and concise. HTML facilitates far too much hidden shit.

This perspective is just as silly as turning off JavaScript in browsers.

Why is turning off javascript silly?

Not that I personally disable all JS in my browser, but I'd say if your website can not be displayed without Javascript, then it is silly.

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

#73

Post by zwaps »

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 me tell you:

Your picture banners, your "rounded corner buttons", your main engagement centerpiece that's just a picture ... it all ends up being one of those nice 90's type beveled empty box we remember from surfing with IE and ISDN.

This may be a shock, but it really doesn't make your important newsletter look any better. So, if you are not specifically going for nostalgic "bad modem connection" look and feel, maybe ease off the HTML pictures a bit, okay?

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

#74

Post by tootie »

signal11 wrote: post #49

An email user's viewpoint: pretty emails formatted like web pages (e.g., like what GOG.com sends) may provide a sense of accomplishment to the designer, and their employer a warm, fuzzy, Brand-CompliantTM feeling -- but as a user I kind of like emails that are just... messages. With hyperlinks if it's appropriate. Images aren't always a great idea -- lots of clients block them by default. Why not have just text in pa…

You're not the average consumer probably. That or you don't even realize how a well-deaigned email can grab your attention.

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

#75

Post by alpaca128 »

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 don't get it either. I mean yes, I understand that making people pay regularly is nicer for daily users(sometimes) and the developer. But it completely cuts out the users who are willing to pay for products that go beyond "demo version" or "Spyware As A Service" but don't get paid for using it.

In many cases it would be absolutely possible to offer a middle tier that lacks some advanced features but also doesn't greet me with a "Get the Pro version now!"..."Sure you don't want to pay cloud storage for the 2 files you create per month?"

Or offer the full product for a one-year subscription but limited to one year of updates unless I pay again.

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

#76

Post by adkadskhj »

signal11 wrote: post #49

An email user's viewpoint: pretty emails formatted like web pages (e.g., like what GOG.com sends) may provide a sense of accomplishment to the designer, and their employer a warm, fuzzy, Brand-CompliantTM feeling -- but as a user I kind of like emails that are just... messages. With hyperlinks if it's appropriate. Images aren't always a great idea -- lots of clients block them by default. Why not have just text in pa…

Heh, even further than that, they're broken right out of the gate for some people - like me. I don't display any images in my emails. I don't want them using that to track my view of the content. Yea some email providers work around this, but some don't - i have it fully disabled.

Most emails i view these days look like garbage.

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

#77

Post by iudqnolq »

tgv wrote: post #32
dnh44 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just a guess but if it were a web app then they'd have to support multiple browsers.

But they have to support multiple mail clients anyway: macOS Mail is based on Webkit, Thunderbird on Gecko (Firefox), I guess it's Blink for many Android clients, and then there's a hundred versions of Outlook.

If you spend all your time making the output work cross-platform, I could definitely see not wanting to go on to spend a lot of time working on making the editor cross-platform. It's the same kind of tedium, but without much possibility for code-sharing.

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

#78

Post by inetknght »

cpursley wrote: post #46
inetknght wrote: post #30

Any HTML email that arrives to my inbox is usually marked as spam and phishing. Emails need to be clear and concise. HTML facilitates far too much hidden shit.

This perspective is just as silly as turning off JavaScript in browsers.

Funny enough... I turn off javascript in browsers.

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

#79

Post by inetknght »

andylynch wrote: post #50
inetknght wrote: post #30

Any HTML email that arrives to my inbox is usually marked as spam and phishing. Emails need to be clear and concise. HTML facilitates far too much hidden shit.

As someone who lies in Excel, Outlook and too many different chat apps I think it’s far too useful to have proper formatted text in communications - Even very simple things like highlighting, tables, screenshots just don’t work or are unclear if you limit yourself to plain text. Marketing emails can be annoying but that’s what the unsubscribe button is for ;)

Proper formatted text in communications is fine -- include it as a separate attachment that's not automatically loaded and displayed instead of plain text.

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

#80

Post by woodruffw »

signal11 wrote: post #49

An email user's viewpoint: pretty emails formatted like web pages (e.g., like what GOG.com sends) may provide a sense of accomplishment to the designer, and their employer a warm, fuzzy, Brand-CompliantTM feeling -- but as a user I kind of like emails that are just... messages. With hyperlinks if it's appropriate. Images aren't always a great idea -- lots of clients block them by default. Why not have just text in pa…

I'm definitely not the intended audience for these emails, but as anecdata: whenever I get a flashy HTML email, a breaker trips in my brain and I immediately switch to "hunt for the unsubscribe button" mode. It's a good thing that I can't unsubscribe from my power company's alert emails, because I would have.
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