The Organized Chaos of Email Creation

Because creating emails wasn't already challenging enough, many of us are faced with managing dozens of emails across multiple platforms on a daily basis. In this session, we'll cover requirements and workflows for tracking both recurring and transactional emails. We'll start with asset management: partials, variables, and style guides. Then, we'll move into custom reporting, visual "send flows", and UX flows. You'll leave with a plan to stay sane and shred down the time it takes you to build an email.

Transcript

1. The Organized Chaos of Email Creation @dandenney
2. Good
 Morning!
3. The Chaos 4-6 PROMOTIONALS 2 SERVICES 9,628,374 SENDS VIA MAILCHIMP >180,000 SENDS VIA MANDRILL 26 TRANSACTIONALS MONTHLY
4. The Organized-ization? Building Iterating 2 SECTIONS
5. "Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work." "Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work." - Gustave Flaubert
6. "Be regular and orderly in your workflow, so that you may be violent and origin al in your emails."
7. Building Goals - "No Media Queries" first - Push the limits of clients - A/B test content - Build from UX flows
8. A story of how design adds value to a simple notification e-mail http://www.proxyclick.com/blog/proxyclick-journey/a-story-of-how-design-adds-value-to-a-simple-e-mail
9. BIGGEST challenge in creating emails The
10. BIGGEST challenge in creating emails The is time.
11. "Time is what we want most, but what we use worst." - William Penn
12. DRY
13. RYALAP
14. The Big Secret Choosing the right tool for the job.
15. I am a Tool.
16. You are a tool, too. :)
17. Time-Saving Techniques - Updatable global assets - Partials - Automated code creation - Variables
18. (Story Time) "Hi Code School Team!"
19. 26 TRANSACTIONALS 2 SERVICES 9,628,374 SENDS VIA MAILCHIMP >180,000 SENDS VIA MANDRILL
20. Updatable Global Assets - Logos - Social Icons - Any image in all emails
23. Partials - Code shared in each email - At minimum, a single reusable template
24. screenshot of files
25. _footer _footer-mandrill
26. One Template? It'd be cool, but I can't. Meh.
27. Automated Code - Copy/paste - Styleguide - Snippets - Emmet
28. <table border='0' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0'> <tr> <td></td> </tr> </table>
29. <!--[if (IE)|mso]> <table align='center' border='0' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='600'> <tr> <td> <![endif]--> <table align='center' border='0' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' class='flex-size' style='max- width: 600px;' width='100%'> <tr> <td align='left' class='text' style="color: #585a5b; font-family: 'Open Sans', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"></td> </tr> </table> <!--[if (IE)|mso]> </td> </tr> </table> <![endif]-->
30. Styleguides are cool
32. Snippets "Do it. Just do it. Don't let your dreams be dreams."
33. Emmet, yo
34. Variables - Colors - Font stacks - Sizes - Tracking URLs - Meta
35. Variables
36. Watch Me
37. Variables as a GUI
38. Recap - Updatable global assets - Partials - Automated code - Variables You are a tool, but often not the best tool for repetitive tasks.
39. Today 12-1:15 Tomorrow 2-2:40 Tomorrow 11:20-12 Today 3:30-4:15 Today 2-2:40 Tomorrow 2:50-3:30
40. Iterating
41. Organization Techniques - Custom Reports - Send Flows - UX Flows
42. (Story Time) Meet Jean
43. "We're not very standardized ATM. CM for some stuff, Mailgun & Sendgrid for other stuff, & the rails app lol" "I've not done much with email in a while because of focus elsewhere; email at [company name] breaks my heart - it really does." "I'm hoping to find time to give it more attention in the future, but we really need a team of people focused on it."
44. What ESPs are you using for promotional and transactional emails? https://litmus.com/community/discussions/3645-what-esps-are-you-using-for-promotional-and-transactional-emails
45. Custom Reports - Your important data - Custom views - Automation Do as I say, not as I do ;)
46. Tomorrow 11:20-12
47. Custom Reporting
49. Send Flows - List of emails - Trigger details - Viewable links
50. Basic send flows
51. Basic send flows
52. UX Flows - List of emails - Email CTAs - Target CTAs
53. Basic UX flow list
54. Basic UX flow list
55. Recap Create your own reporting and document all of your emails. - Custom Reports - Send Flows - UX Flows
56. Reap the Rewards
57. Thank You! Grab me or @dandenney Questions?