Emails, Emails everywhere!
With the rebuilding of Audience and working on V2, I've been thinking about the different types of emails we send and how they fit into the UI.
This is a one-off email that could be sent to one subscriber or a few subscribers, for example, a scheduled downtime announcement.
Email Newsletter
This is the email that has a schedule. You send it every week or month. It has a history and past editions you want to be able to share.
Email Sequence
A series of emails that a user will receive. For onboarding or a course. Each time a subscriber joins they will receive the sequence starting with edition 1.
Email Campaign
This is a little different than the sequence in that it's more of a one-off campaign, for example, a black Friday sale or a new feature coming soon type thing. The people on the email campaign are likely already subscribed to your newsletter or posts. So you want a way to use a sequence of emails to announce that fancy new feature you have spent months building.
Have I missed any?
In Audience V2, I'm thinking of giving each type of email its own space. From a UX point of view, I think that will make it very clear what they are doing. I've seen a few examples where email software mixes them all into a single UI, and I think that ends up being clunky.
Yes, from my point of view, I could be doing the same UI a few times, but that's where templating and partial views come in.
Oh, I know I've asked two different questions in one here, but I'm interested to know your thoughts.
Email Sequence I would call drip campaign. Then there's another one that could be a periodic email: sent an email yearly for a renewal/anniversary/birthday
The difference between newsletter and campaign are a little unclear to me.
Zooming out though, when I think of "i'm gonna send a new email to my users" I don't naturally have a specific "type" in mind and making me choose might be annoying. But my experience there might not be the default!
@kilian Oh I like that periodic email idea. I always thing drip campaign too, but I've also had that blank stare as a response when I say "Drip campaign"
I'll keep that in mind on the "type" though, I do have to avoid creating too much friction.
Sounds good to begin with for me. I also see the PoV of having all the different type of mails in a single UI, to make it easier for the user. But I also get your PoV to have different UIs for each of them. Just make sure that it is easy to define a template (for CI reasons) and to move those templates between each UI, so the user can send mails (doesn't matter which type of mail) and have the same CI.
@yasinkavakli Thanks, I do like the idea of having it split a bit. But I also have to keep maintenance in mind. I don't want to be in a situation in six months when I have a brilliant idea and end up having to make a change in six different places.
I think there is a bit of a balance.
First, I have a clarifying question: Will Audience allow emails to be sent to folks who have not subscribed? (I'm asking if there is any thought of abandon cart-type emails.)
Second, Do transactional-type emails fall under emails or campaigns?
Third, Can you share a little more about keeping the UI separate and clunky comments?
I agree with Kilian above on choosing a type first. Maybe it's not an apples-to-apples comparison, but I like the Twitter/ X layout. Type the post, and before posting, choose who can view it.
With email, I'm thinking out loud about having one interface to compose the email and then choose who the recipients are. With the ability to space out emails in sequence (yeah not a fan of the word drip emails)
Keep it simple :)
@pradipcloud Oh good points,
1: I hadn't really thought about abandoning cart emails, but that's a really good idea, so I will think about those.
2: Transactional-type emails fall under emails, I have a few ideas around these, with API's and magic that sort of thing. I'll spill more about that later.
I like that interface idea, I think my worry with clunky is a bit like what happened with V1, it became very difficult to use it and I've seen the same in other email service providers,
It's a bit of a B2B thing, because in B2B it's more than just a newsletter, there are a lot of different types of emails that you can and would send, some are automated and some are "oh I need to get this email out" so that's something I've been thinking a lot about.
How can I make the UI simple to use and understand while still allowing users to send different types of emails.
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