Good news, email designers! We recently launched new and exciting BEE Pro updates that will help make your email design process smoother, faster, and easier. Today we'll show you how to:
Undo and redo changes as you design
View the design history of an email—and rewind and fast-forward to any point in your recent edit history
Export your email to PDF for improved share and review processes
Undo, redo, and view change history
Made a mistake while assembling your email? It happens to all of us. Now, you can easily undo (and redo) as you design in BEE Free and BEE Pro.
Here's how it works: As soon as you make any updates or changes to an email, an Undo-Redo widget will appear at the bottom left corner of your design screen.
The widget includes Undo and Redo arrows to move easily between changes. TheUndowidget currently remembers the 15 most recent changes in the current browser session (it does not remember changes that happened during a different session).The clock icon, when clicked, expands to reveal a full timeline of all the latest changes:
For each event in the timeline, you'll see:
An icon to identify the type of content that was changed (an image, text box, and so on)
A description of what changed (including the new value assigned to the element, if any—e.g., 5px)
The time the change was made
When the timeline is open, you can click on any event to return to a previous version.
When you select a previous step in the timeline, the content or row that was edited becomes highlighted. This way, you can easily spot the change within the email itself.Note: When you go back in time, the timeline for more recent changes remains available, allowing you to move forward again, without losing any of the edits.
Now it's easier than ever to fine-tune your emails and toggle between drafts. We hope you get a lot of use out of this new feature, and that it makes your design process better and easier!
Export emails to PDF
If you ever want to quickly send a work-in-progress email design with colleagues, this new feature should streamline your process. You can now turn any email into a PDF in both the BEE Free and BEE Pro platforms. This means you can now share your PDF email in Slack, print it out, email it, etc.
Downloading any message to PDF is easy. From theProjects screen, use the Edit drop-down menu to choose Export.
On the pop-up screen, simply tap Download a PDF file.
Then, you can choose which size you want your PDF to be.
Finally, click Download Your File, and there you have it!
Will you be trying these new BEE Pro updates? Let us know if you have any questions or ideas in the comments! Happy designing!
I’ve been a fan for years. There’s nothing like seeing fantastic messages designed by some of the world's best brands to inspire you. Perhaps as well-known as the website are the newsletters from Really Good Emails: witty, funny, and packed with great articles and best practices.
So when Mike Nelson, one of the founders of Really Good Emails (RGE), reached out to me months ago, I was all ears.
Mike and his partners had been volunteering their time on the RGE project for almost ten years and had decided that it was time to switch gears. To deliver more value to their millions of visitors, RGE needed more time, money, and full-time focus.
One thing they found in surveys is that RGE users wanted to “turn saved emails into customizable templates” and use them in any email tool. As it turns out, that’s exactly what people do with Beefree’s no-code email builder: create millions of emails monthly for all sorts of use cases in virtually every industry. They even create those emails inside hundreds of other applications where our tools are embedded.
Mike clearly had the right idea, and I’m so glad he and his co-founders reached out.
We started talking and sharing ideas and a vision for the future of RGE. There was a lot of alignment. We believed then—and even more strongly today—that a collaboration between RGE and Beefree could make the art and science of email creation more accessible, more inspiring, and simply, more fun.
Our plans for the future
If you’re an RGE fan and have never heard of Beefree, our goal is to shorten your path from inspiration to creation. Over the next several months, we will work on various ways to make that happen.
If you’re a Beefree fan, we will add more inspiration to your email design process. You’ve seen the 1,700+ templates in our catalog. Now, we’ll leverage the 15,000+ designs on the RGE site to give you creative superpowers.
If you’re involved in email creation at all, the key point is this: by bringing together RGE's vast email catalog with Beefree's intuitive design tools, we will provide new ways for you to close the gap between finding inspiration and creating something valuable from it.
I've always believed that inspiration is the precursor to creation. Seeing a design that clicks with you, that sparks that "Aha!" moment, is crucial. And Really Good Emails has been that source of "Aha!" for many, including myself. Incorporating RGE's treasure trove into Beefree's ecosystem feels like a natural step toward enhancing the creative process for our community.
Bringing Beefree and RGE together
From a product point of view, you will start seeing integrations between RGE and Beefree. We’ll start small and get fancier over time. They will start shipping soon, and we’ll keep you posted.
While that’s in the future, there are things we can deliver to you today.
First, the Pro features on reallygoodemails.com become FREE for all, starting immediately. At Beefree, we love removing friction and agreed with our friends at RGE to start there. So, create new collections, add your favorite emails, and use the Chrome extension. It’s all free now.
Secondly, Unspam is back. It was hard for an all-volunteer team to host and grow this special email event. We have zero intention of changing the nature and objectives of the event, but we’re excited to support it and help it grow. Justine Jordan - Head of Strategy & Community at Beefree - took the lead on that, co-hosting Unspam 2024 in her own, authentic way.
Third, I'm super excited to welcome Mike Nelson and Matt Helbig from RGE to the Beefree team. They have a lot of innovative ideas around the future of Really Good Emails, and we can’t wait to collaborate with them. Matthew Smith and Matt Cook will help as strategic advisors.
We live in a world where email continues to be the favorite channel for companies to communicate with their subscribers and for people like you and I to hear from our favorite brands (e.g., here and here). In this world, you - email creators - play such a crucial role.
You are the key stakeholders for both RGE and Beefree. Hundreds of thousands of you use our tools every month. Through Unspam and many other initiatives, we want to increase investment in email makers and creators.
We need to do so to continue building products that make sense and are truly helpful: successful products only come from a lot of deep listening. We want to do so because we are part of the same community, and there’s no healthy RGE & Beefree without a thriving community.
I know it’s cliché to say it, but we truly believe this is a case where the whole has a real chance of being greater than the sum of the parts. Our tools - combined - will deliver a greater amount of value to you. Our efforts - combined - will have a greater impact.
Give us a bit of time to execute all of this, and keep us honest as we do so. If you have questions, we maintain a FAQ here and welcome your comments and feedback by emailing community@beefree.io.
With heartfelt enthusiasm, optimism, and anticipation for what’s to come,
Delve into the email marketing best practices that can empower digital agencies to harness the full potential of emails. From crafting compelling content to leveraging automation and segmentation, these practices are essential for driving engagement, nurturing leads, and achieving remarkable results
For fast-paced digital marketing agencies, it's common to focus on nurturing and expanding your clients' businesses, that you leave little room to promote your own services. While this is unintentional, this oversight may be hindering your agency's growth potential.
That's where email marketing comes in as a game-changer forbusy agencies. With email creation becoming more intuitive, powerful, and 37% of brands increasing their email budgets it's clear to see that email continues to grow as an effective marketing solution.
Let's delve into the best practices that can elevate your agency's email marketing game and unlock new avenues of success.
Why email marketing benefits digital marketing agencies
With 4.3 billion email users, email continues as a sustainable, cost-effective, and high-converting solution to effortlessly balance client acquisition and client retention.
This single strategy enables targeted outreach to engage and move audiences through different stages of the buyer's journey. For new audiences, email marketing can be used to show them your work, promote services, and reasons to work with you. For customer loyalty and retention, email can be used to upsell and/or communicate the consistent value you bring to your clients.
Email marketing presents a lucrative opportunity for marketing agencies of all sizes to thrive and grow. By consistently engaging potential clients and ensuring your presence remains prominent, you establish top-of-mind recall for marketing services.
#1: Segmentation to keep the balance
As your organization grows, you will notice that your audience has a wide range of interests depending on their demographics, business, and needs. Segmentation involves dividing your email list into different groups based on specific criteria, such as industry or stage in your client acquisition journey.
Segmentation enables you to send targeted and personalized content to each group, increasing the relevance and effectiveness of your campaigns and ROI. For example, if you have a segment of subscribers who are interested in social media marketing, you can tailor your emails to provide them with valuable tips and resources in that area.
Seer Interactive, for instance, is a digital marketing agency serving a variety of audiences from digital marketers who need to stay up to date on best practices to prospective customers. You can see in the example below how Seer differs their emails based on the audience.
Email for digital marketers:
Focuses on speaking to digital marketers who are interested in learning more about how to improve their services, what's new in the industry, and new tools and solutions.
Email for potential clients:
The second email targets potential clients who are likely in the discovery phase of what an agency does. Seer provides some insights to help the reader make more informed decisions with comparisons, a checklist, and an article with what to expect. This email, while does not directly promote Seer's services, let's the reader know that this agency is here to help keeping them top of mind.
Segmenting your audience using the customer journey funnel
As mentioned earlier, one of the most beneficial aspects of email marketing for agencies is the ability to maintain balance between client acquisition and customer retainment. In our professional experience, the best way to do this is to map out your customer journey and plan out how each stage serves your audience and of course moves them through the journey. While your client’s journey may vary depending on your services, but typically it entails the following:
Awareness: In this stage, prospects have heard your name but are just getting to know who you are. This is where you can create a sequence of emails for them to get to know your agency, the services you offer, and what makes you unique.
Consideration: This audience is weighing their options about the best marketing agency for them. This is where you will likely begin to provide statistics about the returns you’ve achieved for other clients or share testimonials.
Decision/conversion: This is the stage when prospects just need that final push to take action and sign on as clients. In this stage, you can offer incentives or a free trial of one services.
Loyalty: This is the stage when a business has signed on as a client or made a purchase and your goal is to retain them. You’ll want to send these clients loyalty-boosting content like announcements about new products, appreciation for their support, and informative content that is helpful to them.
Ultimately, segmentation is a great way to keep your subscribers engaged and drive client acquisition and retention. Once you have a clear understanding of your client journey and the goals at each stage, now it's time to grow your email list.
#2: Building and growing your email list
To maximize the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns, it is essential to first start building a quality list of people who are interested in what you have to offer and say.
Make it easy to subscribe: Whether you're using a form on your website or a landing page, make sure that your process is simple. Only ask for only essential information, ideally only up to three. Some suggestions are name, email address, and a question that could help you segment them into groups such as "are you looking for an agency?" This simple question could help segment new subscribers to cold vs. hot leads. Don't forget to use a clear CTA that communicated what the next step is.
Leverage social media: Promote your email list on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, and Twitter/X to reach a wider audience and encourage sign-ups.
Offer valuable incentives: Provide something of value, such as appealing discounts on a client’s first service or exclusive content like a guide to social media marketing in exchange for people signing up to your email list.
Regularly clean your list: While building and growing your email list, it is important to regularly examine your subscribers and remove those who are not engaging. This helps maintain a healthy list and ensures that your metrics accurately reflect subscriber engagement.
Don’t forget existing clients: Add your existing clients to your mailing list so they can stay up to date on your latest services and offers. Additionally create a segment of former clients who have not engaged with your agency in a while. This segment is perfect for targeted emails meant to re-engage them, like personalized information about where they left off in the process and a call-to-action button for them to jump back in.
Provide compelling content consistently: Deliver content that is interesting, informative, and valuable to keep subscribers engaged and to make them more likely to tell others about your mailing list. The friends they tell may become subscribers and eventually clients.
Keep these best practices in mind to build a high-quality subscriber list who are genuinely interested in your brand.
#3: Designing high-converting emails
The effectiveness of your email campaigns is directly influenced by the design choices you make. Research shows that visually appealing designs can significantly enhance engagement rates.
Email design best practices
Strategic design choices not only make your emails more appealing, but also drive higher conversions.
Personalize your emails: HubSpot ranks message personalization as one of the most effective strategies for email marketing. Tailor the content based on their interests or past interactions with your brand, such as by including a section for recommended services. This increases engagement and makes your emails more relevant.
Use professional and high-quality visual design: Use high-quality images and graphics that support your message and reflect your brand's identity. A visually appealing email is more likely to capture attention and encourage click-throughs. In fact, according to Campaign Monitor, communications with visuals receive 650% more engagement than those without.
Include a clear call-to-action (CTA): Wordstream found that one CTA in your email can garner 371% more clicks and over 1600% higher sales. Your CTA should be prominent, concise, and action-oriented. Make it easy for recipients to understand what they need to do next, whether it's making a purchase, signing up for an event, or downloading a resource.
Maintain consistent branding: Ensure that your email templates align with your brand's colors, fonts, and overall visual style. Consistency helps build recognition and reinforces trust with your audience, and according to GaggleAMP, customers who feel connected to your brand account for 37% of revenue and spend twice as much.
Design for mobile devices: According to eMarketer, over half of emails are opened on mobile devices. Be sure your emails are mobile-friendly so they still look clean and engaging for your recipients.
Leverage email templates
Email marketing templates are a great asset for your email design. Many email marketing tools offer pre-designed emails that you can easily customize to suit your needs and brand guidelines.
By using pre-built templates, your agency can significantly reduce the time and effort required to create engaging emails, ultimately boosting your return on investment (ROI) by maximizing the impact of your email marketing efforts.
Ensure responsive, mobile-optimized, HTML email design
When designing your marketing emails, designing in HTML helps ensure that your emails will be readable in nearly any email app (like Gmail, Outlook, and so on) and device. Fortunately, you don’t have to be an HTML coder to create HTML emails.
Now a days, there are many tools that offer an easy-to-use design interface so you can design your emails and export the HTML the solution builds for you. These tools, streamline and make the design process more efficient, without the need to have any knowledge on HTML or CSS.
By utilizing an HTML email design tool, such as Beefree, not only can you enjoy the peace of mind that your emails will render well, but you also benefit from a solution that helps you and your agency save time, increase productivity, and get more done with less resources.
However, not all HTML email builders are made equal.
#4: Choosing the right email marketing software for your agency
A stellar email campaign starts with effective and productive email marketing software. When choosing email marketing software, it's important to consider factors such as ease of use, customization options, integration capabilities with other tools, and more.
Factors to consider when choosing email marketing software
How do you determine which of the many email marketing tools is the best fit for your agency’s needs? Here are some important factors to consider while you weigh your options:
Check out the features: Every software has its own collection of features like scheduled sending, automated options for sending a series of emails, personalization, design capabilities, and so on. Compare tools and their features against your list of must-haves.
Examine the pricing: Cost matters in your ROI. Pick a service that fits your budget.
Consider other capabilities: Some tools offer email marketing along with other helpful services like social media ads, website analytics, and so on. Consider whether there are email marketing tools that will also replace some of your other software.
Try A/B testing: If you’re able to try out multiple email tools at the same time, consider sending a few campaigns with each tool to see if one performs better than the other.
Weigh the integration capabilities: Consider email marketing platforms that may integrate with some of the other tools you use, like your client management system. This applies to email tools that integrate with other email tools too, like BeeFree which provides a user-friendly way to design your emails and smoothly send them with nearly any email sending platform
Preview emails: Check out examples of what other businesses have created using each email tool.
Read reviews and research: See what other businesses (and especially other marketing agencies, if possible) have to say about each tool.
Recommended email marketing tools
Here's a quick rundown of some recommended email design tools that can help maximize your ROI:
Benefits: Targeted emails improve ROI and overall marketing strategy. HubSpot's AI can help with segmentation and crafting tailored emails for each recipient.
Benefits: ActiveCampaign is ideal for businesses with a focus on customer relationships. It offers extensive automation and tracking capabilities for a more personalized approach.
Beefree
Key features: Specializing in HTML email design, with an extensive catalog of email templates to use and a drag-and-drop email editor for complete customization
Benefits: While emails cannot be exported via Beefree like the above, Beefree integrates with all major email sending platforms for easy use with your favorite software. Additionally, the application offers free and cost-effective plans to help you get started.
To ensure you're choosing the right tool, consider your organization's unique needs, the tool's capabilities, and how well it integrates with your existing marketing tech stack.
#5: Automating Your email marketing efforts
Leveraging automation in your email marketing strategy can significantly enhance your outreach efforts and improve your email marketing ROI. By automating certain aspects of your email campaigns, you can ensure timely and targeted communication with potential clients, increasing the likelihood of engagement.
Automation allows you to schedule emails to be sent at optimal times and personalize content based on user behavior. This not only saves time and resources but also maximizes the impact of your emails. There are several ways that your agencies can incorporate automation, but here are some:
Sending an email to clients who started but didn’t complete your inquiry process.
Automated welcome series for new clients that introduces them to your work process.
Automated follow-ups for webinars, events, or meetings.
Benefits of email marketing automation
Increased efficiency: With automated emails, you can reach a larger number of clients or reach clients more reliably without having to manually send individual emails.
Engagement and lead nurturing: Marketing automation sometimes offers advanced features like lead scoring and nurturing. You can segment your audience based on their behavior or interests, ensuring that they receive relevant content tailored specifically for them.
Advanced user segmentation: Automation allows you to segment your email list based on various criteria such as demographics, purchase history, or engagement level. This enables you to send personalized messages that resonate with each segment of your audience.
Increased conversions: By sending targeted and timely emails through automation, you can significantly improve conversion rates. Whether it's encouraging a purchase or promoting an upcoming event, automated emails can help drive more conversions for your agency.
#6: Tracking and measuring for success
To ensure the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts, it is crucial to track and measure key metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. This data helps you recognize trends, such as what designs or content resonate the most with your clients, and help make informed decisions for your next campaign.
Important metrics to track
Here are some key metrics that you should track throughout your agency’s email marketing campaigns.
Open rate: Shows the percentage of recipients who opened your email out of those who received it. It gives insight into the effectiveness of subject lines and sender names.
Click-through rate: Measures the percentage of recipients who clicked on a link within your email. It helps you evaluate the effectiveness of your email content and call-to-action.
Conversion rate: Tells you how many recipients took the desired action after clicking through your email. In the case of a marketing agency, that action could be filling out your website’s contact form.
Bounce rate: Tracks the percentage of emails that were not delivered to recipients' inboxes due to invalid or non-existent email addresses.
List growth rate: Allows you to assess how quickly your email list is expanding so you can adjust your acquisition strategies accordingly.
Email sharing/forwarding rate: Measures how often recipients share or forward your emails to others. It can indicate whether your content resonates with your audience and has potential for increased reach.
Unsubscribe rate: Monitors the percentage of recipients who unsubscribe from your emails after receiving them. High unsubscribe rates may indicate issues with targeting, content relevance, or frequency.
Unlocking the power of email marketing for agencies
Digital marketing agencies have a unique business model and a unique use for email marketing. Unlike many businesses, you aren’t trying to use your email marketing to make a quick sale or appeal to impulse buyers. You’re trying to establish a genuine and ongoing connection with potential clients and show them the concrete value you can bring to their businesses. Agency-specific strategies like those above can help you make the most of every email you send.
Want a more efficient way to create compelling marketing emails? The Beefree "Business" plan is the perfect solution for growing agencies to scale their email marketing processes and campaigns. Start your free 15-day Business trial today!
1. How can email marketing help digital agencies maximize their ROI?
Email marketing helps digital agencies maximize their ROI by allowing them to reach a targeted audience, build relationships with clients, and drive traffic to their website or landing page.
2. What are some best practices for email marketing in digital agencies?
Some best practices for email marketing in digital agencies include segmenting the audience according to interests or needs and other factors, personalizing emails, creating compelling subject lines and content, optimizing for mobile devices, and analyzing campaign data to make improvements.
3. How often should digital agencies send emails to their subscribers?
The frequency of sending emails will depend on factors such as the industry, target audience, and goals of the campaign. However, it is generally recommended to maintain a consistent schedule that provides value without overwhelming subscribers.
4. What metrics should digital agencies track to measure the success of their email marketing campaigns?
Digital agencies should track metrics such as open rates, click-through rates (CTRs), conversion rates, bounce rates, and unsubscribe rates to measure the success of their email marketing campaigns.
5. Are there any legal considerations when conducting email marketing for digital agencies?
Yes, there are legal considerations when conducting email marketing. Digital agencies need to comply with anti-spam laws like the CAN-SPAM Act in the United States and GDPR in Europe by including clear opt-in/opt-out options, providing accurate sender information in each email sent, and following other guidelines.
Discover the showdown between Beefree and Knak in the realm of email marketing. This blog dissects the strengths, weaknesses, and unique offerings of both platforms, providing valuable insights for marketers seeking the perfect fit for their email design needs.
There's a multitude of factors contributing to successful email marketing, spanning from your subscriber list to segmentation, personalization, and notably, your email design. In fact, according to Hubspot, 20% of marketers witness enhanced email engagement as a result of enhancing their email design.
However, when it comes to email design, often times email builders in your ESPs can often feel limiting. To help you find the right fit, let’s compare two favorites in the field: Beefree vs Knak.
Beefree vs Knak: An in-depth comparison for digital marketers
Before we put Beefree and Knak head to head to see how they compare to meet the needs of your business, let’s get to know each of these tools.
What is Beefree?
Beefree is a web-based SaaS tool enabling email creators to design emails and landing pages without code. The application features an easy-to-use interface and translates your design choices to HTML, assembling a responsive email that displays smoothly across all email client like Gmail, Outlook, and more. The ultimate goal of Beefree is to make efficient email design accessible to all, not just experienced coders. The drag and drop builder enables organizations including small businesses and freelancers to elevate their email marketing potential.
Knak at a glance
Like Beefree, Knak is a web-based platform that helps organizations develop professional emails and lancing pages without the need for coding or a design background. Knak’s core focus is streamlining email marketing for larger marketing teams and enterprises. Its features center around collaboration and brand control, allowing administrators to set clear limits so that emails always align with your organization's guidelines.
Feature comparison
How well an email design platform works for your business will largely depend on the features it offers. Which one has the feature lineup you need: Beefree or Knak? Let’s compare.
User interface and ease of use
Making email design easy and accessible for non-coders is the key purpose of both Beefree and Knak, so unsurprisingly, both offer an excellent ease of use. The design interfaces on both platforms are made to be intuitive and to make email design more efficient.
There are some user experience features that differ between the two platforms.
Email testing:
Beefree: Users can test how emails will look directly in-app across different devices. You can also test how your email will render in dark mode, send tests, or scan a QR code to easily see how it will look on your mobile device.
Knak: Offers an email testing center where users can see how emails will render across different devices and email clients.
AI capabilities:
Beefree: In-app AI writing assistant to support copy, image ALT text, and CTAs.
Knak: AI capabilities for email translation.
Multi-language content:
Beefree: Beefree offers users with the ability to create emails and pages in one primary language and set additional language localizations directly in-app.
Knak: As mentioned above, Knak's translation feature is powered by AI. Users can easily create up to 75 variants of your campaigns in different languages.
Email templates enable professionals to quickly create and send campaigns without the need to start from scratch. Beefree's catalog is the largest in the market with over 1,700+ free email and page templates spanning across a wide range of industries, purposes, and seasons. Even if you prefer to start from scratch, the catalog is a great place to fuel your creativity.
Knak, on the other hand, takes a different approach to providing inspiration. Their Email Gallery showcases 50+ emails from different brands and categories with tips for users to implement into their campaigns. Additionally, to redeem a free template from Knak, there are some prerequisits:
1. Your company must have an annual company revenue of more than $500M
2. You must schedule a 30-minute demo with a Knak expert.
Knak takes a different approach that centers on brand consistency. This platform features an Admin Control Hub which allows administrators to limit users to only specific modules, colors, fonts, images, and customizations.
This way, especially on large teams, administrators will know that every email is on-brand because team members can’t use non-brand colors or design.
As a result, Knak relies less on pre-made templates and more on allowing administrators to create their own templates for internal use.
Customization
As mentioned previously, a downfall of many email builders, specially those in ESPs, is their rigidity. Both Beefree and Knak understand this clearly and aim to provide users with the in-depth customization capabilities.
Dynamic content capabilities?
Beefree: Yes
Knak: Yes
Brand control:
Beefree: Yes with advanced style kits, reusable content blocks, and templates.
Knak: Yes with an approved image library, custom colors and fonts, and modules and themes.
Collaboration
Collaboration features also allow both Knak and Beefree to fit smoothly into your workflows. They both allow team members to leave comments in the builder, request for approval, and apply user roles and permissions. Additionally, both solutions allow for integration with project management tools.
As part of their collaboration features, Beefree highlights the importance of organization for large teams. By offering dedicated workspaces for multi-brand businesses where you can add different brand assets, keep campaigns organized by folders, and integrate varying ESPs - Beefree understands the importance of not only seamless collaboration, but increasing productivity.
Cost-effectiveness for email marketing: Pricing structure overview
The Beefree vs Knak pricing is difficult to compare because they’re structured very differently. The pricing of each solution reflects their users. Knak is designed solely for enterprises while Beefree is designed for a wide range of organizations, freelancers, and small businesses. The cost-effectiveness of each solution will depend on your business structure.
Unlike Beefree, Knak only offers customized pricing plans so you’ll need to work with a representative to find out your pricing. TrustRadius and SourceForge both report a cost of around $10,000 per year with Knak, but this will, of course, depend on your organization. Knak does offer a free trial of 5-14 days, but you must request it through a representative.
Beefree and Knak both have excellent track records of fostering customer success, ensuring security, and offering their communities with resources with premium support.
Support and client success stories
Due to their difference in users, Beefree and Knak offer different approaches to customer support. For Knak, each customer has an assigned customer support manager. Additional support is available online 7 days a week or you can find answers to FAQs via their Knowledge Base
For Beefree's Business and Professional plans, users receive access to their Beefree CX team and Enterprise plans receive a Dedicated Success Manager for onboarding, training, and success-driven best practices. Free users on the other hand rely on Beefree's Help center and their myriad of resources to help find answers to their needs.
As for client successes, both Beefree's and Knak's customers are proud to share their stories.
One of Beefree’s happy customers is Folderly, an email solutions and organization tool. Folderly had been using HubSpot but wanted more design capabilities, so they chose Beefree to integrate with HubSpot. After investing in Beefree, Folderly saw a fantastic 36% open rate - a 15% increase.
Similarly, Knak proudly serves Foursquare, a location data company formerly known as Factual. The Factual marketing team chose Knak for its smooth integration with Marketo and its email design process quickly simplified. It found that its former 1-to-2-week design process dropped to around ten minutes of work.
Resources and community
Both solutions offer a range of resources to help support and nurture their communities.
Beefree:
Community: A space for users to connect, collaborate, find design work, and get advice from other users.
Beefree Academy: Real-world examples and tutorials to help you and your team optimize email campaigns, increase productivity, and follow email design best practices.
Email Design Blog & More: Go-to resource for all things email creation. From design inspiration, tips, to industry specific solutions.
Webinars: Live and recorded sessions to learn and discover the power of Beefree's design suite.
Knak:
Unsubscribed! Podcast: Guests join Knak to discuss marketing, technology, career, and life in general.
Inside Marketing Blog: Written by Knak's COO, this blog helps "marketing leaders and marketing ops teams up their game."
The Knak Blog: Ranges from events, email marketing news, to trend insights and more.
Security and compliance
Beefree and Knak have both done their due diligence when it comes to compliance and information security.
Both applications are SOC 2, GDPR compliant, ISO 27001 certified. In addition, Beefree is AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner and an AWS Certified Solutions Architect.
The better choice for your business depends on the security certifications you prioritize.
You can learn more about Beefree's security measures here and learn more about Knak's here.
Making the right choice for your email marketing needs
Ultimately, the decision between Beefree and Knak hinges on the needs and preferences of your organization regarding your email design platform. Will you prioritize the flexibility and creativity of Beefree or opt for the structured brand uniformity provided by Knak? Selecting the right option will enable you to either kickstart or enhance your email marketing initiatives.
I’ve been a fan for years. There’s nothing like seeing fantastic messages designed by some of the world's best brands to inspire you. Perhaps as well-known as the website are the newsletters from Really Good Emails: witty, funny, and packed with great articles and best practices.
So when Mike Nelson, one of the founders of Really Good Emails (RGE), reached out to me months ago, I was all ears.
Mike and his partners had been volunteering their time on the RGE project for almost ten years and had decided that it was time to switch gears. To deliver more value to their millions of visitors, RGE needed more time, money, and full-time focus.
One thing they found in surveys is that RGE users wanted to “turn saved emails into customizable templates” and use them in any email tool. As it turns out, that’s exactly what people do with Beefree’s no-code email builder: create millions of emails monthly for all sorts of use cases in virtually every industry. They even create those emails inside hundreds of other applications where our tools are embedded.
Mike clearly had the right idea, and I’m so glad he and his co-founders reached out.
We started talking and sharing ideas and a vision for the future of RGE. There was a lot of alignment. We believed then—and even more strongly today—that a collaboration between RGE and Beefree could make the art and science of email creation more accessible, more inspiring, and simply, more fun.
Our plans for the future
If you’re an RGE fan and have never heard of Beefree, our goal is to shorten your path from inspiration to creation. Over the next several months, we will work on various ways to make that happen.
If you’re a Beefree fan, we will add more inspiration to your email design process. You’ve seen the 1,700+ templates in our catalog. Now, we’ll leverage the 15,000+ designs on the RGE site to give you creative superpowers.
If you’re involved in email creation at all, the key point is this: by bringing together RGE's vast email catalog with Beefree's intuitive design tools, we will provide new ways for you to close the gap between finding inspiration and creating something valuable from it.
I've always believed that inspiration is the precursor to creation. Seeing a design that clicks with you, that sparks that "Aha!" moment, is crucial. And Really Good Emails has been that source of "Aha!" for many, including myself. Incorporating RGE's treasure trove into Beefree's ecosystem feels like a natural step toward enhancing the creative process for our community.
Bringing Beefree and RGE together
From a product point of view, you will start seeing integrations between RGE and Beefree. We’ll start small and get fancier over time. They will start shipping soon, and we’ll keep you posted.
While that’s in the future, there are things we can deliver to you today.
First, the Pro features on reallygoodemails.com become FREE for all, starting immediately. At Beefree, we love removing friction and agreed with our friends at RGE to start there. So, create new collections, add your favorite emails, and use the Chrome extension. It’s all free now.
Secondly, Unspam is back. It was hard for an all-volunteer team to host and grow this special email event. We have zero intention of changing the nature and objectives of the event, but we’re excited to support it and help it grow. Justine Jordan - Head of Strategy & Community at Beefree - took the lead on that, co-hosting Unspam 2024 in her own, authentic way.
Third, I'm super excited to welcome Mike Nelson and Matt Helbig from RGE to the Beefree team. They have a lot of innovative ideas around the future of Really Good Emails, and we can’t wait to collaborate with them. Matthew Smith and Matt Cook will help as strategic advisors.
We live in a world where email continues to be the favorite channel for companies to communicate with their subscribers and for people like you and I to hear from our favorite brands (e.g., here and here). In this world, you - email creators - play such a crucial role.
You are the key stakeholders for both RGE and Beefree. Hundreds of thousands of you use our tools every month. Through Unspam and many other initiatives, we want to increase investment in email makers and creators.
We need to do so to continue building products that make sense and are truly helpful: successful products only come from a lot of deep listening. We want to do so because we are part of the same community, and there’s no healthy RGE & Beefree without a thriving community.
I know it’s cliché to say it, but we truly believe this is a case where the whole has a real chance of being greater than the sum of the parts. Our tools - combined - will deliver a greater amount of value to you. Our efforts - combined - will have a greater impact.
Give us a bit of time to execute all of this, and keep us honest as we do so. If you have questions, we maintain a FAQ here and welcome your comments and feedback by emailing community@beefree.io.
With heartfelt enthusiasm, optimism, and anticipation for what’s to come,
Delve into the email marketing best practices that can empower digital agencies to harness the full potential of emails. From crafting compelling content to leveraging automation and segmentation, these practices are essential for driving engagement, nurturing leads, and achieving remarkable results
For fast-paced digital marketing agencies, it's common to focus on nurturing and expanding your clients' businesses, that you leave little room to promote your own services. While this is unintentional, this oversight may be hindering your agency's growth potential.
That's where email marketing comes in as a game-changer forbusy agencies. With email creation becoming more intuitive, powerful, and 37% of brands increasing their email budgets it's clear to see that email continues to grow as an effective marketing solution.
Let's delve into the best practices that can elevate your agency's email marketing game and unlock new avenues of success.
Why email marketing benefits digital marketing agencies
With 4.3 billion email users, email continues as a sustainable, cost-effective, and high-converting solution to effortlessly balance client acquisition and client retention.
This single strategy enables targeted outreach to engage and move audiences through different stages of the buyer's journey. For new audiences, email marketing can be used to show them your work, promote services, and reasons to work with you. For customer loyalty and retention, email can be used to upsell and/or communicate the consistent value you bring to your clients.
Email marketing presents a lucrative opportunity for marketing agencies of all sizes to thrive and grow. By consistently engaging potential clients and ensuring your presence remains prominent, you establish top-of-mind recall for marketing services.
#1: Segmentation to keep the balance
As your organization grows, you will notice that your audience has a wide range of interests depending on their demographics, business, and needs. Segmentation involves dividing your email list into different groups based on specific criteria, such as industry or stage in your client acquisition journey.
Segmentation enables you to send targeted and personalized content to each group, increasing the relevance and effectiveness of your campaigns and ROI. For example, if you have a segment of subscribers who are interested in social media marketing, you can tailor your emails to provide them with valuable tips and resources in that area.
Seer Interactive, for instance, is a digital marketing agency serving a variety of audiences from digital marketers who need to stay up to date on best practices to prospective customers. You can see in the example below how Seer differs their emails based on the audience.
Email for digital marketers:
Focuses on speaking to digital marketers who are interested in learning more about how to improve their services, what's new in the industry, and new tools and solutions.
Email for potential clients:
The second email targets potential clients who are likely in the discovery phase of what an agency does. Seer provides some insights to help the reader make more informed decisions with comparisons, a checklist, and an article with what to expect. This email, while does not directly promote Seer's services, let's the reader know that this agency is here to help keeping them top of mind.
Segmenting your audience using the customer journey funnel
As mentioned earlier, one of the most beneficial aspects of email marketing for agencies is the ability to maintain balance between client acquisition and customer retainment. In our professional experience, the best way to do this is to map out your customer journey and plan out how each stage serves your audience and of course moves them through the journey. While your client’s journey may vary depending on your services, but typically it entails the following:
Awareness: In this stage, prospects have heard your name but are just getting to know who you are. This is where you can create a sequence of emails for them to get to know your agency, the services you offer, and what makes you unique.
Consideration: This audience is weighing their options about the best marketing agency for them. This is where you will likely begin to provide statistics about the returns you’ve achieved for other clients or share testimonials.
Decision/conversion: This is the stage when prospects just need that final push to take action and sign on as clients. In this stage, you can offer incentives or a free trial of one services.
Loyalty: This is the stage when a business has signed on as a client or made a purchase and your goal is to retain them. You’ll want to send these clients loyalty-boosting content like announcements about new products, appreciation for their support, and informative content that is helpful to them.
Ultimately, segmentation is a great way to keep your subscribers engaged and drive client acquisition and retention. Once you have a clear understanding of your client journey and the goals at each stage, now it's time to grow your email list.
#2: Building and growing your email list
To maximize the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns, it is essential to first start building a quality list of people who are interested in what you have to offer and say.
Make it easy to subscribe: Whether you're using a form on your website or a landing page, make sure that your process is simple. Only ask for only essential information, ideally only up to three. Some suggestions are name, email address, and a question that could help you segment them into groups such as "are you looking for an agency?" This simple question could help segment new subscribers to cold vs. hot leads. Don't forget to use a clear CTA that communicated what the next step is.
Leverage social media: Promote your email list on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, and Twitter/X to reach a wider audience and encourage sign-ups.
Offer valuable incentives: Provide something of value, such as appealing discounts on a client’s first service or exclusive content like a guide to social media marketing in exchange for people signing up to your email list.
Regularly clean your list: While building and growing your email list, it is important to regularly examine your subscribers and remove those who are not engaging. This helps maintain a healthy list and ensures that your metrics accurately reflect subscriber engagement.
Don’t forget existing clients: Add your existing clients to your mailing list so they can stay up to date on your latest services and offers. Additionally create a segment of former clients who have not engaged with your agency in a while. This segment is perfect for targeted emails meant to re-engage them, like personalized information about where they left off in the process and a call-to-action button for them to jump back in.
Provide compelling content consistently: Deliver content that is interesting, informative, and valuable to keep subscribers engaged and to make them more likely to tell others about your mailing list. The friends they tell may become subscribers and eventually clients.
Keep these best practices in mind to build a high-quality subscriber list who are genuinely interested in your brand.
#3: Designing high-converting emails
The effectiveness of your email campaigns is directly influenced by the design choices you make. Research shows that visually appealing designs can significantly enhance engagement rates.
Email design best practices
Strategic design choices not only make your emails more appealing, but also drive higher conversions.
Personalize your emails: HubSpot ranks message personalization as one of the most effective strategies for email marketing. Tailor the content based on their interests or past interactions with your brand, such as by including a section for recommended services. This increases engagement and makes your emails more relevant.
Use professional and high-quality visual design: Use high-quality images and graphics that support your message and reflect your brand's identity. A visually appealing email is more likely to capture attention and encourage click-throughs. In fact, according to Campaign Monitor, communications with visuals receive 650% more engagement than those without.
Include a clear call-to-action (CTA): Wordstream found that one CTA in your email can garner 371% more clicks and over 1600% higher sales. Your CTA should be prominent, concise, and action-oriented. Make it easy for recipients to understand what they need to do next, whether it's making a purchase, signing up for an event, or downloading a resource.
Maintain consistent branding: Ensure that your email templates align with your brand's colors, fonts, and overall visual style. Consistency helps build recognition and reinforces trust with your audience, and according to GaggleAMP, customers who feel connected to your brand account for 37% of revenue and spend twice as much.
Design for mobile devices: According to eMarketer, over half of emails are opened on mobile devices. Be sure your emails are mobile-friendly so they still look clean and engaging for your recipients.
Leverage email templates
Email marketing templates are a great asset for your email design. Many email marketing tools offer pre-designed emails that you can easily customize to suit your needs and brand guidelines.
By using pre-built templates, your agency can significantly reduce the time and effort required to create engaging emails, ultimately boosting your return on investment (ROI) by maximizing the impact of your email marketing efforts.
Ensure responsive, mobile-optimized, HTML email design
When designing your marketing emails, designing in HTML helps ensure that your emails will be readable in nearly any email app (like Gmail, Outlook, and so on) and device. Fortunately, you don’t have to be an HTML coder to create HTML emails.
Now a days, there are many tools that offer an easy-to-use design interface so you can design your emails and export the HTML the solution builds for you. These tools, streamline and make the design process more efficient, without the need to have any knowledge on HTML or CSS.
By utilizing an HTML email design tool, such as Beefree, not only can you enjoy the peace of mind that your emails will render well, but you also benefit from a solution that helps you and your agency save time, increase productivity, and get more done with less resources.
However, not all HTML email builders are made equal.
#4: Choosing the right email marketing software for your agency
A stellar email campaign starts with effective and productive email marketing software. When choosing email marketing software, it's important to consider factors such as ease of use, customization options, integration capabilities with other tools, and more.
Factors to consider when choosing email marketing software
How do you determine which of the many email marketing tools is the best fit for your agency’s needs? Here are some important factors to consider while you weigh your options:
Check out the features: Every software has its own collection of features like scheduled sending, automated options for sending a series of emails, personalization, design capabilities, and so on. Compare tools and their features against your list of must-haves.
Examine the pricing: Cost matters in your ROI. Pick a service that fits your budget.
Consider other capabilities: Some tools offer email marketing along with other helpful services like social media ads, website analytics, and so on. Consider whether there are email marketing tools that will also replace some of your other software.
Try A/B testing: If you’re able to try out multiple email tools at the same time, consider sending a few campaigns with each tool to see if one performs better than the other.
Weigh the integration capabilities: Consider email marketing platforms that may integrate with some of the other tools you use, like your client management system. This applies to email tools that integrate with other email tools too, like BeeFree which provides a user-friendly way to design your emails and smoothly send them with nearly any email sending platform
Preview emails: Check out examples of what other businesses have created using each email tool.
Read reviews and research: See what other businesses (and especially other marketing agencies, if possible) have to say about each tool.
Recommended email marketing tools
Here's a quick rundown of some recommended email design tools that can help maximize your ROI:
Benefits: Targeted emails improve ROI and overall marketing strategy. HubSpot's AI can help with segmentation and crafting tailored emails for each recipient.
Benefits: ActiveCampaign is ideal for businesses with a focus on customer relationships. It offers extensive automation and tracking capabilities for a more personalized approach.
Beefree
Key features: Specializing in HTML email design, with an extensive catalog of email templates to use and a drag-and-drop email editor for complete customization
Benefits: While emails cannot be exported via Beefree like the above, Beefree integrates with all major email sending platforms for easy use with your favorite software. Additionally, the application offers free and cost-effective plans to help you get started.
To ensure you're choosing the right tool, consider your organization's unique needs, the tool's capabilities, and how well it integrates with your existing marketing tech stack.
#5: Automating Your email marketing efforts
Leveraging automation in your email marketing strategy can significantly enhance your outreach efforts and improve your email marketing ROI. By automating certain aspects of your email campaigns, you can ensure timely and targeted communication with potential clients, increasing the likelihood of engagement.
Automation allows you to schedule emails to be sent at optimal times and personalize content based on user behavior. This not only saves time and resources but also maximizes the impact of your emails. There are several ways that your agencies can incorporate automation, but here are some:
Sending an email to clients who started but didn’t complete your inquiry process.
Automated welcome series for new clients that introduces them to your work process.
Automated follow-ups for webinars, events, or meetings.
Benefits of email marketing automation
Increased efficiency: With automated emails, you can reach a larger number of clients or reach clients more reliably without having to manually send individual emails.
Engagement and lead nurturing: Marketing automation sometimes offers advanced features like lead scoring and nurturing. You can segment your audience based on their behavior or interests, ensuring that they receive relevant content tailored specifically for them.
Advanced user segmentation: Automation allows you to segment your email list based on various criteria such as demographics, purchase history, or engagement level. This enables you to send personalized messages that resonate with each segment of your audience.
Increased conversions: By sending targeted and timely emails through automation, you can significantly improve conversion rates. Whether it's encouraging a purchase or promoting an upcoming event, automated emails can help drive more conversions for your agency.
#6: Tracking and measuring for success
To ensure the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts, it is crucial to track and measure key metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. This data helps you recognize trends, such as what designs or content resonate the most with your clients, and help make informed decisions for your next campaign.
Important metrics to track
Here are some key metrics that you should track throughout your agency’s email marketing campaigns.
Open rate: Shows the percentage of recipients who opened your email out of those who received it. It gives insight into the effectiveness of subject lines and sender names.
Click-through rate: Measures the percentage of recipients who clicked on a link within your email. It helps you evaluate the effectiveness of your email content and call-to-action.
Conversion rate: Tells you how many recipients took the desired action after clicking through your email. In the case of a marketing agency, that action could be filling out your website’s contact form.
Bounce rate: Tracks the percentage of emails that were not delivered to recipients' inboxes due to invalid or non-existent email addresses.
List growth rate: Allows you to assess how quickly your email list is expanding so you can adjust your acquisition strategies accordingly.
Email sharing/forwarding rate: Measures how often recipients share or forward your emails to others. It can indicate whether your content resonates with your audience and has potential for increased reach.
Unsubscribe rate: Monitors the percentage of recipients who unsubscribe from your emails after receiving them. High unsubscribe rates may indicate issues with targeting, content relevance, or frequency.
Unlocking the power of email marketing for agencies
Digital marketing agencies have a unique business model and a unique use for email marketing. Unlike many businesses, you aren’t trying to use your email marketing to make a quick sale or appeal to impulse buyers. You’re trying to establish a genuine and ongoing connection with potential clients and show them the concrete value you can bring to their businesses. Agency-specific strategies like those above can help you make the most of every email you send.
Want a more efficient way to create compelling marketing emails? The Beefree "Business" plan is the perfect solution for growing agencies to scale their email marketing processes and campaigns. Start your free 15-day Business trial today!
1. How can email marketing help digital agencies maximize their ROI?
Email marketing helps digital agencies maximize their ROI by allowing them to reach a targeted audience, build relationships with clients, and drive traffic to their website or landing page.
2. What are some best practices for email marketing in digital agencies?
Some best practices for email marketing in digital agencies include segmenting the audience according to interests or needs and other factors, personalizing emails, creating compelling subject lines and content, optimizing for mobile devices, and analyzing campaign data to make improvements.
3. How often should digital agencies send emails to their subscribers?
The frequency of sending emails will depend on factors such as the industry, target audience, and goals of the campaign. However, it is generally recommended to maintain a consistent schedule that provides value without overwhelming subscribers.
4. What metrics should digital agencies track to measure the success of their email marketing campaigns?
Digital agencies should track metrics such as open rates, click-through rates (CTRs), conversion rates, bounce rates, and unsubscribe rates to measure the success of their email marketing campaigns.
5. Are there any legal considerations when conducting email marketing for digital agencies?
Yes, there are legal considerations when conducting email marketing. Digital agencies need to comply with anti-spam laws like the CAN-SPAM Act in the United States and GDPR in Europe by including clear opt-in/opt-out options, providing accurate sender information in each email sent, and following other guidelines.
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