Mail Designer 2 creates elegant emails without a subscription service.
One of my favorite activities as a marketing professional is digital media marketing – specifically, email marketing. There are a lot of options for direct email marketing these days, with one of the most popular ones being Constant Contact. It’s a web-based service with a monthly fee for database and email management. It works well, but has limitations – as many email marketing clients do – as far as design goes. Since I discovered that, I started looking into new options for Mac users in particular. I came across Mail Designer 2.
Mail Designer 2 by equinox provides a rich, stunning environment to create emails for mass audiences. It was released on July 9, 2014 and is a wonderful solution to the direct mail design problem. With Mail Designer 2, you have design features like –
- adding animated GIFs
- adding videos
- buttons for offers
- creating headers and badges
- social media icons
Plus, Mail Designer 2 supports HTML 5 video and checks for common issues like broken links. Users can also optimize images from within the email. This is extremely helpful because large image files can cause a drag when the recipient is trying to open the email. If you are using Mail Designer 2 to create and send to a mass audience, you will want to make sure you don’t lose that audience with slow downloading emails.
Adding images is very easy. Mail Designer 2 templates are drag-and-drop compatible and you can add images by pulling them from different programs, the desktop or other folders right onto the design boxes. Or, you can choose from the image selector inside the program.
When I began working with Mail Designer 2, I was blown away. It comes equipped with 30 templates, or design ideas, to get you started. You are encouraged to customize your own looks and save them to your designer library. I started with the “Apartment” theme and created a flier for summer vacation ideas. I took much of the information from the U.S. News Travel website just to test out the layout functions. I was very impressed with the amount of layout elements, graphics, text elements and clipart that come pre-loaded with the software.
I was also surprised by how easy it is to send your designs. Once you have completed your layout, you only have to select the send icon (looks like a paper airplane in the upper left-hand corner) and then choose to send “as email” or from “Apple Mail”. If you choose Apple Mail, the layout is immediately opened within Mail and you can finish it how you would any other email. If you choose, send as email, you fill out some basic information for Mail Designer 2 (recipient, mail account, etc.) and then hit send. You can also export your design as a website. Mail Designer 2 is built to work seamlessly with MailChimp and Campaign Monitor, too.
Mail Designer 2 is a fabulous option for businesses who love to design their own emails or for consumers who like to send elegant emails. The only thing I don’t like about Mail Designer 2 is that it has in-app purchases. While it comes equipped with 30 design templates, you can purchase other design packs from $2.99 up to $44.99.
To learn more about Mail Designer 2, visit equinux.com. Mail Designer 2 is available in the Mac App Store for $29.99.
